Howdee!
Every year we head to the locally owned greenhouse to get a Christmas Favorite of mine for many years, the Christmas Rose Pointsettia. This year was no different. While there I saw a Thanksgiving Cactus which was so stunning, it came to live with us as well. I posted about this Thanksgiving Cactus.
The greenhouse provided a care sheet for the plant, which I found to be very informational. While my older cactus does blooms, it is not at any specified times and sometimes multiple times. I never paid any attention to it, and was glad that it had bloomed at all.
Here are a few of the highlights from the care sheet, which I didn't know and will help. I hope you find this useful as well.
Because of it's native habitat, Christmas Cactus can thrive on neglect, they live a long time. They grow in rocks and crevices, in tree trunks and branches in their native habitat.
*Keep soil evenly moist from spring through summer, allowing it to go dry before watering from fall to spring.
* High light during winter, indirect or filtered during summer.
* Rest in fall to encourage flower bud production. In late September, let it dry out thoroughly before you water it. Move to a brighter location.
* Christmas Cactus needs cooler conditions in the fall to set buds.
The exact color of the Christmas cactus flowers depends upon the temp the plant was grown. If a white Christmas cactus is grown in cool temp below 70 degrees F the flowers have a purple tint. If yellow or golden Christmas cactus are grown in cools temps below 70 degrees F, they have a pink tint.
The greenhouse where these grow keep their houses cool below 70 degrees.
The yellow cactus has a pink tint, and the white has a purple tint. If you grow your plants at higher temperatures they will exhibit the true color of yellow or white in future.
( that seems to be opposite of what they just told us) do you agree?
Well anyway...I learned something. According to this I need to allow dryness until Spring, not keeping overly moistened.
The Christmas Rose Pointsettia
| Christmas Rose Pointsettia (my favorite) |
Internet Photo
Also called the winter rose.
Mine is alive, but not thriving. I'm going to put it in a bigger pot today. Low light levels, shorter days. After December we gain time and length of daylight which will help.
~Thank you for spending time with me today~
Faith
2 comments:
How interesting to learn about Christmas cacti.
God bless.
The Christmas Rose Poinsettia is gorgeous! With 40 or so houseplants crowded in my sunroom I don't always pay attention to the right and wrong way of watering. My Cacti get ignored mostly but seem to thrive anyway. As I posted today I pruned both my Thanksgiving Cactus and I was going to put them into bigger pots but then I read that they don't mind being root bound. So I saved myself some work.
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