I may be called a cactus, but I'm not spiky. (Christmas Cactus)

Member Name: MarianNt5

Product:	Christmas Cactus
Date:	15/04/02 (357 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: nice friendly plants

Disadvantages: none

I like Christmas cactus, I have several of these easy to keep plants.

They range in colour from pure white to red, with many shades of pink in between, some are double some are semi double.

In appearance they are fairly plain, bright green, fleshy segmented leaves. They can get fairly bushy as they get older.

The "Christmas Catctus" has jagged edges to each leaf, normally, these can flower anytime from October to January. How I sometimes get mine to flower near Christmas is to stop watering them from from about February to August, and then to start feeding and watering as you would normally. These are quite tolerant of neglect, but do not seem to like direct sun or standing in water, and they are not, as with most other fleshy leaved plants, frost hardy. They should not be left between the curtains and window in Winter. When the buds appear they must not be turned or moved as this caused the buds to drop off, very unnerving thing to see. My plants love living in my conservatory in the front of the staging out of the direct sun.

If you want to increase your stock this is very easy. All you do is to snap off a piece of two to three segments and put it in a pot of universal compost, the right way up of course, water and it should root and grow fairly quickly. I usually put five or six in a four inch pot to get a bushy plant straight away.

The plants often sold as Easter Cactus are very similar but usually have rounded leaves without the jagged bits, the care is basically the same but, I have never been able to get mine to flower at Easter after purchase, possibly because it is a moveable feast and I have not got the non-watering timing right yet.

These are very pretty, happy little, or not so little, plants, and are very popular, long living, gifts at Christmas, and for selling at car boot sales and fetes.

No home should be without at least one.

Summary: