I am also expecting my first blooms, but mine come from a Christmas Cactus that was in a pot indoors for many years and it never bloomed. When I got it, I put it out in full sun and promptly fried half of it. The rest survived and is within days of blooming.

The blooms can last a couple months. I've had one over 30 years. I started out hiding it in closet, withholding water, etc., all the stuff the books said. One year I didn't bother and it bloomed the same. From then on I left it on an open porch with bright indirect light. I only brought it inside to enjoy the blooms until it got too big. A couple years ago I got the bright idea of putting it under a tree in the summer and payed no attention to the drain holes being blocked and nearly killed it. It's still recovering, but I have two more that are also starting to bloom. Also, they don't mind the cold. I only cover them for freezes.

I had one in my kitchen window for 25 years in NJ. Now I have 2 on my lanai, one pink and one orange, both are blooming. I don't do anything special with them, they both get morning sun.

When do they need water?

Mine gets irrigation 2 or 3 times a week, rain the rest of the time. Which sounds like a lot of water, but the pot is filled with pine fines and nothing else.

This post was edited by fawnridge on Tue, Dec 2, 14 at 17:00

I don't water mine that often at all. Sitting in my lanai, they actually subsisted mostly off of ambient humidity and maybe a bit of wind-blown rain spray through the spring and summer. If I ever noticed the leaves becoming thin, I would give them a bit of water by soaking the bottom of the pot in an inch of water, but other than that I let them be. I imagine that will change when I bring them inside where the humidity is quite a bit lower. Like I mentioned earlier, I intend to rest their pots on a saucer of water and gravel to keep their local humidity up and I will probably mist them every other day. So as long as the leaves are thick, they're good. When they start to go thin and limp, it's time for a drink. At least, that's how I do it.

In Florida I wouldn't bother about increasing the humidity, they do fine indoors year-round here under ordinary household and office building interior conditions.

I have two that are developing buds in the greenhouse :)

Hi
Mine are coming along pink way ahead of the red as usual. Think I'm going to try putting some in the crevices of palm fronds .just to see how that works . I have around eight different kinds though I still don't have Easter cactus lol With some selection you could have flowers almost all year around or so it seems?
Red poinsettias are too early as usual while the whites are almost perfect true flowers are just now forming while the reds are declining Of course the bracts will last til Easter anyway lol gary

My Thanksgiving cactus( segments have pointy tips) are all getting buds/blooms...I used to have a true Christmas Cactus ( smooth edges, not spikes or points) but it died this summer :o(

Link below that explains the difference between the two...

Of course there's the Easter Cactus sometimes called Holiday Cactus that have leaves/segments that resemble the real Christmas Cactus blooms around Easter, blooms are quite different...

My Thanksgiving Cactus...

Here is a link that might be useful: Christmas Cactus versus Thanksgiving Cactus>

My true Christmas Cactus before it died :o)

This post was edited by puglvr1 on Fri, Dec 5, 14 at 9:51

Easter Cactus...

I love this thread! Thanks for the info on the differences. I love the holiday cacti! I only have a pink Christmas cactus right now, an older variety that's been passed down through my husband's family. They are wonderful, easy plants for me, and they love me, so we're a perfect fit! I'm hoping to expand my holiday cacti collection, get Thanksgiving and Easter and more Christmas cactus colors. There are several different colors! And even different bloom forms - I found one called "Bridgeport" I must have, with white feathered flowers, oh! So pretty! And I love the yellows, too . . . never see them in stores.

Queen, I have yellow and orange Thanksgiving Cactus also...I found mine at Lowe's and WM...

There's PURPLE?!?!

I only ever see pink (the fuchsia-like pink, never light pink) or red at any of the big box stores around here. . . . .

Your plants are beautiful!!!!

