Decades Old Christmas Cactus Passed Down

Does anyone want to chime in with a Thanksgiving or an Easter cactus? Scroll down for info on how to identify which cactus is which.

So many wonderful comments and stories of Christmas cactuses and geraniums which endure for generations. I heard from loyal blog follower and dear friend and neighbor today. Thanks Tookie

Dear Kindred Spirit, Reading  everything you’re posting about your mother’s Christmas cactus.  Please add me to the list of those who have and cherish my mother’s Christmas cactus.  I can remember it on her kitchen window sill when I was in grade school and on and on.  She shared part of her plant with me when we moved to our apartment in Aspinwall in the early seventies.  People fuss at me to repot it in a larger,  clay pot.  I do not, but left it tight and pot bound in the original plastic pot in which she gave it to me.  I love how we value so many of the same things!!!  

Love, Took and Jack too”

Tookie’s Christmas Cactus

“A Thanksgiving cactus (Schlumbergera truncata) is a popular, long-lived, rainforest-native houseplant known for its vibrant flowers that bloom in the fall, often at Thanksgiving. It differs from a Christmas cactus by having pointed, spiny-looking leaf-like stem segments, while Christmas cacti have rounded segments. To care for it, provide bright, indirect light, high humidity, well-draining soil, and water when the soil is dry to the touch. Bud set is triggered by short days and cooler temperatures, so starting a light-dark cycle in September.”

Info on the different types of cactus

From the Web

Trying to Propagate Christmas Cactus

Not just any Christmas Cactus but plant cuttings from my mother’s Christmas Cactus. Although my mother passed 25 years ago, her Christmas Cactus is thriving in Albany. Thanks E for cutting the pieces! And thanks to my sister for mailing the cuttings. They made it to Pittsburgh just fine.

I dried them off and let them sit a day as it said they’d be less likely to rot

I looked at YouTube and Google and there’s the water method and the dirt method.

I’m trying both.

Stay tuned. Hopefully there will be many plant children.

Schlumbergera is the Latin name

Here’s how to care for the Christmas Cactus

Special Succulent Soil
At night
My gardening friend said to break them off so they are shorter. Can’t try to root and also grow up simultaneously

One Last Green Gallery

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Love the green challenge this week. The new challenges come out on Wednesdays now.

The Schlumbergera Bloomed

Last night I was knitting the sleeves of Laura’s sweater, watching television and Steve came upstairs carrying the Schlumbergera-the species name of Christmas Cactus.  He bought it a couple of weeks ago at Whole Foods. Christmas Cactus. It had bloomed.  It had buds when he bought it. Flowering plants in winter appealed to him.

My mother kept a giant Sclumbergera, cascading out of a huge planter. She had a green thumb  but that gene skipped me

(What a name for this pretty plant-Is a single one a Schlumberger?)

When he brought it to show me the pink blossoms, I was flooded with memories of my mother and how thrilled she was when hers bloomed. I “get it” now. I’m sure I barely paid attention to her enthusiasm then. Pang.

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