wow! that's a lot of phylloclads!

i was near tears at the part of the story when you let the big christmas cactus die. I'm going to start calling you scrooge, basil.

just kidding, i am guilty of similar mistreatment of a very sentimental rosemary that I also have made clones from.

I have a large collection of them and their relatives. They do seem to bloom better if you let them endure some cold cold nights (not freezing though).

I've got four, two reds, 1 white, and 1 pink. I leave them outside all of the time except when the temps get into the 20's. In summer they live in the back yard, in winter on the front porch. I think one of them may actually hold off blooming until Christmas this year! The buds are still very small. An actual red-blooming Christmas cactus too, for the longest time I didn't see anything but pink ones.

I was given one at the time of my accident last November. It was peachy then and now is the most gorgeous vibrant light red.

Does being outside or a change of soil conditions change their color, or was I just out of it last year and don't remember correctly?

I kept her on the back porch all summer til just before the freeze. She tripled in size and is now a stunning decoration in my kitchen windowseat. If CC were not so common, they would be coveted...just like domestic cats, which are so exquisite, yet so everyday. How I do go on! It's ok, they are my children.

I've seen them change the intensity of their color from one year to the next but not the core color. Am I saying that you were out of it? maybe, but after my "getting around" remark I am gonna be carefull what I say..... CC's do seem to come and go out of fashion every couple of years. I have always loved them for their unnatural hues of pink and tough nature. We are lucky we live in this zone because people further north or south of us have trouble getting them to bloom well and have to buy new ones each year.

They bloomed for me Pennsylvania, but I had to settle for them blooming at Halloween. I let Mother Nature decide when they're going to bloom, I haven't had any luck with manipulating bloom time.

There are some exquisite pastel blends too.

"I think one of them may actually hold off blooming until Christmas this year! ----They bloomed for me Pennsylvania, but I had to settle for them blooming at Halloween. ----alicia7b"

It is the lenght of the night that cause the time they flower. I have (in the pass) made mine flower on christmast instead of thanking giving (but that too much trouble).

Here is a good site on cactus and other information on photoperiodism http://www.sdnhm.org/research/botany/hp-cactus.html.

Also words for the words of the day and answered question about leaves.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Natural History of Holiday Plants

Crockett's Indoor Garden book has a nice segement on Christmas cactus. Crockett wrote that if the fall nights are in the low to mid-50's, the plant will set buds regardless of daylength. If nights are in the low to mid 60's the plants need 13 hours of uninterrupted darkness. If low temps are higher than the mid-60's the plant will not set buds at all.

alicia7b, I have "crockett' flower" and "the victory garden landscape guid" by Thomas Wirth but can't find " Crockett's Indoor Garden". What he said sound more about how mine cactus react to flower. I had mine in cool area when I made it wait till Christmass to flower. But I still think that the "San Diego Natural History Museum" is a good site and a good place to get started. Are you trying to make your hold off till christmass?

My husband bought Crockett's Indoor Garden years ago before we got married -- Amazon.com still carries it.

No, I don't try to control when the cactus flower, I just let them do their own thing. They seem to be happiest and set the most buds when I leave them outside as much as possible, so the nighttime temps and day length control when they flower. The warm temps stayed with us a long time into fall this year which is probably why they're going to bloom later than usual. They are so beautiful when they flower I don't care whether it's at Christmas or earlier. :)

Jim Crockett was a wonderful TV personality as well (Crockett's Victory Garden), a favorite of my parents in Boston long before I became interested in gardening. He was snatched from us too soon.

puppyscruff, Jim Crockett's Vitory Garden was a geart show and I watch it any time I could. I think the Home and Garden TV network now own all the old "Crockett's Vitcory Gardens" show. I remmenber when he stop comeing on the show and they didn't give people the real reason why.

Christmas Cacus is native to South American tropics of Brazil. Near the equator they should have near 12 hours of darkness every day of year. Anybody know how cold it gets in the tropis at night (60f)? Maybe they grow in mountains? So they must flower all the year in their tropic home?

Hello....your lovely picture made me want a Christmas cactus, so I had to go get one today! Of course, I didn't get a good deal like yours :-) I noticed that they are now calling them "holiday cactus" instead of Christmas. Alicia, if your's was blooming on Halloween, well....that's a holiday, too, now isn't is?!

I was hoping to find one that was redder than pink, but apparently the red ones more often bloom around Easter, according to Fairveiw Garden Center.

Anyway, I'm happy that I got a really pretty one!

~Angie

lavendargrrl, When I bought mine many years ago they were calling it a "holiday cactus" not "Christmas cactus". I think the the two are a little different.

At one time I had a pink cactus. Almost a neon pink.

Too bad you didn't get it for $0.59. When I got mine it was not very pretty. Two leaves and one flower.

There are three "holiday cactus", as already explained, but here's a brief overview: Thanksgiving cactus, which has blooms in a variety of colors and stems with hooks; Christmas cactus which are red/pink and have smooth or scalloped stem edges, and the Easter cactus which has red flowers and also has hooked stem segments. Most cactus you see around today are hybrids of Christmas and Thanksgiving cactus. I had a beautiful Easter (also called Sunrise) cactus for a year when we lived in PA, but we had a very wet spring one year and it got crown rot and died. What a beautiful plant it was though.

