{"id":41,"date":"2006-12-18T07:50:47","date_gmt":"2006-12-18T15:50:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/garden\/?p=41"},"modified":"2015-11-24T07:33:26","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T15:33:26","slug":"christmas-cactus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/christmas-cactus\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Cactus"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHRISTMAS CACTUS
\n<\/font><\/font><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>If the State Police were responsible for the arrest and prosecution of people who neglect their houseplants, I would probably be on their “Ten Most Wanted”\u009d list.\u00a0 I love plants, but I have a busy life and sometimes I don’t provide optimal conditions for them.\u00a0 This year the plant I neglected the most frequently was my Christmas cactus.\u00a0 It bloomed last year and after that it got watered occasionally.\u00a0 It remained in the filtered semi-brightness of my dining room, undisturbed, except when the shelf under it got dusted.\u00a0 In the late spring it went outside, where it resided on a plant stand, shaded by a rather large, flashy, walking iris.\u00a0 I watered it whenever I remembered that there was actually a second plant hidden on the lower tier of the plant stand.\u00a0 It stayed outside way too long and didn’t return to the dining room until nearly the end of October, at which time I noticed that it had set buds.\u00a0 By Thanksgiving I had an absolutely stunning array of bright pink flowers.\u00a0 Everyone who came through the house was able to admire them because I displayed my prize cactus on the coffee table in the living room.\u00a0 I lapped up the compliments and let people think that I lavished love and attention on my treasured specimen plant every single day.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Christmas cactus or Schlumbergera x buckleyi is also sometimes known by an older botanical name, Zygocactus.\u00a0 Whatever you call it, Christmas cactus is a great plant for me and thousands of other benevolent but busy gardeners because it thrives on neglect. \u00a0The plant has been popular houseplant since early Victorian times, when European hybridizers first got their hands on the Brazilian natives and started crossing them to get healthier specimens with larger more colorful flowers.\u00a0 Whether you buy your plants from a specialty catalog or the neighborhood grocery story, modern Christmas cacti are all hybrid varieties.\u00a0 The species name comes from Frederick Schlumberger (1804-65), a Belgian plant collector, who may have popularized the plants in Europe.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The word “cactus”\u009d conjures up certain desert associations.\u00a0 But in the case of the Christmas cactus and its relation, the Thanksgiving cactus or Schlumbergera truncata, the plants actually grow far from the sandy beaches of Ipanema in mountainous jungle areas.\u00a0 Residing in the tops of trees, they have adapted to low-moisture situations because rainwater washes over them but never stays around long.\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This adaptability is key to their survival in so many homes, including my own.\u00a0 The thick, fleshy, branching stems are segmented, with the individual segments resembling scalloped shields.\u00a0 Unlike most true cacti, Christmas cactus has no rigid, prickly spines.\u00a0 The flower buds emerge at the ends of the branches.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Many people buy or are given Christmas cactus at holiday time, and consign the poor things to the trash or compost pile after the holidays are over.\u00a0 However, this is unnecessary, since the plant gives so much more than it receives.\u00a0 I inadvertently did just the right things for mine, and with an equal amount of heedlessness you too can have great results.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 After the holidays do what I do and don’t be overly solicitous. \u00a0Water only when the soil is dry, as many Christmas cactus are killed with kindness by people who water them too much.\u00a0 In the late spring, take the plant outside and put it in a shady spot, because that condition will remind your Schlumbergera of its home in the forest.\u00a0 Try to forget that it’s there, so that by summer’s end, you will be watering very sparingly.\u00a0 Use neglect to complete advantage by leaving the plant outside until the days start to really shorten and the air cools, but don’t neglect it so much that you leave it out in freezing temperatures.\u00a0 Chances are, by the time you finally remember to bring it in, the plant will be forming buds.\u00a0 Try not to shock it with violent temperature change, otherwise the buds will drop, and all that strenuous neglect will have gone to waste.\u00a0 Resume watering a bit more regularly and await the stunning results.\u00a0 Schlumbergera like to be potbound, so don’t even think about repotting until the plant is just about bursting out of its current accommodations.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You can get Christmas cactus in a variety of colors from white, to various shades of pink and rose, to vivid yellows and bi-colors.\u00a0 I am especially fond of Aspen, an orchid-like white-flowered variety with a bit of pink in the center.\u00a0 The rosy, yellow-flowered Sunset is also a good pick.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 At this time of the year local retailers and garden centers carry a selection of Christmas cactus, and it’s worth pawing through the poinsettias to find them.\u00a0 If you can’t find what you’re looking for. try Logee’s Greenhouses, Ltd. 141 North Street,\u00a0
\nDanielson, CT 06239, (888) 330-8038; www.logees.com.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHRISTMAS CACTUS \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If the State Police were responsible for the arrest and prosecution of people who neglect their houseplants, I would probably be on their “Ten Most Wanted”\u009d list.\u00a0 I love plants, but I have a busy life and sometimes I don’t provide optimal conditions for them.\u00a0 This year the plant I neglected the … 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":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41","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=41"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1737,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions\/1737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}