{"id":3047,"date":"2019-11-14T00:09:35","date_gmt":"2019-11-14T08:09:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/pal\/pal-question-676\/"},"modified":"2023-08-08T14:24:35","modified_gmt":"2023-08-08T21:24:35","slug":"encouraging-christmas-cactus-to-bloom","status":"publish","type":"pal","link":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/pal\/encouraging-christmas-cactus-to-bloom\/","title":{"rendered":"encouraging Christmas cactus to bloom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>I have a Christmas cactus that is very healthy and blossomed profusely last November. I attempted to duplicate the same environment that the cactus had a year ago, but that wasn&#8217;t possible, and it didn&#8217;t produce a single blossom. The foliage is glossy with health, but I don&#8217;t water the plant for a couple of months in the fall to stress it a bit to encourage blossoms.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>I put the cactus in our dark, cool garage for the month of October just as I did last year. When I returned the cactus back upstairs in our house to its usual south window spot and watered it, it gave no blossoms this year. Why?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>I&#8217;ve looked online and in books for info on encouraging bloom, but I haven&#8217;t come across much about Christmas cactus. The cactus gets direct southern light all year except for the month when it is in the garage, which has only a north window. Is lighting the problem? The garage is about 65 degrees F, same as last year, so I&#8217;m thinking the temperature isn&#8217;t part of the problem, or is it?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>There may be a combination of factors involved in the lack of flowers on your plant. If it is a young plant, it may have needed repotting. It may not have been in the dark, cool environment quite long enough or soon enough. According to <a href=\"http:\/\/hortlib.kohacatalog.com\/cgi-bin\/koha\/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=10269\"><em>The Complete Houseplant Survival Manual<\/em><\/a> by Barbara Pleasant (Storey Publishing, 2005), the ideal conditions for Christmas cactus (<em>Schlumbergera<\/em> hybrids) are as follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Bright light from late spring to fall, and moderate light from late winter to early spring<\/li>\n<li>65 to 80 degrees from late spring to late summer, and 50 to 65 degrees during fall and winter<\/li>\n<li>Balanced fertilizer every 2 weeks from spring through summer, and monthly in fall and winter<\/li>\n<li>From spring through fall, keep soil lightly moist but in winter, it should nearly dry out before watering sparingly<\/li>\n<li>Repot young plants each summer; older plants can be repotted every 2 to 3 years<\/li>\n<li>Plants tend to have a lifespan of 5 to 6 years, but you can propagate them from stem cuttings<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/hgic.clemson.edu\/factsheet\/thanksgiving-christmas-cacti\/\">Clemson University Extension<\/a> has additional information on growing <em>Schlumbergera<\/em>. Here is an excerpt:<br \/>\n&#8220;The secret of good flower production involves temperature and dark (photoperiod) control. To flower, plants need bright light; night temperatures between 55-65; long nights&#8211;13 hours or more of continuous darkness each day is required before flowering will occur. Long nights should be started about the middle of September and continued for 8 weeks.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have a Christmas cactus that is very healthy and blossomed profusely last November. I attempted to duplicate the same environment that the cactus had a year ago, but that wasn&#8217;t possible, and it didn&#8217;t produce a single blossom. The foliage is glossy with health, but I don&#8217;t water the plant for a couple of months in the fall to stress it a bit to encourage blossoms. I put the cactus in our dark, cool garage for the month of&#8230;<\/p>\n<div><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/pal\/encouraging-christmas-cactus-to-bloom\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">encouraging Christmas cactus to bloom<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","keyword":[468,829],"class_list":["post-3047","pal","type-pal","status-publish","hentry","keyword-failure-to-flower","keyword-schlumbergera"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pal\/3047"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pal"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/pal"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"keyword","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyword?post=3047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}