Howdy- don't call out the dogs for me.I worked Election (poll worker) in Baltimore City yesterday.
Gita, it sounds wnderful to me that you got to see your two daughters having so much fun together. Next to my kids growing up happy, having them close to siblings is almost the best feeling.
good day all! get some sunshine vitamin D!
This message was edited Nov 9, 2011 12:41 PM
Holiday Cacti General Discussion Part #3
You all make me miss my sister! She lives on one coast and I on the other. We talk very often though, it just isn't the same.
It was beautiful yesterday so I worked outside. Today I am running errands and getting others to dr's appts and such.
I just thought I would poke my head in and say hi.
Hey ladies, I am back, had my hair cut , did the bank trip and stopped for groceries. Now I want to take a second to show you two of my new Schlums that are starting to bloom.
First is the Schlumbergera "Thor Carmen"
Now Schlumbergera "Thor Tenna"
What a flaming red!
Wow! need i say more. I have 1 I think is Thorr writ, but I am not positive. I need to look the thorrs up and try to id them.
Ruby--
I did not "pump" for more info when my daughter got back from her reunion...I think it is VERY important that she made the
3000mi. trip here, and back, to attend....She has still a lot of "old" friends to catch up with around here....
So much so--that I have been minus the use of my car now for, almost, three days going.....I am OFF, thank God!
Then--what the H--ll do I have to do anyway? The main thing is that the both of them get to spend some
fun times together...Aina needs some Sister time....
Tonight--they both went venturing to Hampden (where "Cafe Hon" is) for some Baltimore "Kitchy" stuff.
Then--off to Mt. Vernon for some bar-lurking.... ALL good together stuff!
I got some gardening done--mostly puling up and cutting down some dead perennials and annuals....
MUST send all my beds in as clean a condition as i can--before winter hits...
Vegging tonight---checking all my DG Threads... What else can i do????
Nothing to add here as far as CC's go! I will do so--if I have something to share!
Gita
Gita
Ruby had asked about light and fading of stems, etc. This information is what I gathered and cut down to fit our needs.
"Schlumbergeras seem to be able to survive in very low light intensity, but will seldom flower if the light level is too low." This statement and the other information I am going to pass on is from some notes of McMillan and Horobin.
The amount of sunlight that these plants can tolerate without any ill effects pretty much depends on the species. Here is what I have found:
S. orssichiana is one of the most sensitive to high light levels. It has large stem segments adapts well to shady conditions
S, truncata, S. Russelliana, S.x Buckleyi, S. opuntioides are sensitive to too much light
S, Microsphaerica is the least sensitive
The main reasons that cause bleaching or pale coloring are too much water, fertilizer and too much sunshine.
Plants do not need to be watered until they feel dry to the touch. You do not want them to be soaked, but in starter plants, the roots should be damp almost all the time. If they dry out too much, the roots wilt and die.You need to be careful not to overwater the starter plants during the period when they need to be damp. On adult plants you need to water them only when they feel dry .
The plants do not need direct sunlight, so that could be the cause of bleaching if your plants are sitting in a sunny window, or as mine, in a sunny greenhouse when the shade cloth comes off to give the other plants sun, the CC do not need it so they go to the lower level shelves that get the least sun. They still bleach out to some extent.
I will not get into the light cycles at this time because it will get to lengthy. That is really part of How to Make A CC Bloom.
I hope this gives you some idea of how important it is to know what plants you have and how much happier the plant will be if you can find just the right spot for it in your house.
Have a good evening everyone. JB
JB that red thor is amazing. Is it that red in person?
only the flowers that get pollenated form seed capsules. easy to hand pollenateby, as one site says, by "smooshing" selected blooms together. so, a house or green house free of bugs equals few seed capsules.
wonder what pollenaters they have in the wild----an"epi"cure?
wonder how many baby cc s we could raise in our aquariums?
thanks for the hugs and wishes, shoulder doing a bit better this am hopeful improvement will continue and sweet relief will be with all our aches and pains today. we all deserve to follow gita's lead and just veg out. of course after (nod to JB) we check in!
