Very cool! Yep, you're hooked. Well grown.

...and there are other interesting, blooming epiphytes... many species of Rhipsalis, Epiphyllums, prickly ones... Oh my!

Yes, I love epiphytes. I find them to be most intriguing. I love growing orchids in particular, but I also have a couple varieties of rhipsalis as well. I have two beautiful Rhipsalis capilliformis that hang on two shepard's hooks on each side of the entry to my front porch. I always have people commenting and asking me about them all the time. I had my next door neighbor come up and ask about them, back when I first put them outside this past Spring. Then he said that they are all that the other neighbors talk about. HaHa, I guess they sparked everybody's curiosity.

My love for epiphytes is what ultimately caused me to question myself on why I've always neglected these cacti. That's when I finally told myself that that would change. And yes, they are just as addictive! Now I want a whole variety of colors. Speaking of which, I was checking them out on eBay and came across this beautiful variety. It had pure white blooms, with no hint of color whatsoever. But the seller wanted a $100 ($85 + $15s/h) for just an unrooted cutting. It was tempting, but I'm not about to spend that much just for a tiny cutting. Well, not yet anyways, lol... :)

Yeah, my local SuperCenter is all decked out in xmas deco as far as the eye can see. (Just as it is with Wal-Mart's traditions, decorate for xmas in the middle of September, weeks before Halloween...) But it'll still be a while before the seasonal plants make their way in. Right now, it's just Mums and pumpkins.

And as for the enabling? Yes, I do think that, subconsciously, I did ask for it, HaHa! Around here, I find that it's not too difficult to have someone twist my arm, lol. Most of the time, the other people do it without even realizing it. I have bought several plants before, simply because I've seen others talking about theirs on here.

I went back and found the eBay auction that I was talking about. Here's the photo that was used for it. The seller called it a Christmas Cactus, but it's really a Thanksgiving one.

{{gwi:109991}}

Aha, the white holiday cactus. IDK about the real Christmas ones, but for white TC's (Schlumbergera truncata,) they need a steady temp to be white. Can't find what I read before, but I think it's a drop in temp that causes white flowers to turn diff colors, usually yellow?

Your pic is showing up broken, and I think I know why. That happened to me before when I uploaded it in preview, then spent a long time editing. I think there's like a 10-15 minute limit that the system holds the pic temporarily, then discards it if not submitted.

"I have bought several plants before, simply because I've seen others talking about theirs on here." OMG, IKR! Sooooo many of these!

Looks like all of mine have at least tiny buds by now. This one has the most advanced buds.

Any flowers open yet, Tommy?

Mine is blooming nicely.

Gorgeous, Jstell!

Jumping on the bandwagon here - this 'holiday cactus' cutting (TG? Easter? - no idea) has few nice buds. Not sure of color, hope they open up.
Rina

mine is 10 years old and is just over 2' wide :).
it was a small grocery store plant when i bought it.
i think this year it budded up couple of weeks early and is just loaded. prolly because i finally repotted it last year (after many years in the same pot).
of course i prune it back ev. year, sometimes more then once.
the cuttings that i rooted last year are blooming already too!

Rina, those buds look great. It's a TC.

Petrushka, just perfect!!

by the way, mine is strictly indoors all these years and it's not that cold here either, so may be it cools down to 66F? at the window for a couple of weeks in late october, early nov? it's in a spare bedroom, by west window, so gets good sun all summer, sev hours at least - but no light in the evening at all. so it blooms ev year, no problem!
purple,
i am wondering a bit why yours are later then mine? i remember you were posting a freak freeze, while we were still in the 40s here!
so even though you're much further south and should be warmer, you actually weren't. at least not for a week or so, but all in all i'd think yours would set buds later then mine due to warmer temps?

Ours is late this year, but it is full of buds now.

First bloom of the year at my house today.

Petruska, sorry, didn't see your question before when I popped in for a second to add the last pic. That's a good question. After much reading over the past few years, I agree with the scientific findings about day length vs. (what seems to me to be) old wives' tales about temps.

From what I've read at university sites that publish info from botany professors about these plants, the primary factor said to cause buds to form is nights longer than days. Since this would usually happen in conjunction with cooler nights also, I suspect that before scientific research was done, folks latched onto the wrong factor for what causes the buds to form. Instead of long nights, blooming was attributed to cooler nights. Scientific research published says that temps below 50 can cause the buds to fall off, unopened. I think those who expose plants to temps lower than that are taking an unnecessary risk.