I love the yellow and the orange cactus, they are lovely

I just realized I'm in the Florida board. LOL - I see interesting thread titles in the "Most Recent Posts" and I click on it, read it, put in my two cents, realize it's "not my board" - yeah, I'm in Ohio! But I've always been jealous of you guys, able to keep your holiday cacti outside in hanging baskets, leave 'em out until - what, mid-December? - and bring them in (or leave them out?) all smothered with blooms . . . . . I bet it's easier to have a holiday cacti addiction in your locale! :-)

Thanks katkin!

Queen, I leave mine outside all year in my entry way (my entry way is completely open but has a roof) coldest we got was around upper 20's on a few rare occasions and has survived...but if I remember I bring it inside if the temps are suppose to 30 degrees or lower...

I leave mine in tha lanai year-round. I only plan on bringing it in for about a month or so because the Christmas Cacti are my wife's and she doesn't spend much time in the lanai. So I will bring them in so she can enjoy the colors and then they will go back out.

And being in Florida has its downsides too. Just ask anyone who likes tulips, daffodils or hostas.

Leekle
You can grow all those in florida. What is missing is the required winter chill. I usually summer them in the fridge
crisper. Plant in pots around late Nov. and you'll have tulips daffodils hyacinth for Christams lol
There are several sites that give you the required chill length for various species some as little as a month some as long as 4 . Tulips are generally the most difficult. Hyacinths.narcissus being the easiest.. You can buy prechilled bulbs if you want . One word of caution be sure to put them in storage by mid April. All of them HATE the heat and humidity but you must allow them to grow long enough to replenish the energy.
I used to do that regularly but there are so many fantastic tropicals why bother. I still do "winter " my pet Venus fly trap" though lol gary

Your are welcome here any time Queen Gardener!! We all love plants and love to talk about them. My cactus stay on the lanai all year long. I am by the east coast so I don't get as cold in the winter or as hot in the summer.

The only burning question I have is why is everything in CAPS???

I used to have window boxes at the old house and I planted several of them in the front which faced North. They grew and bloomed like crazy, I only covered them when we were getting a long freeze and I didn't water them unless there was no rain in one week. They were gorgeous. I had begonias mixed in with them for when they stopped blooming.

I have an accidental mixture of oxalis and Christmas cactus, but now I love it! I'm very fond of oxalis because it is so easy and stays nice and green in winter and blooms tiny pretty white blooms all the time. I think I might put more things in there, make a bigger mixture, more varied textures.
And yes, there are downsides to everywhere we live and grow, but I do love Ohio! I used to go to Florida at least once a year, usually around Christmas (Christmas break from school) and my family would stay with my Gpa, who lived smack dab in the middle of the state, and my parents would do day trips with us to the coasts - we'd drive for hours, spend the day at the beach . . . sigh. :-) I have also been to Sanibel, love that place! And Destin, love it there, too. I'd watch the little hermit crabs and tiny white crabs scurry around.

I think the OP was about the cactus and moisture, and I don't have problems with keeping my Christmas cactus moist in winter in Ohio, where it gets really dry inside. I even have one pot of cuttings in a hanging basket, and it's fine moisture-wise, and so pretty - like a firecracker. I have problems with other things, though. I have a dollar store plastic serving tray I got on clearance and I lined it with pea gravel, I keep it moist, it makes a difference. I don't mist the Christmas cactus, I also don't keep it continually moist, I let it dry out, as it is an epiphyte. I think my hanging basket one is the happiest, really, but my mamma plant is just massive, so she's in a big pot on the counter, other plants grouped around her.

Since Christmas Cactuses are epiphytes, has anyone tried to mount theirs on a tree branch? I'm tempted to do that with a small cutting from mine just to see how it would do.

