Blooming Lovely (Christmas Cactus)

Member Name: whitby

Product:	Christmas Cactus
Date:	02/06/02 (479 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Low maintenance, Beautiful Flowers, Cheap and Cheerful

Disadvantages: Need to be careful about over watering, Don't often bloom at Christmas

I have two Christmas Cacti, one of which has lasted me two and a half years and the other six months.

Having read the other two opinion's on this plant I felt urged me to tell you about these tough and gorgeous plants of the South American Jungles.

I am by no means an expert gardener, but I am quite proud of the way these plants have continued to develop with my care. Usually I forget about plants and they end up perishing. With cacti this isn't too much of an issue as they require minimal attention.

I was given my first Christmas Cacti as a gift. Seeing this plant flower the following year impelled me to buy another from Sainsburys Homebase for under £5.00. Each of them is planted into a blue flowerpot that has no holes for drainage. This doesn't matter as when watering them I must only wet the topsoil.

Unfortunately these plants do not live up to their name. The first one I had was given to me at Christmas and was flowering at the time, the following year it flowered in October and then had another bloom in March. My newest is flowering now! Where's the logic?

It is possible to manipulate the plants in to blooming by adjusting room temperature and by planting them outside in summer then bringing them in at autumn to stress the change in seasonal temperature.

So what do they look like?

Very similar to the picture that Dooyoo have posted at the head of this category.

Can you imagine green oblongs all joined together with spikes coming out? This is the best way I can describe the leaves. They will grow to a length just longer than the edges of the pot you plant them in, for instance mine stretch for about nine inches. Through the seasons new oblongs will grow on the end and about a month before flowering the ends of these strips change colour from green to a deep red. Small buds then protrude before blossoming into a magnificent fanfare of colour.

The flowers seem
to grow out of each other. Initially I thought it was just one flower, then another would grow from it's middle, and another and another until I had about two inches of bloom dangling down from the main spiky leaves. A really beautiful sight!

It is best not to move the cacti when this blooming process is underway. Even lifting them up to water them can affect the amount of flowers you have, and it is during this season that the plants are at their most temperamental. Buds will also drop off if the plant has received too much water.

I water mine every two weeks unless the soil is particularly dry. They are on a window ledge that faces out towards the sun all day. I keep them in the same place during the winter months but cut down on the watering until about once every four weeks, and even then I only give them a smidgen of water, just enough to wet the soil.

My next step is to take some cuttings and reproduce by planting the small plants into potting compost. I have been given to understand that this is a very easy but slow process but I'll have to let you know if this is true when I have the results. I will do this when re-potting my eldest; this will have to be done in Spring 2003 now as I have missed my chance for this year.

Although I have described the leaves as spiky, they do not pierce the skin when touched and are therefore acceptable to have around near children.

If I do forget to water them their leaves start to shrivel at the ends, but they quickly recover and it hasn't stopped mine flowering.

Recommended as an attractive low maintenance indoor plant.



Christmas Cactus / Schlumbergera bridesii
Available in Cerise, White, Yellow, Salmon and Light Pink. Most flowers are a mixture of two of the above.



Off topic Footnote:

Good Luck to ENGLAND today who have just kicked off against Sweden in the World Cup. I'll be off to the pub
soon to watch the rest of the match and start the celebrations of my birthday today!

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