Easter cacti

[Essjay64 179]

I have 4 "easter" cacti which so far have no flower buds developing. But last year the plants flowered better than ever before. I'm hoping they eventually do as well this year.

Last year's flowers -

 

[Magnum Man65 180]

we have what we call Christmas cactus… this year ours did not bloom around Christmas, but is full of blooms now, just before Easter

not an intentional picture as I was taking a picture of the celery starts, but it is visible in the background… looks like the same plant???

 

[Essjay64 179]

Your Christmas/crab/thanksgiving cactus isn't the same as my plants - yours has so many different common names, it's worse than fish common names. Your stems have projections sticking out from the main stem, sort of spikes. My plants have indentations rather than spikes. The flowers are also a different shape - yours have reflexed petals, mine are trumpet shaped. But they are all related

Easter cacti are supposed to be more difficult to keep than Christmas cacti but for some reason I can keep the Easter cacti while Christmas cacti just fall apart here. Your Christmas cactus looks nice and healthy

 

[Essjay64 179]

I think someone should lend a calendar to my Easter cacti, I thought they were not going to flower this year. It is the middle of July. The white and pale pink flowered plants are now in full bloom, the deep pink one has just started flowering and the orange one is covered in flower buds. Only 3 months late!

Once the flowers have gone I'll put them outdoors until the end of August. They need to be in the shade and protected from slugs so they'll be between the summerhouse and the wall on an old mesh shelf suspended on bricks over gravel - I defy any slug to reach them there

 

[GaryE25 23]

Slugs are just dry land pest snails. They're just as charming. We have an invasive European land snail here, the 'corpse snail'. As invasives, they breed like mad and walking in some areas has a crunchy sound. I don't welcome them.

We have a Christmas cactus that belonged to my wife's grandmother, who died in the 1970s. I've divided it into several plants for my daughters, and it's doing okay. They get old looking, and I've nursed one or two of them back from the brink once or twice, but they still flower.

I've never considered an outdoor phase for them. I should.

 

[Essjay64 179]

It's not the slugs as themselves, it's what they do to plants that I want to prevent. Something is eating the Vinca minor in our garden, the leaves look they are made of lace. I don't want my Easter cacti to look like that.

Christmas and Easter cacti are supposed to flower better if they have an outdoor period in summer. Mine have certainly flowered better, if late, since I've been doing that.

When my plants start looking old I take cuttings. The orange one was a present from my son and ex daughter-in-law; they divorced 6 years ago so it's at least 8 years old, though not the original. The current plant is a cutting of that one. The other three I bought more recently as cuttings from eBay.

 

[GaryE25 23]

We're getting a lot of rain, and that has potential to loose the slugs and snails on my vegetable garden. I'm watching for that.

I don't have a green thumb, but I do resent garden slugs. I've managed to keep my buddies the deer out of the garden this year, but the slugs, snails, grasshoppers and all their friends are circling.

 

[Essjay64 179]

I never managed to put the Easter cacti outside this summer. They are supposed to go out when the flowers have finished. The white and pale pink ones are still flowering and have unopened buds while the deep pink and orange plants only lost their last flowers a week ago.

It is October and these are called Easter cacti because they are supposed to flower in spring. I know the UK has had unusual weather this year but can that alone account for it?

 

[Jennet44 102]

No answer unless that keeping them indoors has elongated their season. My friend used to have a massive christmas cacti that I just adored. She named it Monster.

 

[Essjay64 179]

For several years these same plants flowered in spring then spent July and August outside in a carefully chosen spot out of direct sunlight and protected from slugs. Last year, they flowered more heavily than before - those are last years flowers in the first post. This year they did not flower in spring but only started flowering in July when they should have been outside.
I has occurred to me since my last post that I have done something different in the last 2 years. I also have orchids and I feed them with specialist orchid fertiliser which is prepared by mixing it with water. I usually have some left over so I have been feeding the Easter cacti with that since both types of plant are epiphytes. Could that have affected the flowering time? Maybe I should use cactus fertiliser instead, though that's designed for desert cacti not forest cacti.

 

[Jennet44 102]

I don't have many indoor plants, and to be fair I never use fertilizer with them, not even my orchid, so would not be able to say really. Nothing hurts to try though.

 

[Naughts64 136]

I have a similar plant, rounded leaves but curling cerise petals. I never put it outside and it hasn’t flowered over the summertime. I also sometimes give it orchid fertiliser to try and maximise the flowers, it is pretty old.

Maybe the fertiliser you gave it boosted the flowering to such an extent that it exhausted it’s reserves and needed longer between flowering seasons to build it up again?

 

[Essjay64 179]

@Naughts You could try taking cuttings. That's what I do when my plants start to look old. And I've taken cuttings for other people as well.

I'm going to cut down on fertiliser and see what happens. It probably won't have any effect next year, but maybe the year after? I need to start reducing watering soon anyway as Easter cacti need less water in winter.

 

[ohhfishhh]

I have 4 "easter" cacti which so far have no flower buds developing. But last year the plants flowered better than ever before. I'm hoping they eventually do as well this year.

Last year's flowers -

View attachment 378342

Easter cactus is such a rewarding plant when it blooms. Bright, indirect light and careful watering usually help keep it healthy and encourage good flowering.

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

I love mine, they do need a period of darkness to make them flower well though