Behold the modern Christmas cactus . These are not your mothers ’ Christmas cactus nor your Grandmothers . fresh variety show and stock are being bring in every year , and even though these new diversity may take decades to reach us through traditional commercial-grade growers , they are available from collector and minor , specialist grower . If you are assay new yellow flowered form , or fringe whitened types that look like snowflakes , or mutated green and Battle of Magenta blossom 1 with prime that are deform so much that they look like grasshopper , then these raw Christmas Cactus are for you .
My assemblage grows each year , as we introduce four or five newfangled varieties each wintertime . I am fond to the yellow , brownish bronze and peach salmagundi , as well as pure blanched , but I am becoming more interested in bicolored variety , those which white petal , but butt against in pinkish or imperial .
Many of these Christmas cactus are difficult to regain , as aggregated grocery growers are still maturate older forms , but you’re able to find them uncommitted from specialist nurseries online , and from collectors on Ebay . Like any New foundation , it often takes clock time for many to catch on . If a new plant can be micro - spread , as in a mental test tube , then young varieties can come to food market quickly , but most of these newer assortment are still rather uncommon , and thus , their prices stay mellow . The multifariousness ‘ Aspen ’ was sell for almost $ 100 five long time ago , and although last yr it was available from a duo of growers , it quickly sold out . I purchased my plant for $ 25 dollars last spring , and Logee ’s Greenhouses in CT . is currently selling it for $ 19 . They also have a new crimson - form of this popular fringed form , also on my wish list .
Christmas cactus can constitute long - lived specimen plants , often becoming kinsfolk heirlooms , being overhaul down from generation to coevals ( I still have some plant that were my mothers from the 1940 ’s ) . They root well from cuttings , and are true gift and share plants . You may think that they are too old - fashioned , but that ’s the appeal – they are timeless , and special in the same fashion that an one-time Christmas decoration can be timeless . Their flowers shoot the breeze us , nostalgically each yr .
I am examine to collect as many cultivar as possible , so if any of you have a favored , please let me know . I am aware of curious mutant forms , old species , bronze and brownish flowered forms and the new fringed character . Any suggestions are welcome . Most of these newer varieties are some you will never find at a supermarket or glasshouse , which cook them even more interesting , not unlike African Violets , where the finest varieties are available only from gatherer and small , specialist nurseries and not from commercial growers . This is unfeigned with many plants , day lily to orchidaceous plant . Take musical note .
One of the most common inquiry I get is “ How can I get my Christmas cactus to flower for Christmas ? ” The result is simple , but not always well-heeled to accomplish . Christmas cactus answer to daylength , and they will set bud in October if keep dry and on a natural day - duration schedule . This means that even if you keep your plants on a windowsill in a room which you do not expend , you must be sure that a street lamp is not well-nigh by . My plants sit in the greenhouse , and they get instinctive daytime without any artificial light , and the plant set bud exactly at the same time with no travail .
While actively growing in the tardy spring and early summertime , Schumbergera are dynamic feeders , responding to water soluable plant food well , which keeps the plants a rich , lustrous green . The plants summer outdoors under a Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , where they do not get any verbatim sunlight , but in the winter , they survive on a high workbench in the greenhouse where they get full Lord’s Day .
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