Schlumbergera
Christmas Cactus
A House Plant Worth Talking About
These are on the top of my list of favorite plants. I admit they had me muddle with the first few I got as gifts. I couldn’t get them to keep the blooms on they always fell off. The trick I found out is that you have to keep them cool. Keep them outdoors as long as you can before bringing them in. Find a nice window with bright light, but far away from any heat source or those flowers will drop like flies.
Also To make sure it blooms this December, give it two tablespoons of castor oil around the roots at Halloween and put them in a dark room.
These beauties can be expensive...very expensive. So I wait until after the holidays, after all the blooms are gone. Yes, I know you want all the pretty blooms, but do you really want that pretty price. I have purchased Christmas Cactus in January for less than a dollar each. Then I baby them all year long, re-pot them, nurture them and give them as amazingly beautiful Christmas gifts.
One more note on these. They are very easy to propagate. I figured this out by accident, literally an accident. The cat knocked over one of my biggest ones and a lot of the limbs got broken off. I replanted my cactus and shoved some of the limbs down in the pot. And then planted others in other pots. The cats accident turned into allot of plants and gifts.
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