Holiday Cactus General Discussion Part #5

jojoe--

Are you talking about Epis or Thanksgiving cactus? I ask because you talk about "1 new leaf and others just coming out".
Made me think you meant a CC.

Because Epis (Epiphytes) live high in the tree canopies in rain forests--they do not get a lot of light.
So--keep your Epis in filtered sun..maybe AM sun is Ok. Not the hot afternoon sun!

I don't think Easter Cactus or X-Mas cactus have deep roots at all. Kind of near the top and shallow.
So--it may take a long time before they were "root bound". However--I think they do like being a bit "tight"...
JB? What do you say?

I have a decent-sized Easter cactus--but it only had 4-5 blooms on it this year. Maybe because it was inside too long?
I was going to cut it back after it bloomed--but now I want to wait and see if it may bloom some more
to make up for the "not enough". If it doesn't--I may take some tip cuttings.....Hate to mess with it too much.
It has taken years for it to get to this size. Don't want to set it back.

This is all it bloomed--inside. It is now outside.
Pic. #2 is from June last year. Much better!

Sally---Did your Baby Easter cactus bloom for you yet?

Shes addng leaves segments but no flowers yet

The greenhouse is now cleaned up and ready for me to start all over again. I had a week of cleaning and throwing things away and rearranging because I can not do it all at one time due to other things going on. I must get Gita
s plants repotted today for sure. They are happy but they need to be done. Jo, yours are ready to go into pots too.

I sold some things over the weekend but nothing exciting. Just "stuff". I will talk to you all later. I must get moving. Sunday around here this time of year is the same as any other day unfortunately. Have a great one. JB

Hello everyone,

In yall's opinion should i repot this easter cactus?Judging from the size of the plant & pot or is there other things i should go by to repot it.

Jo

NO! It looks good to me. Good proportion plant to pot.

Funny, how yours is so upright--and mine spills over the pot edges.
Yours seems very robust and firm. Very healthy looking.

Gita

I personally would not touch it at this time. Looks really good and healthy. JB

thank you all very much,

The reason i was wondering was i'm having to water it daily.Every morning it's dry to the point of the dirt pulling away from the sides of pot,but it's not a cake.A trick my moma told me to look for when the cake is done it pulls away from pan LOL

It is outside in the shade most of the day except it does get some early morning sun.The temp have began to hit 90* so such a small pot would dry out from heat i guess and it does have new growth.

I have been looking for some super thrive since last summer and when walmart started stocking for spring they actually had some.I had heard to much about it i wanted to try it out.Every plant i water with it in starts growing new growth any plant i'm having a hard time with perks up.It says it's not a fertilizer to add to fertilizer.Does anyone ever used this product or know anything about?So far i haven't seen any bad side effects of using it now & then.
Jo

JOJOE-
Home Depot started carrying SUPERthive this year. It is a 70yr. old product.
NOT a fertilizer--but a conglomorate of vitamins and minerals that help plants root and thrive.

I bought some just recently. Can't report on anything yet--but I have heard all the "hype" on it and
believe in it. As little as a 1/4tsp per gallon is all it takes to work wonders.

Google SUPERthive and you will get a lot of information.

Here is one of the links.... http://www.maibanbonsai.com/superthrive.aspx
Gita

Jo jo, cute Easter cactus!

I just got a white flowered Easter cactus so whenit's not good gardening weather outside I do a little research on my new plants and their requirements. As far as your questions are concerned here is what I found on the Matts Landscape Easter Cactus Care page
http://mattslandscape.com/rhipsalidopsis_info/

"When Do You Repot Rhipsalidopsis ?

Repot your Easter Cactus using fresh soil mix at least once a year to have deep green sturdy stem growth followed by several large bloom displays. Repotting should be done in mid-late Summer to Fall right after blooming has finished. If your Easter Cactus looks to have bad color in between this time repot it, repotting usually cures many ailments such as bacteria or muck in the bottom of the pots there planted in. At a minimum you Easter Cactus should be repotted at least once a year."