Judy
http://happyhobbyhabit.blogspot.com/2010/01/schlumbergera-seed-pictorial.html
http://www.schlumbergera.org/index.php?cid=81
http://www.rainyside.com/archives/BreedingXmasCactus.html
These are sites my friend from the Atlanta Botanical Gardens sent me to check out. Enjoy. No reason to take time to re-write it when you can print it out and file it away.
Have a good day. I am working here on the farm trying to catch up before we open for business selling Christmas Trees in a few weeks. JB
Here is a new stock plant with a bud starting to open today. This is another one of my young stocks. This is it's first year of full blooms.
The tag on it is printed from the wholesale grower and it says:
Zygocactus x "White Christmas" . I am sure it is Schlumbergera 'White Christmas' . It is all the same. What confused me was the "x" on the tag. It is also listed in the plants on DG.
Here in the USA, doesn't an X mean it has been crossed with something? JB
I don't have anything to really contribute to this cc thread, but I do enjoy it and have learned a bit. I'm fully in support of maintaining it as it is. :-) In my opinion policing on a local level is unnecessary, and personal sharing just allows us to learn a bit about each other. If anyone digresses to an extreme we can always just skip on. I'll be lurking to see what else I can learn. Holly's Ric
Happy Veteran/s Day to all. God Bless those men and women who give their lives to make ours better.
Holly, I am so glad you came to visit. This is a really nice group of people who seem to all have the same passion for the Holiday Cactus. I think it is unanimous that we do not need to be policed by anyone and we will go on as we have been. I call it Sharing and Caring. I feel sharing our funny or sad moments brings us all together as an extended family. I am not sure how many of us actually live alone, but for those of us who do, this thread is definitely a tremendous help for our health and well being. Plants and caring people. What could be better? Having said that I hope you all have a wonderful day.
What is the difference between Schlumbergeras and Zygo's?
"X" I think just means it is a hybrid.
I smooshed one of my whites, on my pink, so w'll see if a fruit gets formed. More whites about to open so i will try to continue. after all there may be a future article in this.
Don't you love the word smooshed. That sounds like a PA Dutch term doesn't it? I was raised among the Amish and Mennonites in Lancaster County and they come up with some funny terms. This term was used on the HappyHobby website if I am not mistaken.
There is really no difference between Zygocactus and Schlumbergera. Check out
http://www.zygocactus.net/
It is the website from an Australian who raises Holiday Cactus.
The word Zygo actually came from the shape of the flowers on the Thanksgiving Cactus being zygomorphic instead of the shape of the flowers on the Christmas Cactus being actinomorphic. So most of the hybrids a called zygocactus. So it says in an article I read called Recognition and Culture of the Holiday Cactus.
Hope this answers your question Crit! JB
Now, see that is something that I can probably remember
http://davesgarden.com/guides/terms/go/2368/
pretty sure I've never seen a true CC with actinomorphic flowers- regular " round" vaguely shaped like daisy
Well---I have a couple of my CC's starting to bloom.
The biggest is an pale Apricot color. The blooms are not yet fully open--but wanted to show you anyway....
Have to take a better picture! The lighting was not right....
Then--here are 2 of my small pots blooming...many more have buds....
And--two others....mostly the fuchsia ones are blooming first.
YAY! This is the 100th Post---do I get a prize???/
Gita, glad your back. Hope you are all rested up and healing. The babies are beautiful. The orange looks like my orange but mine is not blooming yet.
Sally, you are so much like me.................who knows what half this stuff means. I was to take Horticulture in College and ended up with Advertising and Marketing.............at Penn State no less. Yikes.....what a mess that is. No, we may not discuss it on DG.....this is the only place on the internet that reminds me of a bubble. Not sure that is healthy. LOL
We cross posted and if I were not so old and slow, I would get the prize. Is there a prize?
My bird bit my arm today. I think I will put him in the mircrowave and have roasted parrot for dinner. I will no doubt hear from the spca on that comment. Huh!
JB--
My daughter from Seattle was here all week. Coming and going and getting together with her sister here--
I seldom had a day when I had a car....
Took her to the airport this late morning for her trip back home.
Now--things can fall back in somewhat of a regular pattern for me again.
Not sure I would call my CC orange! It really is a pale shell-apricot color.
