The old red NOID Easter Cactus surprised me this morning. We are in the midst of the second nor'easter in a week and she was the first thing I saw this morning. What a welcome sight for a nasty day.

wow. Surprise!
Mine is in the basement, I better check it.

They are all coming to life here at the farm. By Easter they should all be in full bloom if I am lucky.
Red, Pink, Orange and White so far.

They are all coming to life here at the farm. By Easter they should all be in full bloom if I am lucky.
Red, Pink, Orange and White so far.

Forgive the double post.. Something is very wrong with the internet today. I am unable to keep a screen long enough to delete. Yet at the moment I am able to write this. Please delete the duplicate post if you can. Thanks Administrator.

JB , I picked up a lovely red easter cactus a couple weeks ago (I about snatched it right out of Rick's shopping cart! Actually, he put it back and I found it later, the best of the bunch LOL). The blooms have faded, but now it seems to be quite industriously putting out seed pods!

I should probably pluck off most of them, so the plant puts its energy into other things, but I wondered -- have you ever grown them from seed? I'm sure cuttings would be easier and quicker, but I'm intrigued, especially if I might get something other than the parent color (there was a tray of all the same color, so it's probably selfed or at least crossed with the same variety, but who knows, the genetics could still be a hodgepodge, like hostas).

Critter, I have never tried to grow Easter Cactus from seeds. In fact I have never been able to grow anything from seeds that survived more than a month or two, so I am not a good one to ask, but if I were you, and was able to, I would certainly give it a try.

I am wondering why these plants are going into seed this year. I have had several do that and I swear it is because they are hybrids. Wish I had the answer to that.

If hybrids, who knows what the offspring might be like? Then again, the seeds may not even be viable. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I kept 12 pods on the plant for now, will probably reduce that once I see which ones are plumping up best.

It takes quite a long time for seed pods to get ready to pull doesn't it?

True for most plants, anyway... no idea on Easter cactus, as this is the first one I've ever grown! The pods are just starting to swell at the base of the dried/spent blooms, enough that I'm pretty sure seeds are forming, but yes I think it'll be a while yet!

Exciting.

I don't know if you will get any hybrids Jill. How would they cross pollinate? Unless you transferred pollen from one to another manually with a smallish paint brush or such. If they do produce seed I would imagine it is from selfing.
To insure you get a hybrid you would have to remove the immature anthers from a flower and introduce pollen from another plant.

Sorry for confusion, I was thinking the fire engine red one I bought might be a hybrid. If so, its seeds could contain a lot of different genetic possibilities, even if the blooms were self-pollinated. Mine was most likely self-pollinated or pollinated by another of the same kind, as there was just one tray of plants, all the same color.