Note, he says should be whereas on the Thanksgiving/Christmas Care page he suggests repotting for them once per year be optional as long as plant is looking good and putting out new growth. Seems that Easter cacti prefer a bit richer potting medium than tc or cc and need their soil renewed...just one of those subtle differences.

If the soil in that pot is pulling away from the sides, I would say the soil is played out and should be replaced just like any plant mama would trust their instincts to do. Again, I'm just learning but I don't think you would hurt anything by changing out the soil it came in and possibly putting it in a slightly larger and/or deeper (taller) pot so there is more matter in the pot to absorb the water you give it which doesn't seem to be happening now . When soil shrinks away from the sides of the pot mor roots are exposed to drying conditions of heat and wind. Poor baby. I bow to those with more expertize than I. Be sure to keep your plant out of any direct sun and hot temperatures above 80 degrees until it recovers from "repotting (two to three weeks?).

You also asked when new cuttings/plants can be exposed to sun , so I will again quote Matt

" Never expose rooting or newly rooted Easter Cactus to full sun, only established plants, since without any extensive root structure present they are unable to draw up water from the soil for their water needs on hot days."

Hope this helps.

Judy

Judy--
That is an awesome link! I will, surely, bookmark it!

Also--it makes me want to re-pot mine. It has been in that pot for..maybe...3-4 years.
I wonder id I could add Mushroom Soil (I have plenty) to the new mix????

Otherwise--I will just go with my favorite--MG Potting Mix.

Gita

What is the fertilizer that comes in little balls that look like insect eggs? I can not remember the name. GRRR. JB
You just lay it around the plant on top of the soil.

Osmacote? "Dynamite" also has slow-release fertilizers.

Gita

Do you use them for any of your houseplants Gita, or are they mostly used for outside nursery plants?

Hmmmm.....

I have to say I use these mostly for outside plants. Always add to the potting mix as I concoct it
to pot up something.
Today--I will un-pot my old Angel Wing Begonia--toss the old roots and keep the nice new ones.
I will be adding Osmacote to the soil mix--for sure.
Same when I root-prune and pot up my old Brugs. They are begging to go outside.
Trying to get to things as much as I can. Have 2 BIG beds to dig up yet and amend, and plant.
Four of my smaller beds are all done, as well as my biggest pot of asst. plants in it.
This pot will sit on my decaying birch stump.

Maybe--if I am re-potting a lg, houseplant--I may sprinkle some Osmacote into the soil mix.
But--I seldom re-pot houseplants. I only have 3 large ones. The rest are small or in HB's.
Top dressing with this time-release fertilizer is easy to do.
OK! back outside--before the rains come. We had T-Showers overnight.

"Aimee" is doing OK. Had a few leaves yellow --pulled them off. Nothing serious.
She has been in and out with all this crazy weather. Her usual spot now is on my patio table in filtered light.
I AM keeping her watered......

Gita

Gita

Aimee will loose leaves off and on but as long as you keep her watered she will be fine. Any buds????Mine are full of buds and ANTS . My one big one has ants on one or two buds and I sprayed the heck out of them today again.
Ants and mealy bug make me crazy. Get rid of one and get the other.

I bought some Miracle Grow Shake and Feed Plus Moisture Control All Purpose Continuous Release Plant Food.
That is what is recommended for houseplants if you do not use the liquid. They do not recommend Oscomate or whatever it is for container plants.. LOL Just put that in your little book of things no one but you would give a hoot about. I have a file like that. I print stuff and stick it in the file and never can find it when I look for it. Must go. Have a good evening. JB

Hey, Crit

Happy Birthday Hope you are having a fabulous day and I wish you a year of calm and peaceful gardening weather and lots of wonderful flowers and plants to enjoy.

I guess this thread will be a little quiet while our holiday cacti and epi relatives take their repose out in our gardens. Wishing you all a great summer til bring in time comes round again. Hope all those cuttings grow fat and sassy!

Judy

Hi Judy and the same to you. Happy Birthday to Crit also. I was just thinking about coming on here and talking about taking cuttings and planting new cuttings. My GH is full of new plants for this coming Sept; and I have just removed the heater and have taken all the other plants outside to get some fresh air and hopefully it is warmer air.