Hi
I'm trying to do that . Find they need a bit more root attachment. While they do store water they don't seem to be very good at it lol I'm using a bit of cork bark but having MUCH better luck with tree fern fiber. Suspect it holds more water ?? None have actually become attached to the trees. Using palms and cassia roxburghii as hosts .
Trying to do my entire grow area with various types of epiphytes having MUCH better luck with orchids, ferns and ant plants but only a year into cactus except for the larger types they do very well in the situation actually tooo well they're becoming a nuisance .lol
If interested in doing an epiphyte garden there are a couple of sites which I find very useful particularly with getting them to attach . gary

I love the orange cactus flowers. They are so unusual looking. One of mine is white and the other dark pinkish red. I will have to look around for the orange one now lol. I never really paid attention to the shape of the cactus to see if they were Easter or Christmas kind. I will have to go look at them more closely. I moved them off the porch this past spring because they kept getting knocked over. I put them underneath another plant and forgot about them all summer lol. My Hawaiian bell vine grew over them and covered them so they got filtered light and plenty of water. I had to cut that vine back severely to get it into the gh and 'found' the cactus lol.
I have lots of other epi cactus in hanging pots. I have them hanging onto the overhang of the house and they get a little direct afternoon sun and semi shade the rest of the day. I have tried giving them less light but they seem to like more sun than some people think. They are situated so they can either grow closer to the house (shade) or out towards the sun and they grow to the sun. I also have a ripsalis (not sure what variety but it is huge- has tiny white flowers) that does the same thing. Ditto on the Selenicereus grandiflorus.

All my epies seem to bloom best when the pot is full of roots and is a little crowded.

Queen Gardener: Happy that you posted. You don't have to live in FL to post here and love tropical plants :)
~SJN

This post was edited by sultry_jasmine_night on Sun, Dec 7, 14 at 10:44

Thanks for the advice Gary. My orchids do better in the tree than in the pot and I wanted to try that with a Christmas Cactus. I will mount it to a tree fern fiber and see what happens.

I wanted so bad to do that . . .
for almost 5 years I lived in AL, and I got some orchids on clearance from Kroger, brought them back to life and thriving again. I even got one to make a pup. But then . . . they just died. I don't know what happened. I didn't change anything. It was almost summer, but a cool beginning if I remember correctly. They might have been in my possession for about a year when this happened. I was so sad and discouraged. I will try them again in a few years, when I think I have more gardening experience under my belt. Right now, I don't have time for fussy plants. I like easy, and that's why I love the Christmas cactus. I never thought to try rooting them to a piece of bark, because I didn't think their roots were as strong as an orchid's. Those orchid roots were awesome! I would think that the Christmas cactus would perch in the crook of a branch - do they cling to the sides of trees in the wild?? Hmm, might have to research this . . . . . . but I really didn't think their roots would grip. I would think you'd just be tying a plant to a piece of bark or wood. It would be awesome to grow them in the crook of a tree!

Pot type/composition makes a large difference in watering frequency. Mine, way up here on my Wisconsin porch all summer, in a smallish unglazed clay pot in part-shade, can easily be watered every couple of days during our time of warmth. That, of course, unless there's been adequate rain. I've found that many cacti and succulents will handle more water and even nutrients-during the growing season-that is often indicated. BTW, mine bloomed nicely again this year, just finishing up now. Then, it will go to a low-water-frequency regime until it can go outside again in later spring.

I find the notion of trying to grow them as full-fledged epiphytes (in Florida) most intriguing.

+oM

Hi I am looking for cutting of peoples christmas cactus from around the globe . I saved my 1st from my sister who left it out in the frost when she moved > It is now thriving and i have 4 nice cuttings from it started so far . They are white flowers . HERES what i need . SEND ME a Nice cutting (im in the cold ,but may live to root . I am becoming obsessed with these . Include your name and where from if you want to or even just your location so i can put this on the pot forever and any future cuttings would leave with the same info from the mother plant. I think this is such a cool idea . SEND CUTTINGS TO : Steven Steiner P.O. Box 47 Pelkie,MI.49958 "God Bless you all and our lovely little cactus ...

Those are all so beautiful! My big one died this year, sadly. Happily, I had rooted cuttings, so I will be able to regrow it. It will just take a long time, since it was about 10 years old. I want a white one anyway, so this just gives me an excuse to buy one when they come available this year.