I was very careful about giving my Christmas cactus plants a dark treatment this year—12 hours of darkness each night for a month or two. Some people put their plants in a dark closet, but I just made sure I didn’t flick on the light at night in the room they occupy. It’s also a good idea to turn the pots from time to time so buds form evenly on all sides of the plant.
Three of my four plants are already in full bloom. Even one of the cuttings I started two months ago is blooming. I had to throw out the original plant when it was overtaken by an ant colony. The flower is almost half the size of the cutting! The other cutting has a large bud on it:
While I’ve lost two Christmas cactus plants to ant invasions, I’ve never officially killed one. They’re probably the hardiest and most brown-thumb-tolerant houseplants I’ve ever grown.
Last weekend I was at a holiday open house at a garden center when I spotted this little cactus just bursting with buds, and it came home with me:
I was intrigued by it because the color looks darker than the pink-flowering plant I grow. Last year when I bought my white cactus all of the buds fell off it when I got it home. Christmas cactus plants don’t appreciate drafts or an abrupt change in growing conditions. In my defense I purchased it and transported it on a chilly day in late winter.
Thankfully it was unusually warm last weekend, and my new plant hasn’t lost a single bud. Now I just have to wait to find out what the flowers are going to look like.
1 comment
Wow, Em, you’re Christmas cactus are doing so well! I love the red/white one. Is it big enough to spare a cutting? I did not put mine in complete darkness and that may be why they were slow in getting buds. The “momma” plant has quite a number of buds now. The “baby” that I had a talk with a week or so ago, now also has a bud or two. It pays to have a heart-to-heart talk with the plants once in awhile!!
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