I have not taken any of my CC outside because I am having all my decks floors redone and I did not want to move them twice. In fact, I am debating because I have no real shady place for them and I do not think they like that hot sun all day. Can we discuss where you all put yours when you put them outside in the summer?

Hope someone is still around, I will get lonely over the hot days. LOL JB

Hi JB : ^)
I am lucky that I have shade trees near my house; I hang or set many houseplants under them. I see and enjoy them and also remember to water them. I do keep sun to semi sun lovers on the sides of my wide deck steps. They get several hours of morning to mid day sun, and pm shade. I guess I am very lucky to have such a nice place for my plants.

You are very lucky sally. We have hundreds of trees on the farm but they are Christmas Trees...LOL.....and the few others we have are not near my end of the house. I was thinking of putting some of mine under the one dog wood tree we have but then the slugs will take over. Not good. So,. maybe I will just keep them inside and keep the AC turned up higher. these decisions are really taking up a lot of my free time. LOL. JB

JB--

I put my baby CC's right outside my front door on the "stoop"....
My house faces NE--so they never get any sun. Just bright shade. perfect!

In the back yard--I have the two lg. Maples providing dappled sunlight in the afternoon.
Then--I also have my covered patio--under which I keep a lot of my plants.

However--most of my potted up plants for the Swap are outside the patio protection and get a
good amount of sun--except the Brazilian Plumes and the Monkhshoods--which by now are about
a foot tall. So are the Chrysanthemum Pacificums. I pinched out the growing ends on those.
They will bush out better.....The Foxgloves are going gung-ho as well. Seems everything is trying to
grow--but asking for "freedom" to do so. It has been a long time since I have had all these potted up!

The cannas are the slackers! Just seeing little spikes lately. Now I will bve able to, actually, tell which
are the dark-leaved ones--and which are the Green/Orange ones.

The Brug cuttings from last fall are all alive--but most of them have stopped growing.
I am sure they NEED serious potting up to thrive.
All the new cuttings I just took are rooted--no growth to speak of yet, though.

OK! Gotta go outside for a bit. Been cleaning my laundry room all day- What a mess!!!!

Tomorrow is my weekly "haul" in Outside Garden. Will have all the little ones potting up a flower for their Moms.
Hope enough people knew about that. I did make flyers--but they were not ready until Thurs. morning.
NOT my fault!!!! Management slacked......

Gita

Gita

My Dr. Suess Brug cuttings you sent me are doing pretty well. I have them outside now and am getting ready to set the pots into my "new" flower bed DH made for me!

The Mother's Day potting by children went over VERY well!
A BIG success....
48 kids did their thing. Ages 2-early teens. The little ones needed "selective" help....:o)
I brought the empty 6" pots and Bell donated a couple flats of annuals
(I chose Wax Begonias--durable).
At home, I made harts on a stick for the kids to put in their finished pots.
Went through a LG broken bag of MG potting soil.

Anyway--JB--Mostly I wanted to show you one of my baby CC's blooming pink.
These were from the broken off pieces I gathered off the rack of CC's at Lowes.
I new most of them were pink--but hey also had some other colors on there.

This is a uniform, gentle pink. The bloom is small--but then so is the plant. It is in a 2" pot.
I should have more of these. Right now they just have tags in them with ???? on them--and "Lowes".

Have a look-----

How cute are they? I have never had a year when so many Holiday cactus were still blooming at the end of May.
This is gardenia time for me and I still have an orange zygo cactus blooming. They just wont quit. LOL

That potting session with kids sounded like a really fun thing to do. You are to be complimented for your efforts and time. I hope you are appreciated by your boss.

I am not an annual fan as you know and this year I made up my mind my annuals will be few and far between. I planted six large containers (18 inch) and four 5 ft. long wooded containers and that is it. I have four hanging baskets also. It took me all morning to dead head and fertilize and water. I know now why I do not like annuals.
The hanging baskets took longer because they are a yellow and pink petunia and the weather has just been so hard on them. This is my last attempt to make them look nice. I am about to pitch them. I am tired of this weather. 90 deg. in May....really. Wind has been so bad anything hanging is taking a real beating.

