Christmas cactus

I am thrilled that my Christmas cactus has buds for the first time this year. I put it outside and it has flourished. NOW, it is time to bring it in and I am concerned that the buds will drop before they bloom. That has happened to me before with other Christmas cactus plants. One time I just moved a cc to a place in the house to see it better and the buds dropped.
Does anyone have any tips for me so it will not happen?

I was going to put it inside in a closet with a small window (no heat vents) for a few days to acclimate it to the house and hopefully the relative darkness is supposed to help it with the blooming...then bring it into the main house.... am I really off the mark here?

I know they need darkness to set buds, but yours has already done that. Keeping it in a cooler place sounds like a plan. I wouldn't water it either. What a bummer. You wait all year for them to bloom and then the buds fall off. Hope it works for you.

I agree, I wouldn't worry about the darkness since that's to get them to set buds and yours already has, so it wouldn't serve any purpose at this point. Unfortunately they do have a tendency to drop buds when they are moved so I'm not sure if you can totally avoid that. I'm not sure if it's the physical movement or the change in conditions that causes it to drop buds, but I'd move it as slowly & gently as possible and put it somewhere that the conditions will be as similar to outdoors as possible (do you have something like a screened in porch/Florida room that would be closer to outdoor temps than the rest of the house?)

Julie, here is some info that may be useful to you. I leave my Christmas cactus outside until the first frost. As soon as I see bud development I start gradually moving it to slightly shadier area until the light is about the same as inside and keep it in an unheated room inside. Temperature is just as critical as light in preventing bud drop.

http://www.schlumbergera.org/index.php?cid=58

http://www.plantoftheweek.org/week156.shtml

http://www.centralarizonacactus.org/holiday.html

http://www.cloudjungle.com/epibook/Schlum.html

Yeah, the buds are still tiny, so I may not move it yet.... it's supposed to get down to 39F. Will that be too cold?

I would suggest covering it to protect it from frost damage. Use an old bucket or laundry basket or something of that sort to cover the plant without touching the leaves, and then cover that with plastic to keep the frost off and block any wind.
But you need to start getting the plant ready for lower light levels.

Mine has been out side all sping and summer and just brought it in last week and it has set buds too so I'll have flowers b4 long. I never put mine in the dark?

Sometimes the plant will get enough darkness on its own to set buds. If you have trouble getting it to bloom or if you want to try and force it to bloom at a time in the year when the days are longer and it wouldn't normally want to bloom then you can help it out by providing longer hours of darkness, but if it's setting buds and you're happy with the time of year it's blooming then I wouldn't worry about doing anything additional.

Thanks ecrane, I didn't even know they were to be in darkness to get them to bloom. My MIL never ever put hers in darkness but it always bloomed when it was suppose to.

My CC is in bud also. I have never put it in darkness either. It blooms off and on at some of the strangest times during the year! I just brought mine in from the hot porch, full sunlight, last week and it looks great. During the Summer, the leaves get lighter, then when I bring it in they green right up.

Woo Hoo! The buds are staying on, and they are getting really colored up. I think it will be a pink color.

I ended up covering it one night, and putting it in a shed one night, then I got thinking that all the moving it around was probably worse than just bringing it in, so that's what I did. So far, so good.

One of mine has already bloomed out and is a beautiful pink and white mixed.

JulieQ,

Your plant is very pretty and the planter is quite attractive as well. Glad your blooms are still holding on and doing as they should.

Thank you, daisylovn. The planter was part of an arrangement at my late husband's funeral. Now it is supporting "new life".

Thats a beautiful thought.

We never did have much success with ours blooming. One year I moved them with the rest of the plants into my storage building building under floresent lights. I suppose because of the cooler temps they started blooming like crazy. Dumb me, moved them back into the house so we could enjoy the beautiful blooms. Two days later they all fell off. I gather from that they don't like to be moved.

That happened to me a couple years ago when I moved one while in bloom. I wonder if you moved it while the buds are still small if they would "stick" better. Mine has done surprisingly well this time.

You are probably right Julie. I think it is the temp change that does them in.

By the way, yours is a Thanksgiving Cactus. Isn't it amazing how they have the bloom time programed into them.

Yours is beautiful.

I have a Christmas Cactus cutting that a friend gave me a few weeks ago. I potted it in a small clay pot and placed it in a north facing window, with bright indirect sun. It is tiny but looks like it is starting to bud.

You just can't keep a happy plant down daisy....grin

I thought this plant was finicky and just knew that I wouldn't get anything out of it until next season. Imagine my surprise at this little tiny creature. It is only one section of the original plant. Probably not more than 5 inches long..

All it takes is a little patience and figuring out what makes the plant happy....sometimes you may never figure one out, but the challenge keeps us gardening.

JulieQ - was happy for u that ur Christmas Cactus did so well and is so beautiful. I've been growing both Christmas and Thanksgiving varieties for years and, in the beginning, had the same problem as u - buds falling off. Like u, I found out that if u bring them in to a bright window while the buds r tiny they do well. Now I have an odd thing happening. For the second year in a row my red Christmas Cactus is putting out its buds now! It bloomed beautifully in the summer last year and, I am assuming, will bloom this summer too. Ha! Plants are like children, full of fun surprises! :)

bugtug, My CC bloomed last summer too and rebloomed in late november. No sign of buds this summer tho.
Vickie

cando1 - r we special? or what? lol

Only if they bloomed twice every year! LOL

How do you know the difference in christmas , thanksgiving and easter cactus ?

By the time they bloom. Christmas at Christmas, etc.

Thanks Jim, I was going to say that but was'nt sure if there was another difference.
Vickie

Here is an article that explains the difference:

http://cactus.biology.dal.ca/paulS/christmas/christmas.html

Julie, That was some great info. I bookmarked it.
A BIG THANKS.
Vickie

i lost my precious mom 2 yrs ago , she was a christmas cactus grower she could grow anything. Her love for plants was overwhelming . when she died i had to to get rid of all plants in my site i couldnt bare having her plants and not having her . but im slowing doing a comeback because now im the grandmother of a 2 yr old grandson . so im collecting lil snips and pieces of christmas cactus from a few friends to get me one started.

thanks for the info glad i found this beautiful garden

angel in tn