I will get better pictures when the blooms open a bit more.
Glad you missed me.....Gita
Here is Benita----all 5'9" of her....she is 43.
Ahhh Gita. She is pretty enough to name a flower after her!
Gita, she is very pretty and tall!
I thought that zygocactus was kind of a marketing name ( like sunrise cacti) rather than a botanical name. I have always thought X meant crossed with thus making it a hybrid.
JB, did Gunny give you any warning? I had a sun conure that would fly across the room and come to snuggle and act so happy then when you were all relaxed he would bite the "you know what" out of you. It hurts when they bite.
gotta run,
sea ya,
Linda
ouch, parrots can deliver more than a nip, for sure! hope he straightens up & flies right, so to speak. was this his first such offense? If so, I'd like to petition the court for leniency... we can always revisit the roasted parrot issue...
I've got 2 apricot colored ones (both from Doc) just starting to bloom now, also... got photos but have been notorious lately for not getting them from my camera to the computer... eventually! I don't know if they are separate varieties or just variations, but I have 2 plants and one is a delicate pale apricot and the other almost has a coppery tone to it. I wouldn't call either one "orange," exactly, but this might be as close to orange as CCs get?
Like Gita, I have mine in a blue pot. The deeper colored one is in a blue-green pot. Really shows them off! :-)
Morning, today started better than yesterday. Just yelling " Jack Jack Jack" for 20 minutes straight. I finally opened his cage and gave him his cornbread then left him go without the regular morning hugs and kissies. I have a black and blue mark on my arm the size of a fifty cent piece but thank God he did not draw blood. Which shoes me he was being loving in his on stupid bird way. Because when they bite with anger, it is blood. No this his not his first attempt to damage my pride. At the moment he is pulling at my socks and giving me the love sign of regurgitation.
Which only proves my point....he needs a mate. Sorry bird, you are not my type. I am going to take some shots off the camera and post them sometime today. Later.
My pale apricot cc has one bloom open on it. There are several buds about to open also. The hot pink ones buds are getting bigger. They are still in their plastic pots I got them in. I had them setting in a basker so never repotted them. Should I wait until they quit blooming to move them to another pot?
Crit, wait until they are finished blooming, if they are potbound or in a tight pot, they are happy and will continue to grow but it you want to put them in a nicer pot then only go one size larger, two at the most. Keep repotting more often in only a size larger each time to make sure the root system is well established.
Here is a picture of my little "White Christmas" now fully opened.
Here is the yellow zygo cactus first bloom of it's young life.
I am told this oldy is orange with a pink center. It is just beginning to open. No name, but it is obviously a Schlum.
Truncata
Critter, I miss Doc! Anyone hear from him lately? Hope he is ok. His last post around here on the night blooming cereus was great. Maybe he has some photos in the photo contest. Have to check. And, is there a critter you don't have knowledge of...!??! How cool for Joyana.
I also miss our bird thread! Maybe someone will take it on and keep it alive and lively like you do this one JB
I have soooooo many questions about parrot behavior.! I got a love bite from a parrot once in a pet store where it was on an open stand. I was enjoying "imitating" its sounds and movements, head bobbings, leg liftings, preening and feather fluffs for several minutes before he turned around on the perch which I took as a signal to move on. As I walked away, the bird flew over to my shoulder and nipped my ear! I thought that he was testing me for ripeness! Glad he wasn't angry.
Good weekend all. Judy
PS Really pretty blooms!
This message was edited Nov 12, 2011 11:59 AM
JB--Your Shlum. looks like mine.....But it is still "salmon' or pale apricot to me...
I did not have ONE minute today to take new pictures of mine...
Have spent the day shopping for greens and stuff for the "stuffing" I need to get made by this Thursday.
I am also making "Sweet and Sour Cale" for our HD Th-Giving dinner,
Lots of cutting and dicing and slicing.....Won't have much time to do it in the next few days....
I work 9-6 both Tuesday and Wednesday. SO! Have to get all my cooking done Monday.
Having all the onions and celery and sausage diced ahead of time helps.
This week, on Thursday, is out Th. Giv. Feast at the HD. I always make sausage stuffing.
Will also bring "Sweet and Savory Kale"... It is always a TOTAL pig-out!!!