This also seems to be supported by hundreds of anecdotes of plants that never experience temp swings (from always being inside) but bloom beautifully every year.

I think it's similar to how some plants get a reputation for "liking to be rootbound." Since that usually can keep the roots from rotting, especially back before there was bagged stuff to buy for potted plants and they would have been using ground dirt, the factor of rootbound was thought to be the cause of the success, vs. simply avoiding rotting the roots with a smaller volume of soil that has insufficient air in it. Filling a pot with roots often also coincides with a plant reaching a mature size, further enhancing this myth.

I brought my plants in after just a couple nights that dipped into the high 40's. I believe the scientists, and it just seems logical to me that a plant from a tropical jungle wouldn't appreciate temps below what they would experience in nature, nor a major adjustment to coming inside. So I did it when I thought the plants would least notice the difference. The plants already had buds by then anyway.

There's also the root rot concern when temps get that low. The research also says that becoming too dry can cause buds to fall off unopened. So I feel safer when plants stay warmer, I never let them get very dry like a non-jungle/rainforest, terrestrial cactus.

I'd meant to try to force a plant to bloom in July, to see if long nights that are also warm could still cause blooms, successfully isolating the light factor from the temp one, but was totally disorganized after moving this spring. If successful, this would also put to rest the myth that they dislike being moved since I'd have to put a plant into darkness about 5 PM, then move it back to the light in the morning. Shed is in the sun, so extremely hot in there. To do this well, I'd probably need to build a tiny shed in the shade so excess heat isn't a factor.

One thing I find very interesting is that light exposure doesn't seem to matter (or get discussed much.) This...

Oh, forgot to say, I suspect that since the nights were much warmer here right up until the bottom fell out so quickly, that maybe delayed the budding process of my plants? I've seen so many pics of plants blooming for the past month or so, but the 21st was the first day one opened on my plants. If so, that would (logically, I think?) defeat the day length experiment at high temps. What do you think?

I hope all of our American members had a happy Thanksgiving. I have two TG cactus and a Xmas cactus and all three are in bud now. I do have open flowers on two hippeastrum, so I'm not without flowers. :-)

They are definitely affected by light, and not just daylight. I accidentally delayed bloom in my white TG cactus by keeping it on a windowsill next to a lamp we have on every night. An ordinary table lamp with CFL bulb. Noticed the orange (in a different window) had buds and the white did not. Moved the white and now it's catching up. The other way to play with day length would be to use artificial light. The experiment could be done entirely indoors using a light on a timer.

These are fascinating plants to experiment with. My Xmas cactus was my grandmother's, and she got it from a teacher who gave cuttings to the students for a project.

The white-flowered plant at the other end of this planter is blooming now too.

Worth waiting for a year to see!

Looks like this one will be orange.

This one's red (with a red Begonia leaf trying to get some attention too.)

I love these posts about holiday cacti!!!! I too am addicted to Christmas cactus, and I also am fascinated by epiphytes, and I NEED to have a collection of holiday cacti!!!!! I totally agree with TommyBoy69: "Now I want more of these plants, as well as the Easter & Christmas varieties. :)" I only have an older variety of a pink Christmas cactus, I need Easter and Thanksgiving. I had rescued a branch of red blooming (probably Thanksgiving cactus because it was pointy) cactus off the ground in a HD parking lot and it rooted and took off, then got killed when we moved 3 times in 2 years :-( not sure if any of the cuttings survived, I'll have to look at all my cactus segments and see if a few cuttings got mixed in. None of mine have buds yet, but my in-laws' is smothered with blooms!!! Theirs is my plant's mamma, I got a cutting about 8 years ago and now mine is HUGE - over two feet wide!!! And I have tons of pots of the cuttings, one is in a hanging basket and it looks so amazing, like fireworks!
I found one called "Bridgeport" that I MUST have - feathered white flowers, too pretty!!!! I want all the colors, all the holidays . . . !!! :-)

Mine are all in bud (TG ones) or blooming and I just scored a huge yellow one from a local nursery!

double post!

This post was edited by julianna on Tue, Dec 9, 14 at 23:16

lucky!

