Christmas cactus: How to care for these trailing Brazilian succulents | House & Garden

White Christmas Cactus, £11.99 from Hortology

Possessing more character than poinsettia, but producing just as much punchy colour during the festive period, the Christmas cactus (Schlumbergera x buckleyi) is a much-loved houseplant. It has a very particular seasonal routine, but once this has been grasped, it is an easy plant to grow.

The genus is said to have been named after French botanist Frédéric Schlumberger, who had a collection of cacti at his château near Rouen in the 19th century. There are seven species of Schlumbergera, which hail from the Serra do Mar (sea's ridge) and Serra da Mantiqueira (weeping mountains) regions of coastal southeast Brazil. The latter is known as weeping because it has so many springs, streams, and waterfalls and the air is usually damp with mist. Unlike most cacti, Schlumbergera are epiphytic and epilithic (grow on trees or rocks) and enjoy indirect light, humidity, and relatively cooler temperatures at heights of 700 to 2,100 metres (2,300 to 6,900 feet). They are pollinated by hummingbirds, which are attracted to the bright colours of the flowers.

The winter-flowering Christmas cactus (S. x buckleyi) is supposedly the offspring of the autumn-flowering S. truncata and the spring-flowering S. russelliana; though some experts believe that a natural hybrid, rather than S. russelliana, was the parent. The cross was made in London at Rollisson's nursery in Tooting in the 1840s by Wilbraham Buckley, and the resulting flowers were a neon shade of hot purple-pink. Today, there are some 1,400 cultivars of Christmas cactus with attractive red, pale pink, purple-pink, and white forms available, as well as orange, yellow, and two-tone varieties.

When young, the flat stems – which are linked together