The actual Stuffing--making does not take all that much time....Making a huge batch!
Have to have some extra for our TH-Giv. dinner at Aina's...Only family I have here.
Mark will grill a turkey--as he always does--and it is awesome! I bring the stuffing and the wine.
Just the three of us.....Bah--Humbug!
Tired now--have been shopping and cutting and dicing all Day... Short on time to get all this done by early Thu4sday AM.
Gita
My Dave's Garden account has been acting weird all morning. I got several messages regarding connection being unavailable. After several attempts I was able to get here and read the past few days posts and written a reply. When I hit the send button it all disappeared.
I did want to thank JB for some possibilities of why one of my CC turned so yellow last year. Yes, I am probably guilty of both too much light and too much water. I did have the good sense to re-pot this summer and now the colored has been restored to a much darker green and thus looks healthier to me at least. Thanks for checking in to it for me.
Also, Coleup so glad that you seem to be on the mend. I know how those aches and pains are having suffered myself last week with a sore back. I too have had shoulders issues in the past and neither are much fun.
Cannot remember now if I had wanted to make comments to anyone else here or not. I have been involved the past hour or so working on my house plants. I had a few to re-pot and decided to do some other types of maintenance to a few more. Since the weather is nice at the moment, I plan to go outside and pot up a few things that need my attention before it is too cold to do anything.
Oh yeah, did want to thank everyone who shared pictures. I am envious.....none of mine are picture worthy yet.
Hope that the upcoming week is a good one for all.
Ruby
Mine are not blooming yet. They are however snug and comfy in the greenhouse and their buds are growing. Our cold snap lasted 1 night and now I could actually empty the greenhouse for a while longer. I don't think it will really happen tho. There are far too many plants.
Hope everyone is having a great Sunday.
A quick Hi. Busy day here on the farm, the crew worked all day getting the Christmas Store set up and I did all the posters and signs, etc. Next week I need to go thru the inventory and price the wreaths and make more cemetery cones.
I do want to tell Gita, you were so right, this baby opened today and it is a salmon for sure. The woman that gave it to me said it was orange with a pink center. Do you see any pink in this baby? I sure don't . The flowers are beautiful and I have dozens of cuttings growing from this one, so I am happy about that. I listed it on eBay and had to revise the listing to read Salmon. I need to make all new tags for it now also. Darn it, always something.
Of course, the price was right for me...........it was free..........so I can not really complain.
The orange zygo I have is more salmon to me also, but that is like the pink and magenta. It depends on who is selling it what they call it. I got it from Hirt and it just says Orange. I pray it was not a patented plant but the one I got was not marked patented. I try so hard to stay away from anything patented because of selling so much on eBay and the Market Place.
When i first tried to get on DG this morning, the site was down and I told them on FB I thought it was down. I am so glad someone else had the problem also.
I think that is about it. Must go and get something to eat. I am tired. Hugs to all. Have a great week. JB
Ruby, I am glad the info helped. It is really difficult to decide which it is until you find what you are doing to your own plants.
JB--How much do you charge on E-bay for a small CC. What stage does it have to be in?
How much do you charge for shipping? How do you ship the CC.?
I am not planning to get into business--just curious.
I will take some new pics of my salmon one. Haven't had time....Working 4 days this week and
have to make a lg. amount of stuffing and a "Sweet and savory Kale" dish for this Thursday's HD Th.-Giv. annual dinner.
WHAT A PIG OUT!!!! SOOO much food!!!
OK! I have a sink-full of dirty dishes--plus have to unload the Dishwasher.
Will try to check in tomorrow at some point....Gita
(I had unavailable mesages about DG this morning too, Ruby)
me, too, Ruby.
Ibartoo yes, way too many plants to move in and out more than once a season.
Gita, I'm curious about hwo JB ships her plants. Bet her ebay feedback is 100% positive, too.
That orange/salmon one you just posted has real jewel tones, JB. I like it.
How long does a bloom last? a day, a week?
Crit looking forward to some pics from your, too.
Critterologist, am I remembering that Joyana had a favorite cc color bloom?
Ruby, keep working your house plant magic. How are they liking their new digs?