Sharon's blog: December 1: Christmas cactus, Magic!

I'm so excited. It's blooming!!

It started out as two or three tiny green pieces of foliage last April. I thought it would never make it.

A friend heard that I'd lost the one I'd had for many years, one that was my mother's and her mother's before her. I think that plant was about as old as I am.

Anyway. It simply died, probably of old age.

So she gave me a couple of pieces of one she had.

I'd had my mother's schlumbergera since '95. I'm not a very good keeper of plants, particularly old ones that are already set in their ways. Even so, I kept it alive for 15 years, though it rarely bloomed and hardly grew at all.

When I was given the tiny pieces of foliage back in April, well, I had my doubts but I couldn't say 'No' to a gift giver and besides you already know how I feel about plants: the exact same way you feel about them.

So . . .

I placed my bits of foliage in a pot on my kitchen window sill and ignored it pretty well for awhile. Soon I began to see some tiny little sprouts coming from the pieces of foliage and though I was afraid to touch it, I continued to watch. All summer long, I watched and I watered sparingly and I waited.  It continued to grow and multiply.

Then I read Songofjoy's article and in it she said the Christmas cactus should be placed in a room that gets only natural light starting about September. The natural light cycle would encourage it to bloom.

Well now. I have several rooms that aren't used much so I placed the little plant in one of them and closed the door. It was sometime in September.

When my daughter came to visit around the middle of November, I realized the little cactus was in her room and needed to be moved if it didn't want to get lost amid the debris of a daughter.

I moved it back to the kitchen counter.

Like magic, I began to see little buds appear, first one then two and suddenly I counted five! Oh boy! I was so excited. I hadn't killed it, it had grown lush and full considering how tiny those little bits and pieces were in the beginning.

So now, here it is. A real live Christmas cactus. The blooms are sparse, but who cares! It's grown and multiplied and it's blooming.

I'm so excited!

Thanks, Song, for the great information in the article. Without it I probably would still be whining about no blooms!

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