Christmas Cactus Pictures

[sweetiepie]

I love seeing everyone's pictures. So I thought I would share one. I am always leery when I show pictures because I find out everything I have been doing wrong and had no idea. But that is what these forum are about.

This is a Christmas Cactus that has been passed down through multiple generations. My husbands great grandmother got it as a cutting when she was 8 years old. We are not exactly sure on the year but somewhere around 1900. I have only had it for the last four years and am so glad I have not killed it yet.

When my husband's mom had it, it was very sporadic on when it bloomed and she was afraid she was killing it, so quickly wanted to pass it on so she wouldn't be the one. I kill most houseplants but I tend to do ok with these cactus. I got my Thanksgiving cactus about 6 years ago at a grocery store and I have made babies off of that. My Thanksgiving cactus starts blooming about Halloween and just finished up but it's baby is still going. The last 3 years the old Christmas Cactus starts blooming around Thanksgiving and as you can see is still blooming. Usually past Easter. Crazy thing. I never am sure when I should take cuttings.

[ElizabethB]

A beautiful plant and an amazing history! You can take cuttings anytime. Just pinch off a growing tip that has no bloom or bud. Pinch off at the joint. Just pinch, twist and pull. Don't cut. Prepare a 4" nursery pot with all purpose potting soil and stick the cutting in the soil about 1/3 down. Keep just barely moist - NOT wet. Put in a very bright window or under your patio cover where it gets bright, indirect light. In about 2-3 months transplant to a 1 gallon container then leave it alone. It does bet when a little root bound. Let it dry out completely between watering.

Thank you for sharing your story.

[sweetiepie]

That's great to know, that I can make transplants whenever. Somewhere I read, before I brought it home, that the best time to make transplants was after it got done flowering (they said February) and two months before the longest day of sunlight end of june (which gave me to the end of April). So I had like two weeks and often times I would forget.

His family is always asking for babies off the plant, so I like to have a few going.

[ElizabethB]

I did not pay attention to the fact that you are in North Dakota. BRRRRRR! Wait until the temperatures warm up - high 60's to 70's then take pinches. Make your starts in 4" nursery pots then hand them off to family and friends. Keep a few for yourself and pot them up after a couple of months. Over winter give the starts the same growing conditions that you are giving the parent plant.

I do not want to be ugly but true southerner that I am I cannot imagine why anyone would live in ND. Too cold for my thin, southern blood.

BTW - You are doing a great job with your plant. It s beautiful.

[sweetiepie]

Oh no, that's not ugly. This might be, I live here because it has less people. Less people means less crime and less people to deal with. LOL.

[lily51]

Beautiful plant!
They seem to be picky as to location in house, light, water....one may do just fine and the one next to it doesn't

What's your secret for such a large,blooming plant?

[sweetiepie]

It was re-potted about 4 or 5 years ago into a bottom watering pot. The ones with the reservoir on the bottom and a lip that sticks out so you can water into. If I get a chance I will take a picture of the lip part.

I water about once a month with miracle grow in the water.

I usually water when I see the leaves start to pucker. I try not to water when it has a lot of blooms because the watering drops the blossoms. I wait until I see quite a few puckering leaves.

It blooms when the days get shorter and cool temps help. So where the plant is at right now is in front of a south window but during the winter months we have to put plastic up on the windows because it is drafty. (It is a very old house with original windows, on the top it has the stain glass, we can't decide how we want to replace it and keep the look. So we keep putting it off.) So it's light is diminished until the temps get warmer out again. We also use coal and wood to heat our house in a parlor and cook stove during the day, so at night the temps dip down to about 60 before the radiators kick in to heat. So where it is at is cooler because it's not by the stoves or the radiators.

Due to the still cool window the plant will continue to put on blossoms on the side facing the windows even now. (Temp this morning was 20.) So when I water about once a month I turn the plant to the front and then it blooms.

It is a very easy plant, it loves to be unloved. That is the hardest part.

[lily51]

thanks for the info. I've never watered from bottom but will definitely transfer mine into correct pot and follow your method.
You have a green thumb
I also live in an old house, farmhouse around 100 years old.
I am very familiar with drafts!
You r fortunate to have stained glass, definitely something to preserve .

[applestar]

I don't know what holiday mine thinks this is, but it is blooming again (it bloomed earlier already around Thanksgiving)

HGIC 1554 Thanksgiving & Christmas Cacti : Extension : Clemson University : South Carolina
https://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/p ... c1554.html

Thanksgiving cactus (Schlumbergera truncata) and Christmas cactus (Schlumbergera bridgesii) are popular, fall- and winter-flowering houseplants native to Brazil,

[...]

Another member of the group sold as holiday cacti is the Easter cactus (Rhipsalidopsis gaertneri), which flowers primarily in the spring and sporadically throughout the year with pink or red flowers.

[imafan26]

Beautiful plant. You can keep passing cuttings down to the next generation.