Nov 30 2011

Botanical Wednesday: Christmas Cactus time!

Categories:

Organisms

by PZ Myers

(Also on Sb)

This post has no tag

21 comments

Skip to comment form ↓

1

chigau (本当)

30 November 2011 at 9:43 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

My Christmas Cactus blooms at Easter.
and July 1st.
and sometimes Bastille Day.
and others.
I think it’s possessed.
2

Gyeong Hwa

30 November 2011 at 9:43 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Oh I love cactus flowers. To bad some only bloom at night (as a way to save resources).
3

Midnight Rambler

30 November 2011 at 10:25 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Just looked up the Wikipedia entry; I hadn’t realized they were so widely sold, since I’d never met anyone else who had one. My parents have one that’s at least 40 years old, and quite possibly much older. Just getting flower buds now, right on time. Once it did bloom continuously for a full year though.
4

Glen Davidson

30 November 2011 at 10:39 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Behold what ~~God~~ hummingbirds (then plant breeders) hath wrought!

Glen Davidson
5

shouldbeworking

30 November 2011 at 11:09 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Cactus are the only plant I have trouble killing. The daughters’ cats hate the darn things though, it seems they don’t like plants that bite back.
6

StevoR

1 December 2011 at 12:52 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Never would’ve guessed that was a cactus basedon that photo.
7

Tethys

1 December 2011 at 1:05 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

A lovely choice. I have a fondness for plants that survive my erratic watering habits.

Oh I love cactus flowers. To bad some only bloom at night (as a way to save resources)

I think it is more likely due to their pollinators being nocturnal ie moths.
8

fancyplants

1 December 2011 at 2:34 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I had a Christmas Cactus a few years ago. After several years, one time it flowered like crazy (about 200 flowers) and then fell to bits in a horribly drawn out death for which I still have no idea why. Felt as if it was saying ‘sod it, I’ll go out with a bang’.

They make beautiful plants while they last though.
9

sc_54c14334ed76b8165ba6a31165a68cd8

1 December 2011 at 3:36 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

hat photo needs to be rotated 90 degrees clockwise. Or that flower’s on its side.
10

sc_54c14334ed76b8165ba6a31165a68cd8

1 December 2011 at 3:37 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Oh, ugh. Logged in through wordpress, and look what it did.

tielserrath.
11

shiroferetto

1 December 2011 at 4:16 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

fancyplants: That is one mental Christmas cactus! Wow.

Maybe during its flowering it needed extra water/food? No clue. That’s just insane.
12

F

1 December 2011 at 6:41 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

tielserrath

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mariasg/117213474/

Ah. Better.

You can go to your FTB dashboard profile and change the nickname field and/or the selected display name in the combo box. Or maybe you already know that and I’m being silly.
13

KG

1 December 2011 at 7:08 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Very decorative. I have two Christmas cacti in my room, one a recent gift from my son as a replacement for noe which went out like fancyplants’. Both have a few flowers right now.
14

fancyplants

1 December 2011 at 7:35 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Maybe during its flowering it needed extra water/food?

It was a year after the back half of the plant did a similar crazy flowering stint and fell off, so I was expecting it to happen. I gave it some extra food and water to try and avoid the same thing happening, but it didn’t. I had a sad.
15

Thomathy, now gayer and atheister

1 December 2011 at 8:30 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I have seven individual plants, I think. They’ve been in constant bloom since October. They bloom about twice a year. Half are fuchsia and the other half white. It may be strange, but I name all my plants, and their names are either alliterative with the plant name or start with the same letter. 4 of the Christmas cacti are Charles, Chuck, Charlie and Chaz and three are Curtis (it’s difficult to see the individual plants the way they’re potted). I cross pollinated them during the first blossoming this time round. I’m hoping the seeds (if the pollination was successful) will produce pinkish flowers or maybe a wash of white-fuchsia flowers. In any case, they’re very proliferate as it is. I may need to repot some of the older plants soon.

Also, all of my orchids are in bloom (I have three, all phalaenopsis). They manage to bloom twice a year, once in late spring/early summer and again in late autumn/early winter. One makes very large white flowers with pink genitals (O’foo), another makes smallish, hard, waxy, yellow speckled, green flowers with yellow genitals (Olive) and the other makes medium sized white-pink flowers with dark pink genitals (Orion).

Now, let’s all forget that I gushed about any plants at all.
16

gwiz

1 December 2011 at 8:43 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

My last photo of a red xmas cactus:

https://secure.flickr.com/photos/green_wizard/6346305296
17

ruthseid

1 December 2011 at 2:51 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Huh. I’ve always know it as a Solstice Cactus.
18

ruthseid

1 December 2011 at 3:00 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

oops – known
19

chigau (本当)

1 December 2011 at 3:12 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

My Christmas Cactus actually has buds!
Whadayaknow.
(I said 1st, up there. teehee)
20

gwiz

1 December 2011 at 4:32 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Schlumberga is the proper name -
21

Chelydra

1 December 2011 at 6:12 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

This is the so-called Thanksgiving cactus, Schlumbergera truncata, not the traditional Christmas cactus, Schlumbergera ×buckleyi. The stems (seen in the photo background) have pointed, toothed edges instead of rounded, scalloped edges, and the flower is bilaterally symmetrical instead of radially symmetrical.

Shclumbergera is native to Brazilian rainforests, where it grows epiphytically on trees. S. truncata naturally blooms closer to Christmas, so it’s easier to manipulate the flowering period for holiday sales and this species has largely replaced the traditional hybrid. In order to get your cactus to bloom, allow nighttime temperatures to drop into the 50s (°F) for about a month in fall.