Christmas Cacti

Yes, this post is almost unforgiveably late. Please pardon this transgression.

So, one of the main categories of house plants I grow is the illustrious Christmas Cactus. Scientifically known as the genus Schlubergera. S. truncata, S. opuntioidies, S. orisichrissiana (sp), S. russelliana, and two I have never seen pictured or heard of them being grown outside Brazil. I was first drawn to my mother's plant when I was a kid. Every Christmas it was cloaked in drooping, symetrical, pink flowers. This plant sat in a cold room with windows facing north and west and it loved every minute of it. Despite my best efforts I never managed to get a single seed pod from them. These are the traditional cultivar "Schlumbergera X bucklei" and yes my spelling may be wrong.

When I got older and addicted to ebay I found other varieties, ones with toothy looking leaves, not the scalloped ones I had known. To cut a long story short I now have 23 pots worth at home and another 6 at work (6 of them are Bucklei including mom's original plant which got me started).

Peach, red, purple, pink, white, 2 kinds of yellow (yes yellow ones do exist). Yes, a glutton for schlumbergeras. I even shelled out for an S. opuntioides 2 years ago. Look it up, then search desperately for 6 months and you'll find one. Whether you want to pay that much for a tiny plant is ultimately up to you (or your wife, or if you want to pay for utilities that month).

My plants at work all set buds and dropped them, all but one. My grocery store pale pink. Huge blooms on monster stems. Amazing what a leftover plant, one step from the garbage can, can become. It garnered lots of comments from anyone who came to my office and I have now infested two coworkers offices, well one coworker and my supervisor, with their own clones. The cleaning lady even asked for some and I belatedly potted her cuttings up yesterday.

The plants at home bloomed like champs EXCEPT for the traditional Christmas Cacti. I trimmed them up in late summer when they moved in. DO NOT EVER DO THAT! So they are healthier, but won't bloom till next December.

There is a term you may have heard, self incompatibility. This applies to all genera of Christmas cacti as a defense against inbreeding. Since they grown readily from cuttings seeds aren't essential even in their native jungle. However, most varieties sold today, S. X bucklei included, come from seedling crosses. So all I had to do was pollenate a clone of the original plant with one of the new hybrids and voila! seed pods. To date I have never sewn a single seed I bred since I don't have any more space to row them on. However, the colorful, juicy pods last for a year or more and brighten up the foliage until it's time for them to bloom again.

So, why post now? Because the purple one at home is setting a few new buds, and my yellows are blooming again. The ones at work, which dropped their buds, are now covered in new buds, and the pink one is showing off by being covered in still more.

Where are the photos. Photos or it didn't happen is the rule right? :) I don't have any recent pictures, didn't think to take them this winter. But since you asked nicely, I will take some and post them soon.