Christmas Cactus - Schlumbergera

[cordyman]

I see this plant on the dining room table everytime I go to my Mum's, never paid much attention to it, just a bland, green, spiky leaved house plant. It gets bigger each year but nothing of interest.

That was until I visited yesterday and seen it in bloom! Rather want one now!









Anyone else have one? or grow outdoors in an arid bed?

[Troppoz]

Yeah they are lovely plants, tough and colourful and easy to grow. Ive tried them in the ground but they are more of an epiphyte and seem to prefer a light well drained mix and dont cope with dryness as well as you would expect a cactus to.

[jimhardy]

O.k. thanks

now I have to go get one of those too


awesome plant by the way

[Conifers]

Very easy to grow from cuttings - next time you visit, just pick off a segment or two, take it home, let it dry a day to callus over at the base, then plant in pure leaf mould. Keep the leaf mould on the dryish side until it is well rooted.

[jimhardy]

I want to find some that have trunks at least woody stems...

[flounder]

I've had them for as long as I can remember. In fact the wife bought another this week...a fuchsia red one

[cordyman]

I want to find some that have trunks at least woody stems...

not seen any pics of them with trunks yet, I can imagine they'd be amazing when covered in flowers

[Conifers]

I want to find some that have trunks at least woody stems...

My grandparents used to have one with a good trunk on it. No idea what happened to it, nor any pics, sadly.

[otorongo]

Has anyone had them flower outside? (when grown outside year round)

When you buy them they're indoor grown and they're in flower, but outside there doesn't seem to be enough heat to prompt them into flowering. They also turn red/pink in the sun.

I didn't know they're epiphytic, now I'm tempted to mount one onto a tree

[flounder]

A few years ago, I had one outside in a really sun baked, crispy dry, raised, small border.(heavily watered in summer) I'm sure I used to get the odd flower. Come to think of it, there was aptenia, lampranthus, tradescantia, chlorophytum and crassula as well. The late eighties/early nineties saw a couple of heavy dumpings of snow which put paid to the lot. One thing I do remember, they are a slug magnet

[kata]

I used to have one, a red,

I think I have seen them at Homebase.

Your mum's plant looks lovely Cordy.

[PaulPlants]

We have grown them as house plants since I was a child, every few years a new cutting is taken and when big enough the parent plant is thrown away (sad, I know... But the window seal can only take so much and look good).

One day a few years back, when tidying up behind the shed we found one of the plants we had thrown out a couple of years earlier, doing fine.

I am currently growning a specimen to try outside in a terracotta wall put nestled in the corner between the house and the side brick wall. I confident that if I protect from snow we could do quite well.

I have no idea what variety it is, but I'll try and remember to post a pic when it flowers in a few weeks.

[Kristen]

I want to find some that have trunks at least woody stems...

not seen any pics of them with trunks yet, I can imagine they'd be amazing when covered in flowers

They dangle ... my Wife's grandmother had one on a pedestal that had grown down to the floor. Looked amazing when in flower. So I don't think you will get a trunk, as such.

Has anyone had them flower outside? (when grown outside year round)

Not sure about that as they flower at ... ermmm ... Christmas triggered by shorter days (from memory they need less than 8 hours daylight to trigger flowering). There are Easter flowering ones too, but I don't know of any Summer flowering varieties.

[Blairs]

I want to find some that have trunks at least woody stems...

My grandparents used to have one with a good trunk on it. No idea what happened to it, nor any pics, sadly.

My grandparents also had a a woody base Christmas cactus. It must take an age in the UK to form...I think you would get bored of it before it got woody.

I put all my house plants out this summer and did not bring any back in. The Schlumbergera stayed out until late November. A lot of the flower buds kept falling off and the leaves did partly go reddish from being out. I gave them to my sons nursery where the flowered inside.

[otorongo]

I put all my house plants out this summer and did not bring any back in. The Schlumbergera stayed out until late November. A lot of the flower buds kept falling off and the leaves did partly go reddish from being out.

They go red when they're in the sun. If you put them in a spot that doesn't get direct sunlight the red bits will go back to green. I kind of like the red though and don't think there is any harm in it.

I'm going to propagate a bunch of cuttings and mount them epiphytically in the more sheltered parts of the garden. They do suffer from frost, overhead cover helps preserve the tops.