{"id":3865,"date":"2022-12-26T08:05:11","date_gmt":"2022-12-26T16:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/?p=3865"},"modified":"2022-12-26T08:05:11","modified_gmt":"2022-12-26T16:05:11","slug":"christmas-cactus-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/christmas-cactus-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Cactus"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Holiday<\/a>Every year about this time, stores of all sorts sell something called \u201cChristmas Cactus,\u201d a showy plant with segmented foliage that arches out over the sides of the pot.\u00a0 Since most people find the foliage relatively unimpressive, the seasonal specials are always sold in bud or with newly-opened blooms.\u00a0 The long, tubular flowers, which appear at the ends of the stems, are made up of many slender, pointed petals fused at the bases.\u00a0Over the years the flower color range has expanded, and now includes white, peach, orange, purple, rose and red, with bi-colored varieties widely available. The first true yellow variety, \u2018Gold Charm\u2019, has taken the market by storm.<\/p>\n

Sometimes merchants trying for early sales offer the similar-looking \u201cThanksgiving Cactus\u201d starting just after Halloween.\u00a0 To the casual buyer, these are dead ringers for Christmas cactus and also bear a close resemblance to the \u201cEaster Cactus\u201d sold in the spring.\u00a0 To make matters just a little more complicated, the various holiday cacti are all sometimes sold under the exotic-sounding name \u201cZygocactus.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what is up with all of these holiday cacti?\u00a0 Is it all marketing or are they different plants?\u00a0 More to the point, if you are seduced by those showy blossoms, will your Thanksgiving\/Christmas\/Easter cactus survive for more than a few weeks?\u00a0 Southerners, especially older ones, will sometimes tell tales of family Christmas cacti that have survived for generations.\u00a0 Are they talking about the same plants that now grace thousands of big box stores?<\/p>\n

Even reference sources differ on the specifics of holiday cactus nomenclature.\u00a0 The experts at Clemson University identify Thanksgiving cactus as a single species, Schlumbergera truncata, and Christmas cactus as Schlumbergera bridgesii.\u00a0 The closely related Easter cactus has a completely unpronounceable name, Rhipsalidopsis gaertneri.\u00a0 English botanist Martyn Rix identifies Christmas cactus as a hybrid, Schlumbergera x buckleyi, originally created in the 1840\u2019s by a man named Buckley who crossed the truncata species with another Schlumbergera to create the progenitors of the modern hybrid Christmas cactus. The experts at the Missouri Botanical Garden agree with him.\u00a0\u00a0 Logee\u2019s, which offers a number of Christmas cacti, simply refer to them as \u201cSchlumbergera hybrids\u201d.<\/p>\n

What does all this mean?\u00a0 For the average person\u2014absolutely nothing.\u00a0 Those who have nurtured ancestral Christmas cacti for decades can rest assured that their holiday plants are essentially the same as the specimens that today\u2019s urban sophisticates buy in funky shops to decorate their minimalist apartments.<\/p>\n

All holiday cacti are very similar, except for bloom times.\u00a0 They are native to areas of Brazil near Rio de Janeiro, where they live as epiphytes, non-parasitic plants that flourish in trees, deriving sustenance from air, water and debris that collect around them.\u00a0 This is good news for those of us who love them, as they don\u2019t need the bright sunlight required by terrestrial cacti.\u00a0 They also do not have the sharp spines of some of their relatives in the true cactus or Cactaceae family.<\/p>\n

The vast majority of holiday cacti are sold growing in soil-like potting mix.\u00a0 What they really need is excellent drainage, not to mention caretakers who refrain from flooding them with water every day.\u00a0 Overwatering\u2014which means watering before the soil is dry to the touch\u2014can result in potentially fatal rot.\u00a0 If your holiday cactus is not thriving, cut back on water and repot it in a mixture of about 40 percent perlite\u2014available at garden centers\u2014and 60 percent fresh potting mix.\u00a0 Those who hate repotting plants can take comfort in the knowledge that holiday cacti bloom best when they are slightly pot-bound and only need repotting every three or four years.\u00a0 I repotted mine after five, but chose a pot that was only slightly larger than the old one.\u00a0 The plant rewarded me this fall with a host of pink and white blossoms.<\/p>\n

My cactus, which is probably the Thanksgiving type, lives in a south-facing window during the cold weather months.\u00a0 It gets an outdoor vacation along with its other houseplant cronies during the growing season.\u00a0 I let it sit in very light shade, to which it seems partial.\u00a0 Due to laziness, I let it stay out until at least October 15, which suits it very well.\u00a0 Bud formation is stimulated by increasing hours of darkness, so Mother Nature does the job that I would probably be too indolent to do myself if the plant lived indoors full time.\u00a0 The only caveat to this Lazy Woman\u2019s Formula for Plant Success is that all holiday cacti should come in before nighttime temperatures begin falling below 50 degrees Fahrenheit.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, if the plant undergoes dramatic temperature changes, flower buds will drop off.\u00a0 There is not much to be done, other than avoiding extremes the next time.\u00a0 Fertilize with a balanced, water-soluble houseplant fertilizer diluted to half strength. \u00a0I try to fertilize whenever I water during the growing season.\u00a0 Stop fertilizing in late summer to encourage flower formation in Christmas and Thanksgiving cacti.\u00a0 Resume about a month after the flowers have bloomed.<\/p>\n

All of the holiday cacti are lovely in flower.\u00a0 I am especially fond of \u2018Aspen\u2019, a Christmas cactus with frilly, white flowers that appear almost orchid-like.\u00a0 Each blossom sports a white ring around the throat.\u00a0 I love yellow flowers, and am hankering after \u2018Gold Charm\u2019 as well.\u00a0 If I can consolidate some of the ten thousand pots of geraniums currently occupying my indoor growing area, I may just acquire one of each.<\/p>\n

Holiday cacti are widely available in garden centers and other retail outlets.\u00a0 For a wider selection, try Logees Greenhouses, 141 North Street, Danielson, CT 06239, www.logees.com<\/a>, (888) 330-8038; www.logees.com\u00a0 Print catalog available.<\/p>\n

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Every year about this time, stores of all sorts sell something called \u201cChristmas Cactus,\u201d a showy plant with segmented foliage that arches out over the sides of the pot.\u00a0 Since most people find the foliage relatively unimpressive, the seasonal specials are always sold in bud or with newly-opened blooms.\u00a0 The long, tubular flowers, which appear … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,2,3,5],"tags":[1017,1019,1023,1513,742,282,2814,2812,2813],"class_list":["post-3865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","category-winter","tag-christmas-cactus","tag-easter-cactus","tag-epiphytes","tag-holiday-cactus","tag-holiday-plants","tag-indoor-plants","tag-reblooming-holiday-plants","tag-schlumbergera-zygocactus","tag-thanksgving-cactus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3865"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3866,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3865\/revisions\/3866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}