Your plant will be fine. These are not desert cacti and as such need more moisture than normal cacti. That said, most commercial cactus mixes have way too much peat for normal cacti but for yours it should be fine. They tend to bloom more if allowed to have long, cool nights so if your plant is in a warm area where lights are on into the evening that would hinder bloom.

tj

thanks tsugajunkie, I worried in case I was going to kill it, I'll try and give it better conditions to flower :-)

thanks Tiffany :-)

Per Illinois university:

"The Easter cactus requires a dry period. From October to November, very
little water is required for flower bud initiation. Easter cactus should
also be placed in the same cool area under shorter light periods at
this time. In December, raise the temperature to about 65 degrees and
water sparingly. Expect flowering around March."

The whole article.

tj

You're welcome, Carol. TJ, I appreciate that the article says that, and it also says to "water (TC/CC) weekly." I have little faith in any source that offers silly advice like that, and it conflicts with what I've seen from my EC plants. I've had blooms on EC in about every month of the year, over the years, even during the hottest heat of summer.

Hi Tiff,

I know these can bloom without special treatment, but when they don't it is best to give them the optimum conditions. Watering aside, you'd be hard pressed to find any advice from a .edu source that doesn't recommend photo and thermo periods.

tj

I think also it depends where you live to when you do all the special treatment as October/November is our spring!! so I presume I have to just switch everything about 6 months?

Plant looks great, if the lack of proper conditioning is interfering with bloom then the question should be what is different now from what the plant was getting when it was blooming.

Unlike Schlumbergera, which flowers readily inside the house for me I have to put the Hatiora in a cold greenhouse to get buds (I have multiple kinds of each at two dwellings, with the Hatiora all being at the place with the greenhouse).

thanks Embothrium, I am in the middle of getting a greenhouse so maybe will experiment putting it in there to see if I can get buds?

Tons of new growth but lack of buds could be from being given too much nitrogen (fertilizer with a higher first number.)

I have several of these plants and don't do anything differently to them than the hundreds of other plants I have. Taken outside when danger of frost has passed, brought in to escape the same. That's one of the things I love about it, it blooms often, whenever it feels like it throughout the year, w/o any special care.

This gnarly old woody gal has a bloom now, made a couple last month, from buds that started forming in September, when it was still 90+ most days and about 70 at night.

Thanks Tiffany, I have a few different ones and will put them outside this weekend, hopefully they will enjoy the break and fresh air and reward me with flowers :-)

Happy to share the awesome antics of this lovely plant! If you have several, you could offer different conditions and see if it makes a difference, if that's the kind of experiment you enjoy.

I'm hoping the one in this pot is encouraged by its' companions' excellent behavior to show off again soon. :+)

haha, maybe I should just show the photo of yours to mine and let them know that's what they are supposed to look like? :-)

LOL!! Couldn't hurt.