There are some true red Christmas cactus around, but they are hard to find. I've got a couple now. One of them is labelled Thor Tenna.

The one I got is called Schlumbergera truncata hybrid (Zygocactus). The description says:

Zygocactus is an attractive medium-growing Christmas Cactus, producing lavender-colored blooms. Easy to grow and requires little care.

Funny thing is that I wouldn't call this color lavender at all - I think it looks sort of fuschia pink.

~Angie

Thor Tenna is a cultivar name -- there is a whole Thor series. One of my pink ones is named Thor Ritt.

What a beautiful Christmas Cactus.

I love them myself and have 4 of them. Two of them I rescued from pending death when they had been left in the house we bought. They have rewarded me with beautiful blooms every year and enough for a 3rd. The 4th was a gift from the ladies at work. It is in my greenhouse blooming in all it's Christmas glory! Mine usually bloom at this time and they really help put me in the Christmas spirit.

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It's pretty tight quarters in the "winter-over" side of the greenhouse so plants are sort of growing around each other.

Cindy

That cactus would get anyone in the Christmas spirit! It's lovely.

Nice looking Zygo! I like the yellow ones too, and they are the hardest ones to find..
Bill in SC

i've always loved CC's - such dependable flowering at a time of year we need flowers most :) my mother and grandmother cherished them, and they both had many HUGE, OLD plants. i remember their rituals involving bringing them inside on some myserious prescribed date and putting them in a low-light room to get them to bud out and bloom at the "right" time. i appreciate the posting of the difference between t'giving, christmas & easter cactus. now i know the one blooming in my kitchen window (recently purchased at BB's) is a thanksgiving type ... it's labeled "thor lise" and is a deep pink.

yellow! never knew they existed. never knew of an easter cactus, either! i have two more missions to add to my list :)

marsha

Here's a picture of the yellow...never saw one myself.

Have y'all seen those pretty but garish new glittered poinsettias (at Walmart)...purple, royal blue, etc. What's with those!?

Here is a link that might be useful: yellow christmas cactus

I saw them myself at Walmart today Pup. It must be paint applied to the cream colored variety. I turned a leaf over and saw the drip marks on the under side. I have heard that Dale's sells the purple and blue also. Adele

I have a friend in PA who has a yellow Christmas cactus. In fact when she told me that hers was yellow I was surprised because I'd never seen a yellow one. Hers always bloomed without her doing anything because her dad was a real cheapskate and never turned in the thermostat above 50 degrees (well yes, also environmentally friendly, but the real reason was because he was cheap). Unfortunately I never got to see it in bloom.

i've seen really pretty orangey ones a long time ago. i guess those are reds or pinks crossed with yellows. my gram always had a pink one that was her mom's. she passed it to my mom. before my dad died it hadn't bloomed for like 7 yrs. he passed dec 8th '01, and do you know that thing bloomed that christmas?! it meant so much to my mom when she saw it- she took it as a sign from above. it used to be huge, but had gotten shunted around so much the size was back down to a normal houseplant size last i saw it. she keeps it in my old room to prep it since my room was always the coldest. maybe that's why i can never get warm enough! lol.

i'll admit i saw those poinsettias at lowe's and really liked the pinky-purple color. could have done w/o the glitter, but... pete thought they were tacky so i didn't get one. besides they were like 7 or 8 bucks, and the red ones were 2 or 3. i'm too cheap for that. i'd rtaher buy a cream one & paint it myself. hee hee. or should i say, ho ho. tammy

Adele, I can't believe BB doesn't have any yellow CC. John F will have to get right on it!

My CC is so amazing today...i'm bragging now...I DO love the South!

Here is a picture of the Cactus on one Christmass many a year ago. See the little girl standing under the flowers. She is a grandmother now. A few years after that picture, it was too big for that pot. I planted it in a much biger pot. So big that is was way too hard to move around.But I did move in the house when it got too cold. Till that year that I just got to tired trying to move it around. I think that I may cut up one of the three I still have and root many new plants from it. Since I don't have room for them, maybe I need to find people who will give the new plants a good home.

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CLICK on Picture if you want a biger picture.

It's wonderful to have a living family heirloom like that. I have some of my grandparents' iris and it's nice to have something that they grew.

alicia7b , I wish that I had a living family heirloom but I don't. I started growing the CC that I bought from Worthword's 5&10. We had some things in our yard most of my life that were rooted from my mon's mon house , but the plants died before I got one. The next best thing would be rooting plants from my CC and giving to friends and family members and every body keep and share a history of the plants and of the rooting from these plants etc. Like a family tree(and who owns the plants). And people could get to know other people who have plants in that family tree.

Doh! I really did read your first post where you said you bought the cactus. Who is the girl in the picture?

alicia7b , The girl in the picture is my sister's daughter.
The daughter now has more than one grandchild.

Has anyone seen Aspen or any of the fringed Christmas Cactus? Someone had send me a pic and it's beautiful.

I haven't seen them but you got me intriged so I looked and found this link with pictures.

Thanks and those are beautiful, but their 'Aspen' doesn't look like the one someone sent me. It was more frilly/fringed. I have a difficult time with these, which is strange because they're related to the epiphyllum (jungle cactus) which I do pretty well with. The one I have had rotted off last fall and I just stuck them into a new pot of soil and they're blooming but the leaflets are not healthy at all.