JUDY: It's always exciting to see plants blooming in the winter. That pop of color is like a sweet surprise. And at this time of year, the Christmas cactus is a favorite bloomer. But there are a few steps to follow before you'll see those beautiful blossoms. I'm Judy Wagley, and this is “From the Ground Up!” I am at J & K’s Four Seasons Floral and Greenhouse in Shepherd, Michigan, with owners Jeff Wadle and Kevin Grangood. It's nice to be here with all of these plants today. Thanks for having me.
JEFF: Nice to have you here!
JUDY: Jeff, I have a Christmas cactus and it's alive--but I wouldn't say it's thriving. Would you give us a tutorial, maybe some steps for caring for our Christmas cactus?
JEFF: Sure. Christmas cactuses, Thanksgiving cactuses, Easter cactuses, they're all technically not a cactus, they're actually succulents, and definitely are not a dry plant as cactus would suggest. So you want to keep them evenly moist. Let them dry a little bit between waterings but never completely dried out. They like to keep a constant temperature and not very hot. Technically, well draining soil, something that don't hold a ton of moisture, because they're actually an epiphyte, which they technically don't grow in the soil where they're from. They grow up in the trees and the crotches of trees and such. So you kind of want to replicate where they would naturally grow.
JUDY: And the plants are native to?
JEFF: Brazil, tropical rainforests.
JUDY: So we're in Michigan, not Brazil. How do we replicate that?
JEFF: Higher humidity if you can keep it high, and misting does not hurt them at all through the week to keep their humidity levels up around them. The blooming part of it actually comes from our temperature and the amount of daylight they get. They are short-day bloomer, so they require starting about six weeks of darkness. And it keeps progressing. So we got three different cactuses that we're talking about here. Thanksgiving cactus or holiday cactus, they're the first ones to bloom. They take about six to eight weeks of 12 hours plus of darkness, to start forming buds and bloom. Christmas cactuses are like eight to 10 weeks of 12 hours plus of darkness. And then the last one to bloom is like probably 12 to 14 weeks of 12 plus hours of darkness. So the Easter cactuses bloom last,
JUDY: How do we know which one we have?
JEFF: So holiday or Thanksgiving cactus, under leaves are technically their stems, they have no leaves, they have a sharp point, up and down the sides that are very definitely a point-- four to six on each side--that is a holiday or Thanksgiving cactus. Christmas cactus has the same shaped leaf but minus the points, they're rounded humps that go up the side. And they're kind of a long, elongated thing. And the Easter cactus has that same rounded thing. But the actual leaf itself is more of an oval shape than the long square like the holiday or the Christmas cactus.
JUDY: I can see that it would be easy to get them confused a bit.
JEFF: Yeah, it is pretty easy to get them confused, especially the Christmas and the Easter cactus, because their leaves look very similar. So let's kind of succession thing. So darkness is very important. If you have your cactus in a spot where you're turning your light on at night, and they're exposed to a lamp light for three hours every night, they're not going to bloom. So they need to be kept someplace where they actually get that amount of darkness altogether.
JUDY: Would that be like in a closet?
JEFF: That would work if you have no room that you know isn't dark at night. Yeah, to make sure that they are covered with a box or something like that just to make sure they get that darkness to start the buds forming.
JUDY: So once those buds start to form, then what should we do?
JEFF: After you get your buds developed, you can move it to wherever you want to bloom preferably someplace cold, not too hot, because they'll drop buds if you change your temperatures too much. So if you have like outdoors on your porch all summer and bring it in at the end of mid-October, it's already went through that cooling thing. It's already started because we actually get our long nights this time here. So you bring it inside and hopefully you have flowers.
JUDY: That sounds great. Well, it is early December now. So are we still okay, will we still get blooms?
JEFF: Yeah, like the Christmas cactuses won't even start blooming until December. Holiday cactuses are blooming now and will they kind of all overlap, starting with the Thanksgiving or holiday cactuses which are blooming now. They will bloom into December before the Christmas cactus has ever started. So yeah, they will continue blooming for like eight to 10 weeks.
JUDY: Jeff, in your professional opinion, is a Christmas or holiday cactus a nice plant to have at home?
JEFF: Yeah, they're not hard to care for once you figure out the you know--- they're not a cactus and they don't want to be dry ever. You know, which is well draining soil, keep them evenly moist. They don't take direct sunlight, they should be good.
JUDY: It's always nice to have plants in the house, isn't it?
JEFF: It is. It makes things a little bit greener and happier!
JUDY: Well said Jeff! Jeff Wadle, one of the owners along with Kevin Grangood of J&K’s Four Seasons Floral and Greenhouse in Shepherd, Michigan. Thanks for having me here--and thanks for joining me today for “From the Ground Up!”
JEFF: Thank you very much for coming. We really appreciate it. Have a good time.
