Christmas Cactii

[horticultural_hobbit]

Help, oh wise ones

I have thirteen of these things in my classroom. Most of these are rescued, in that I picked them up from h*mebase, for less then half price when they started to keel over. Of the group, I think three have flowered. That's lovely, its a conversation piece. My students are attached to them.

What happens though, once they have flowered? And a couple of them have gone a little wrinkly and prune like. Have moved these and watered. Though I only water them all something like once a fortnight. Too much can do them in, allegedly.

What general advice is there for their care?

Oh, and British ponsietta. How best to keep her going.

[rustylady]

Hello HH. First of all, Christmas cacti are not desert cacti. They need probably more water than you are giving them. Link here giving more information Christmas Cactus advice and care

As for the poinsettia, I've never had much luck with them. Keep out of draughts and do not overwater is the advice I've been given.

[horticultural_hobbit]

Ah, thank you, RL. See, I've been told not to overwater; that it makes the flowers fall off. Perhaps I am watering too little. Will make them a little damper then.

And they all sit on erratic radiators. Occasionally get squished by the up down blinds.

[WendyC]

After flowering mine spend their summer holidays in the greenhouse where they produce good buds until they come in again as it starts to get chilly in late September. The timing for going out varies but generally when the bedding plants go out in late May / early June or when there is room. This way I find they always flower.

[horticultural_hobbit]

They will hopefully stay in my classroom, until the summer holidays at least. They should be able to cope with half terms and end of terms etc. I think there are new leaves, the occasional bud.

The one that had flowered-beautiful red it was-is now all green again. There are two pink flowerers at the moment, with the flowers starting to wither away. and yes, they all have names.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=3&theater

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=3&theater

[Alison]

In my experience I've found that it's almost impossible to kill Christmas cacti (or the Easter ones for that matter). They're also really easy to take cuttings from. If you over / underwater it will affect the flowers but the plants can look like they've actually died and still be brought back to life with a good soak of water so don't worry too much. Poinsettias are a different matter, they're not really suited to the UK climate and do much better outside in the warm weather of the Canaries or even better Madeira. Basically you'll be very lucky to keep it decent after Christmas so I tend to treat them as a long lasting bunch of flowers and part of my Christmas decorations. Have had one that lasted to the following year once (it was outside all summer) but it's difficult to get the red leaves again and all a right phaff so not worth the effort to me.

[horticultural_hobbit]

Well, I've given them all a good water this week. That has revived a few of them. Will keep an on them.

They aren't particularly big, so I will be intrigued to see what happens to them.


The ponsietta is going to remain inside; sits on my classroom desk. Even if it doesn't go red again, it will act as Greenary.

[roitelet]

In the summer give them a feed with whatever you use for tomatoes. Mine, when I had one, spent the summer in the garden in the shade, flowered every year!

[horticultural_hobbit]

According to the label, the ponsietta-yet to be named by the students-is British. The label does say how it is native to places such as Mexico.

It would be nice to have the cactii flower again, perhaps some of them are confused. They are all rescue cactii, so I have charged my students with nurturing them. Persuaded them, that if they choose not to talk, their silence kills the cactii (labouring under the misapprehension that they produce lots of Co2 which the cactii like) Think they are mostly red, white and pink. We've had a couple of pink explosions-kevin and bruce, respectively-and a red explosion. Kevin and Bruce have been soaked this week, as they were starting to look a bit ropey.

How did they all come to be Christened? Each student was gave a name, this was put into a box and all 13 were named through a fully independently adjudicated selection process.

I have two pseudo kismet cactii-don't really like them-spiky wilkos things, with red santa hats and googly eyes. I think the removal of the googly eyes and hat-attached to a wooden stick that runs right through it-would send them to their maker. I am not condoning cactii murder. I just don't like them...I think their demise would be noticed, and I wouldn't have a leg to stand on....

[Capsid]

Can I just say that the plural is cacti, please? The pedant in me can't help itself. Anyway, you're a teacher so you need to get it right.

Also, they aren't strictly cacti but succulents.

[horticultural_hobbit]

Noted shall do so

[woody21]

Both Christmas cactii and poinsettia are day length sensitive and need so many hours per day of complete darkness to bloom.
Poinsettia need bright light during the daylight hours to develop the really intense colour so may work well in the summer if you put the plant in the dark every night.
in the winter i guess artificial lights would be needed and some heating if outdoors

the wiki for poinsettia has some good info and a few more links at the bottom to have a look at.
Poinsettia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

i like these 2 pages, nice simple instructions of how to care for them and make them bloom.
How To Make A Christmas Cactus Bloom
How To Make Poinsettia Turn Red – Make A Poinsettia Rebloom

It would be nice to grow this years poinsettia to a large bushy plant for next year.

[horticultural_hobbit]

Hmm, interesting. There are many instances where the cacti are in darkness. Might be interesting to see how they cope.

[Potstubsdustbins]

SWMBO has had Christmas cacti for some years now. She divided some four years ago now one plant sits on the bathroom window sill above a radiator and is the first to flower. The second sits on the kitchen window sill and chooses to flower about a month later.

As to looking after them she feeds them twice a year and waters them when and if she remembers.

Potty

[horticultural_hobbit]

Some of them blooming again have flowers just like that, Potty. Need to make sure I give 'em a good drenching before breaking up for kismet