Must get busy folding laundry. See you all later. JB

JB---

I just wanted to show you the Gardenia you sent me. Don't get too excited.....nothing much has changed.

It is still green and looks OK, but the bud never progressed past what it looked like when i got it.
Yesterday I touched the bud--and it fell off. The plant also has not made any new flower buds.

I have kept it watered, but maybe I am just not giving it good enough light.
I could move it to better sun--but i am afraid the squirrels will dig into it.

Nothing is wrong with the gardenia--it is just that it seems "frozen in time"....

Here are a couple of pictures....
#1--the flower bud
#2--The whole plant. Looks OK!

Is there something I should be doing????? Gita

Hi Gita, Mine bloomed this year but the blooms turned brown in a day or so on the bush. I have only taken a few cuttings because I think the stress of the greenhouse being so crazy this winter has affected the plants. My one little one that is the age of yours bloomed but only one bloom and the other two have not even pushed a bud. So, I do not think it is you or anything you are not doing. I even fed mine and it did not help. Hang in there, maybe we will get lucky and if the weather pemits, these plants may survive the stress.

I have a question for you. I am making an inventory list in ATP and in doing so, I have separated the plants into different catagories. I keep the CC in Schlumbergera trancata list and the Zygocactus trancata , etc. I submitted the one Peaches & Cream Zygocactus as a Zygocactus trancata and they rejected it saying in their database it is a trancatus. I think that is the masciline of trancata and if they have the male in the database, why now put the female in which is trancata. BESIDES,,,,I do not know if Cacti have genders. Help me work this out in my mind please.

Do you know anything about trancata vs trancatus?

JB--

Sorry! I have never gotten involved in the "innards" or Species, or genders of plants.

Thanks for the reassurance that my gardenia is just having a "tizzy-fit"
It looks great--but has NOT moved on one bit from the size or state that I received from you.

Gave it a mild Seeweed fertilizer today. Also--plan to keep it in a bit better sunlight.
I always worry that the frolicking squirrels will just play with the pot and tip it over.
They seem to enjoy doing that....

My chair cushions are often all over the floor of my patio. I have watched them from my BR window...
They crawl under them and over then and just seem to have a "ball" playing with the,
It is hilarious!!!

How are you doing?????? We do not see much of you any more.....
Of course--IF you are spending time on "OTHER" Web Sites....Ahem....there goes all your energies....

Hope you are enjoying this wonderful weather.......Love, Gita

Lookie here!!!! This is my Red Epi!!! Gonna have a show to envy!!!

Gita

Hey I am full of envy on that baby. My Disocactus x hybridus looks so much like that. That is the one I inherited and did not know what it was, I had it identified on Cactiguide finally.

I have been on eBay mostly because I opened the store again and I need to keep plugging away to sell stuff in order to make the expenses. I also have been planting cuttings, etc. and my greenhouse is full. I even have some of your stuff to put on the inventory and I identify it as Gita's whatever. I give credit where credit is due. When it is all finished I will let you take a look. LOL Your plants you gave me look good. Besides, I do not know the names of anything people send me so I use their names.
I am also trying to keep up with my pot cleaning and the bird cages and the house, you know the drill. The new dog is getting on just great. My oldest cousin just had a 3 way by pass last week and he is now in a nursing home in PA.
Nothing gets easier. He is 93. His sister is 91 and she is on the phone all the time wanting to know what is going on. She forgets she calls me and she calls again. Oh God. I hope I do not loose it like that.
Off topic here, sorry. just have my hands full here on the farm just now. JB

JB---

You are NEVER off topic!!!!
This is YOUR Thread and you are allowed to talk about anything you want.

I deal better calling my Epis #1----or #2.....

The one about to bloom all over is #1. All that means is that it was the 1st to bloom many years ago.
Epi #2--just bloomed for the 1st tome last year. I sent pictures all over the place.
She is about to bloom again. There are MANY buds forming.
It scares me a bit=--as I keep thinking it is their "Swan Song". Not used to such lavish displays of blooms....

Perhaps--they have reached a state of total root-boundedness and are now blooming...

