My Thanksgiving Cactus was blooming on Thanksgiving Day. Hurrah! Want to know more about this great houseplant? Come into my post!
Although they don’t look prickly, Thanksgiving Cactus really are members of the big Cactus family. They don't have leaves, but green stems that do all the work of leaves on other plants. Their scientific name is Schlumbergera truncate. I would love to be able to see these in bloom in their native Brazilian coastal rain-forest habitat!
Thanksgiving Cactus versus Christmas Cactus
My plant may still have a flower or two at Christmas. But that doesn't make it a Christmas cactus. The real Christmas cactus is in the same genus, but is a different species, Schlumbergera russelliana. Here are two ways that you can tell the difference between them:
- Flowers on a Thanksgiving cactus have yellow pollen on their anthers. Christmas cacti have pink or purplish pollen.
- The green stems on a Thanksgiving cactus are serrated, with little teeth. Christmas cactus stems have rounded edges.
There's also an Easter cactus (Rhipsalidopsis gaertneri) that blooms in the springtime. It's also in the Cactus family, but in a different genus - and is a whole other story, too!
Care
I am not the best caretaker of houseplants. They have to fend for themselves pretty well. This Thanksgiving cactus is so robust and resilient. I move it outdoors into the shade in May and back into the house in October. I forget to water it - most of the time. So it obviously doesn't need a lot of water - it is a cactus, after all. If I really ignore it, the stems just get thinner and thinner. It recovers within a day or two, though. It's tough!
In their native habitat, they are epiphytes - they live in trees and draw their nutrients from the air and rain water. They prefer mottled light. In the winter, I keep it on a south-facing windowsill. But there's too much light for it there in the summer. The stems will turn yellow if I leave it there.
My Thanksgiving cactus is potted in a simple houseplant mix. It's been in the same pot for years and I have never fertilized it. It sure sounds ignored -- I better give it more care, although it seems pretty happy.
Getting Thanksgiving Cactus to Flower
I don't do anything special to get this plant to flower. Long, dark nights trigger the plant to set buds. Our naturally short days here in the northern latitudes of Oregon work just fine. But my yard is dark. If this plant was by a streetlight at night, or if I kept lights on in my house at night, that could keep it from setting on any flowers.
And I keep my house pretty cool - 55-65 degrees F. Supposedly, that's what they like. They are from the mountains, after all. If my house was warmer, they might not bloom so well.
The flowers come off of the mature sections of the stems. So when I pinch it back in the spring, I make sure to leave some stems untouched, so they can bloom in the fall.
It's easy to get more of these Thanksgiving cacti. I just have to break off some of the stem and root it. I'll show you more about that in the spring. In the meantime -- I hope you and yours have a great Thanksgiving!
What Do You Think?
Do you have any Thanksgiving cactus? How about Christmas or Easter cactus? I'd like to hear about your plants, too! I hope you have a great Thanksgiving and a wonderful holiday season!
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*** foraging, gardening, nature, simple living close to the land ***
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*** foraging, gardening, nature, simple living close to the land ***