How to Make a Christmas Cactus Bloom

Tropical Christmas cactus is an easy-care houseplant with blossoms in shades of pink, red, white, and yellow that open during the fall to winter holiday season.

The name is a catch-all term that includes a number of Schlumbergera species and hybrids, including S. russelliana, S. bridgesii, and Schlumbergera x buckleyi, as well as S. truncata, the Thanksgiving cactus, which blooms approximately one month before the Christmas variety.

These plants are South American epiphytes that cling to rainforest trees or rocks, drawing sustenance from rainfall and the nutrients in their immediate environment.

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Instead of true leaves, this plant has flattened segments called phylloclades, or cladodes, that are fleshy and, unlike many cacti, have no thorns. On Christmas varieties, the margins are rounded. Thanksgiving types have serrated edges.

Blooms appear at the end of the stems, on the last segment.

In our guide to growing Christmas cactus, we discuss cultivation indoors in bright indirect light and organically-rich, well-draining potting medium.

This article will cover how to coax plants to produce an abundance of flowers in time for the holidays.

Here’s the line-up:

Let’s get started!

For plants to set buds, they must experience a period of winter dormancy like they would in their native tropical rainforests.

Known as “short day” plants, it’s the period of shorter days and cooler weather that halts foliar growth and jump starts the flowering process.

How can we replicate the appropriate conditions at home?

To trigger the natural inclination to bloom, four factors must be