Tips for Growing Christmas Cactus Outdoors

Highly popular houseplants, Christmas cactuses feature fantastic flowers that typically brighten our homes – but they can thrive in outdoor gardens too, provided your winters are mild enough.

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Native to moist and shady tropical and subtropical forests, these frost-tender perennials of the Schlumbergera genus thrive in partial sun or shady gardens with moderate summer temperatures and mild winters.

However, as the plants are hardy only in USDA Zones 10 to 12, year-round outdoor cultivation is limited to frost-free regions.

But even if you live in a temperate area, these plants love spending summers outdoors and respond with an easy and reliable bud set as fall arrives.

These colorful cacti are photoperiodical, or short-day plants, and flowering is triggered by the longer hours of darkness and cooler temperatures of the changing seasons.

And this makes the timing perfect to enjoy their elegant, vividly colored flowers in cream, gold, orange, pink, red, scarlet, or white in the late autumn and early winter garden – or indoors for the holiday season!

Does your garden (or home) need some luscious, tropical blooms this winter? Then join us now for a detailed explanation of the easy steps required to grow Christmas cactus outdoors!

Plants sold as Christmas or Thanksgiving cactus are species and cultivars of the Schlumbergeragenus, specifically S. x buckleyi and S. truncata, and outdoor cultivation for both types of holiday cacti is the same.

Easter cactus, S. gaertneri, is also grown in the same manner but you won’t see the flower buds until the