Holiday cacti are closely related to tropical type plants that bloom during different months of the year. The common holiday cacti are Chrismas cactus, Thanksgiving cactus and Easter cactus that are native to the areas south of the equator near Brazil. These are favorite houseplants that have long life spans. Many Holiday Cacti have lived over 20 years and are considered family heirlooms.
Christmas Cactus
The Christmas cactus has been enjoyed as a holiday plant since the 1800s. The Christmas cactus is found to bud and bloom from late October through December and into January. The Christmas cactus is a popular winter flowering houseplant with blooms of a variety of colors including reds, purples, oranges, pinks and creams. With its pendulous stems, the Christmas cactus makes beautiful hanging baskets to decorate the house.
Thanksgiving Cactus
The Thanksgiving cactus is probably the most familiar as well as most widely grown of the holiday cacti. The Thanksgiving cactus begins blooming in early fall and continues into January. The colors of the flowering cactus range from white to red, lavender to salmon-orange, with varying shades of each. The Thanksgiving cactus differs from the Christmas cactus in leaf shape. The Thanksgiving cactus's leaves have a more serrated edge compared to the more smooth and rounded leaves of the Christmas cactus.
Easter Cactus
The Easter Cactus is not the first plant one thinks of for this spring holiday, it is the Easter lily. The Easter cactus is the least known of the holiday cacti as the floral display lasts about 20 days with the blooms closing at dusk and re-opening during the day's sun. The red flowers are a uniform bloom of 12-15 petals that radiate when fully opened. The Easter cactus is a short day plant as are the other holiday cacti, but require a longer rest period between budding and the blooming period of early to mid-spring.
Growing the Holiday Cactus
All the varieties need similar care to grow and mature, making them a very easy plant to keep indoors.
- The Holiday cactus (all varieties) is easily propagated by taking a short Y-shaped cutting of the stem tip.
- Remove a single segment and plant the segment a quarter of its length deep in a pot of slightly sandy soil
- Place the pot with the segment in a sunlit area and keep the soil moist.
- After two to three weeks, the segment should be showing signs of growth.
- While the Holiday cactus can adapt to low light, more abundant blooms are produced on plants that are exposed to high light intensity, just not direct sun light.
- Apply houseplant fertilizer approximately every two to three weeks during the growth period.
Caring for Holiday Cactus
The Holiday cactus is very much like a cactus plant and is easily maintained.
- Do not let the plant dry out, water when the top half of the soil feels dry to the touch.
- Be careful not to over water as this will cause the buds to drop off.
- Holiday cactus needs sunlight, but not direct sunlight.
- Apply a mild fertilizer during the growth period and especially while budding and blooming.
The Holiday cacti (all varieties) are low maintenance plants. All three varieties, Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter, require similar growing conditions. The main difference is the Christmas cactus and Thanksgiving cactus that depend on the shorter days and cooler nights to bud. The Easter cactus will bud and bloom with cool temperatures, but normal season day length of the spring. No matter the season, a holiday cactus can brighten the home year after year becoming a lovely family heirloom.
Lynette Partridge-Schneider - For Lynette Partridge-Schneider, animals have been more than just a lifetime adventure. Her love of animals is a passion. Since, her first ...
