Last week I got real excited. And it wasn’t because an ice-cream truck overturned in front of my house.
No, it was because one of my three Christmas cacti had buds on it. Okay, there was actually only one bud, but one bud is better than no buds.
And that’s the way it usually goes with me and Christmas cacti. What’s more, the bud actually turned into a flower instead of immediately abandoning ship and dropping to the floor unborn.
I know plenty of people whose Christmas cacti bloom dependably every winter with no bother and less work.
Sadly, I’m not one of those people. Even if I buy one that’s covered with blooms, I can be pretty sure that will be the last time I’ll see that ever happening again.
While gazing upon my sad and budless cacti, I decided it was time to do some research and figure out what I’ve been doing wrong all these years. And it has been years.
One of my plants belonged to my mother, who died over two decades ago. Yes, two decades of my mom looking down from Heaven knowing I’m a nitwit.
The first thing I discovered was a Christmas cactus isn’t a cactus at all. It, along with the other holiday cacti – Thanksgiving and Easter – is an epiphyte from South America.
In the wild, these plants are found high up in nooks and crannies of trees, just like bromeliads, orchids, air plants and some ferns.
I also found out that what I often assume is a Christmas cactus usually isn’t.
In practice, what we buy around Christmas time are more often than not Thanksgiving cacti that have been forced into Christmastime bloom. Sure, it will bloom now, but next year look for it to bloom around Thanksgiving.
How can you tell what you’ve got at home? A Thanksgiving cactus (Schlumbergera truncata) will have two to four sawtoothed-shaped serrations on each stem segment, or what’s more properly called a phyllocladis.
A Christmas cactus (Schlumbergera bridgesii) lacks these serrations and has more rounded edges. Easter cacti (Rhipsalidopsis gaertneri) have little spines or hairs at the end of their stem sections. And each blooms around the holiday they’re named for.
So what can go wrong that would keep them from blooming?
Unlike a true cactus, they aren’t meant to go completely without water for long stretches. Water and fertilize them regularly, but let the top inch or so of soil dry out between waterings. And don’t let them get waterlogged. You can place the pot on a tray of wet stones to keep the humidity up.
They need even temperatures in the winter, around 68 degrees. Don’t put them by an outside door. Severe temperature fluctuations can cause the buds to drop, and warm temperatures will keep buds from forming.
The amount of light is the biggest factor. You can keep them in a sunny window in the winter, but they require 14 hours or more of dark every night for about six weeks to set buds.
That means starting sometime in September they shouldn’t be in any room where the light is turned on after sundown.
As little as two hours of artificial light during the night can keep them from setting buds. On the other hand, if you keep them at colder, not freezing, temperatures – from 50 to 59 degrees – they may still set buds despite shorter nights, but their growth may be stunted and they may experience bud drop.
So now that I know how to do it right, I better get at it before another 20 years without flowers go by.