This poor plant was heavily munched on by squirrels while outside. Glad it is still up to making one of its' pretty candy cane-like flowers!

wow . . . I love all these Christmas/Thanksgiving/Easter cacti! And I didn't know squirrels like them!!! I love all the pretty pictures everyone has shared. One of mine is just now budding, and I'm still waiting on the mamma plant to bud up. I have a pink Christmas cactus, and I just traded for Thanksgiving cactus cuttings of assorted colors. It was a cold trip for them, but I think they'll survive. It would be more prudent to wait until spring, but I have a holiday cacti bug!!! They've always been one of my favorites!

Flower is open now!

This is a very exciting thread I must say! I have a number of TCs that have bloomed or are still in bud. I keep mine out on the balcony till late October when temps can drop all the way down to 3-5 degrees C. Once the buds reach some 5mm I take the plants in and keep them at room temps while they are blooming. They then are moved to their winter quarters where I also overwinter my Epiphyllums and Selenicereus at 3-5C at night and around 5-10C daytime. I do let the soil go dry before I water and while dormant I hardly ever water at all.
In the picture below is my white TC a month ago - I fully agree with the observations on the purplish tinge to the petals - happens if you keep your plants at lower temps when they're setting buds - clearly my case.
A completely white TC, including the pistil, is a very rare variety, not as rare as to warrant $100 for a small cutting of course, but still.

Lena

And here is my last weekend's haul - a huge TC currently in bud, not open yet. Was given away by a retired couple who travel a lot and are tired of asking their daughter to look after the thing.

Oh, wow Parodise - what a gorgeous bloom!! And you're lucky on that free, huge plant!

And Purpleinopp - I love the candy cane stripe bloom!

I would love to have some of these amazing colors, you can only find pink or red around here, but I'm not going to buy cuttings off eBay. I trade here on GW all the time, so I'll hold out.

Queen Gardener,
I found a way to enhance my collection of TCs - not sure if it's 100% legal though, but, then, I don't cause any damage. I pick up segments of TCs that were broken off plants and lie around in trays or on the tables where TCs are displayed,mostly in big box stores where they are handled with little care, if any, so there are lots of them lying around. Here is my baby TC pot with said segments:

Oh my goodness, I did that too - once, in the parking lot, I found a large branch of red TG cactus (being sold as Christmas cactus, of course) it still had the blooms on it, so I took it home and rooted it and it lived for a couple years, I was even able to take a couple cuttings of it, but then it died sometime during the 3 moves in 2 years, and I must have given away all the cuttings because I've looked and now I can't find any toothed segments in any of my pots. Now I wish I had stopped by one of those stores while I was out today and looked for branches that need rescued!!! :-) I think it's one of those shades of gray areas . . . it is a living thing . . .

I picked this up at the local greenhouse/market earlier. It is tagged, and I checked the greenhouse site, but they do not show a yellow or gold cactus as one of their products.
I know Christmas Flame has red/purple buds and opens to yellow/gold flowers. I would like to think that's what this one is, but these buds are more red/pink than the purple I remember from my now deceased Xmas Flame.
Does anyone know of another TC that has red buds and yellow blooms? Opinions?
Doesn't really matter, I love all TC, especially yellow and white.
Lennie in GR.

Hi Lennie,
the only one that I can think of is Bruxas Brazil. The flower is of more saturated yellow than yours, but, then, it might look different due to lighting. You got a lovely variety there!
Lena

Thanks, Lena. I think you are right. This picture was washed out by the flash, and the flower is a deeper gold/yellow. I googled Bruxas Brazil, and there is a good resemblance. I'll keep an eye on the grower's site, and hope they update at some point with a name for their yellow/gold TC.

Lennie

Hello everyone -- ah, I love these plants. It's great to see everyone's pictures. I don't have anything too exciting going on with mine right now, but wanted to add to the day length/ temperature thoughts.

This year, I kept a small TC in a room that has incandescent light all night. The plant is right by a not-too-well-insulated window -- pretty cool temperatures, especially at night. I thought it wouldn't bud, but it did -- about 6-8 weeks later than usual. It's opening its first blooms today.

This is just one small plant, one year, but I wonder if the cool temps caused bud set but the all-night light delayed it.

Amanda

Edited to say I have removed the cat hair from the plant now :0

This post was edited by asarumgreenpanda on Mon, Dec 22, 14 at 15:19

As you can see, it didn't set all that many buds -- about one per (terminal) phylloclade. Still, I was impressed that it set buds, at all.

Amanda