Michigan winters don’t seem like the place to find blooming cacti but you’ll see them blooming in stores everywhere during the holiday season. You may buy one of these cheerful beauties to brighten your holidays or receive one as a gift. With good care the Christmas cactus you buy this winter can bloom again for many, many years for you.
Christmas cacti are long lived plants. Plants have been known to live 50 years or more. They have also been cultivated as houseplants for a long time as they are fairly undemanding, easy to care for plants. The Christmas cacti we buy today are much improved from those our grandmothers had. The plants being sold today are clones of several crosses of two species, Schlumbergera bridgesii, [or Schlumbergera russelliana], and Schlumbergera truncate that were developed in the 1800’s.
Christmas cacti leaves are flat jointed segments, some with points on the edge of the segments, others with rounded edges. Christmas cacti produce buds at the end of a leaf segment. The buds take several weeks to grow from tiny bumps to long, beautiful flowers. Each flower is tubular, with satin-like petals folded back along the tube in layers. They come in traditional red along with pink, white, orange, yellow and lavender. Most Christmas cacti are in bloom when purchased and when kept in a cool room they will continue to bloom for several weeks.
Start caring for your Christmas cactus by making sure it’s covered when you take it from the store into the cold Michigan winds. Don’t leave it in the car as you shop at other stores either. Christmas cacti don’t mind temperatures down into the 50’s, in fact they like cool nights, but too much cold will cause the buds to drop off and can kill the plant.
Set the plant where it gets good strong light. A south or west facing window is ideal for Christmas cacti in the winter months. You can display it for a few weeks around the holidays in a less than ideal light situation but make sure it gets moved to a sunny window right after the holidays.
Don’t be tempted to transplant the cacti while it’s in bloom. If you don’t like the pot it’s in simply put that pot into a larger, prettier pot. Make sure that the cacti has good drainage however, don’t let the pot sit in water. Christmas cacti like being a little pot bound but when spring comes you can transplant it to a slightly bigger pot if you like.
After the holiday
The name cacti is misleading, these plants native habitat is in the rainforests, where they grow in moist but well drained pockets of decaying debris in trees. Keep the pot moist when the Christmas cactus is blooming. Pots should never sit in water, however, and waterlogged soil that doesn’t drain will cause the roots to rot and the plant to die. After blooming is finished, let the pot dry slightly between watering. If the leaves flatten and become wrinkly and limp the plant is too dry.
When the sun gets stronger in March, move the cacti a little farther from the window or switch it to an east facing window. Cacti whose leaves start turning reddish are getting too much light and burning. Healthy Christmas cacti will be adding new leaf segments and branches. You can transplant the Christmas cacti now if you like to a pot not more than an inch or two wider and deeper than it’s in now. Use a lightweight, general purpose potting mix.
In March start fertilizing with water soluble fertilizer unless you transplanted the cactus into potting soil enriched with fertilizer. Follow mixing directions on the fertilizer for houseplants and use every other watering. Don’t over fertilize, in their natural environment Christmas cacti don’t get many nutrients from what they are rooted in and are adapted to grow in low nutrient places. Fertilize until July and then stop.
Christmas cacti really prefer to spend summer outside after all danger of frost has passed. Put them in a partially shaded location, not full sun. Elevate the pot off the ground slightly so it drains well. Bring them back inside before the first frost. In fall the cacti should be in a south or west window again.
If the Christmas cacti can’t summer outside keep it in strong natural light but not direct sun. If you have a room that’s not air conditioned keep the cacti there if possible. The dry cold air of air conditioned homes sends the wrong signals to the plant at this time of the year.
Christmas cacti are easy to propagate and summer is a great time to start new plants. Simply remove leaf segments from the ends of branches and insert the end that was closest to the plants center in damp potting soil. It should root in a matter of weeks.
Getting the Christmas cactus to bloom again
Blooming in Christmas cacti is stimulated by shortening days and cooler nights. A plant that has summered outside and then moved into a cool room with natural light most of the time will bloom quite easily around the end of December. Plants that were not moved outside for the summer need to be in rooms that rarely get lighted after natural sundown from August onward. Some people put a box over plants at sundown or close the window shades with the Christmas cactus on the window side.
A temperature at least 10 degrees cooler at night than in the day is also needed to promote blooming. Christmas cacti like cool nights and do well where homeowners dial back the temps at night. Temperatures should range between 50 and 70 degrees. Keep them out of drafts, both cold and warm (as from heating ducts).
You should start noticing buds at the end of leaf segments around the beginning of December. Some plants will take a bit longer than others to bloom and your bloom may come in January instead of December but it will still brighten the gloomy winter days.
Many times cacti that were not summered outside will bloom only on the side facing the window. That isn’t because that side gets more sun, it’s because that side is farther from room lighting at night and that side of the plant experienced the effect of “day shortening”. It may also be cooler at night near the window. You can flip the plant around to show off the pretty flowers once it begins blooming.
With good care your Christmas cactus can spend many years with you and brighten many Michigan winters.
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