I am happy! Don't quite know why?????? Not much in my garden impresses me---or, maybe I do not allow it to...

Love my Epi blooms, though. Such a rare treat.

My little Christmas cactus fruits have hung on and now turned bright pink. I'll have to look up what to do and when with the fruits.

Sally, I thought someplace we discussed that because I had one on my old fuchsia plant and I watched it. I remember laughing because it was like a year or more before it could be planted. Darn it, I wish I could remember what I did with those notes. If I find them I will certainly let you know.

Gita, you just have a big green thumb. Pot bound too maybe, but big thumb. Have a good day. JB

Gita, You sent me the cuttings this past Spring and they all look great. I want to put them on my inventory as Plants from Gita, on ATP and I would like to have pictures I could use for them. You sent me the pink and the salmon.
Can you email them to me to my email addy please.
Jberger431@aol.com

I will be sure the pictures are not used without your permission. Thanks. Gotta run. JB

JB--

I am NOT concerned if you use my pictures--permission granted! Any time....I am nor proprietary....

You want the Salmon and the Fuchsia/white? Is that what you call pink?
OR--Is it the small pink one that just bloomed??? Kind of uniform, medium pink.

The pink one I got from collecting broken off pieces from the rack at Lowes.

Will wait to hear back for sure--then i will send you the pictures....OK?

Gita

Geeze Gita, You had it marked PINK on the tag. I just assumed that was the color. I guess maybe we will have to wait until they bloom. LOL

JB--

I may have sent you some of the broken off cuttings I collected.
There were only pink CC's on that cart--so i assume that the broken off pieces were pink.

The only "pink" CC that has bloomed for me is the little one I posted above on my May31 post.

Will send you the pics of the salmon one and the little pink one too. Choose the one you like best.

Gita

Here's a link for CC from seed.
http://www.rainyside.com/archives/BreedingXmasCactus.html

But honestly I don't know that I am this interested! Long long process.

That is why I gave up on the seed bit. No thanks. I may not live that long. LOL

Gita, got the pictures downloaded fine. Thanks so much. I will let you know where and when they go up.

Gita, the salmon starts you sent me are doing great and putting on new sections!

A big wonderful Happy Birthday to you JB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hope your summer has gone well.

Lets catch up with each other's doins everybody, and how our holiday cacti are enjoying the great outdoors, Mine look like they hve about doubled in size! Arms are over a foot long! Yipes.

Thanks for the Bday wish, not sure how you knew, but it is so nice of you. I have had a wonderful day so far, it began early this morning like 2 a.m. when my friend from Alberta Canada emailed me and it came thru on my cell phone next to my bed. Then my son, daughter, step kids, etc. all called starting at 6 a.m. My kids try and see who can be the first to wake me on my birthday. I do the same for them and it is really fun except you do not get much sleep that morning. Funny how you do things when your kids leave home for the first time and it becomes a tradition.
My plants look like they are going to outgrow the pots before I sell them. They are so big. Those Salmon of Gita's are really monster plants,. Beautiful and healthy looking. I have some Tea Rose Begonias that are super great looking and healthy as can be. Everything is doing well but now I noticed for the very first time, mealy bug on my house cactus. Never saw that before and there are no other plants but cactus in the house just now. Where do those little devils come from? They do not like moisture and I think because the houseplants do not get watered as much when the AC is running and they tend to dry out more in between watering, that is what happens..the mealy bugs return. I can not water more or they will rot without humidity in the house. That is the problem with my plants, I have too many and they are all over the place in different environmental settings.
I have decided not to cut the Aimee Gardenia this year. I think both the mother plants need a rest. I took one or two cuttings and they did not survive. That tells me something for sure. On the other hand, the Jasmine Sambac Maid of Orleans is thriving and the cuttings are doing well. Sorry off topic here. Got carried away.
Must go and get some things done before I go to dinner with my daughter and son in law. Birthday Treat. My kids and their spouses bought me a 32 inch TV for my bedroom. Now I can see it without my glasses and I love it. My son is in PA so they will not be going to dinner with us, it will make it too late for them and they both must work tomorrow. I am rambling off topic again. What a day. Love you all. Later, JB