Green Thumb Gazette, December 2023

Holiday Cacti

Identifying Your Holiday Cactus
Over the last couple weeks, many of you have already seen your holiday cactus blooming! For those of you who don’t already have a holiday cactus, THIS IS YOUR SIGN to purchase one! They are almost everywhere for purchase because many are in full bloom. Holiday cacti are super easy to care for and can last for years. Many families pass them down from generation to generation or divide and propagate them for friends and neighbors!

First, you should know the differences between the holiday cacti. I have a white-ish pink Thanksgiving cactus that, honestly, blooms right on time with its name! It has the more upward pointing leaf tips. The Christmas cactus looks very similar to the Thanksgiving cactus, especially their flowers, but their leaf tips are a little more blunt. The Easter cactus has the most rounded leaves of them all with a more star-shaped flower, rather than tubular.

Caring For Your Holiday Cactus
All three species of holiday cacti are short day plants, meaning they need days that have less than 12 hours of light in order to set buds. Short days and cooler temperatures help this bud making process.

It is perfectly acceptable to place your cactus outdoors in the summer when it is nice and warm, they actually love it as long as they don’t get full, direct sunlight! Part shade (3-6 hours of indirect light) is where they are most happy. You can leave them outside through fall until there is a danger of frost or a freeze. This will help the plant naturally go into that short-day mode. Once you officially bring in your holiday cactus, place it in a cool dark location until it sets buds (it doesn't have to be a basement… just somewhere out of the heat you will have probably turned on in the house at that point). When your buds form on the plant, you can bring it back upstairs or out from the cooler room it was in. All you have to do then is wait for the MAGIC!!

The Christmas and Thanksgiving cactus bloom around the same time, requiring six weeks of short days and cool temperatures. Don’t worry when your Easter cactus does not bloom with the rest of your holiday cacti, it isn’t supposed to. It takes almost double the amount of time in that cool period/ short days (hence the Easter time frame)!

Too much water, too much direct sunlight, and too warm temperatures in those short days can cause buds to drop. So once you pull your cactus out to start blooming, don’t place it right near a register blasting heat!

As with many plants, try to wait until the plant is actively growing again (in the spring/after frost danger has passed) to repot and fertilize.

Watering Your Holiday Cacti
Holiday cacti like to dry out on the top 1-2 inches before they are watered again. You can easily use your finger to check for moisture depth. Overwatering your cacti can result in yellowing leaves, leaf drop, or fungus gnats (yuck!).

If you have any questions about holiday cacti, please give me a call at 828-632-4451 or send me an email at cari_mitchell@ncsu.edu.