Wow! Those are great looking blooms. What fertilizer and how much do you use? I would really like to see mine bloom once.

Thanks Kelly! I'm liking your avatar! That's one way to have blooms haha!
I use different ones - I used to use Shultz liquid drops but then someone told me Monstanto bought them so now I began using SuperThrive (which I've used for transplanted or weak plants for several years) Only began using this last summer so don't know if it'll be enough to get them to bloom. Beginning last year I bring mine outdoors, which they love! So I do get an initial bloom just because of the greater amount of light they receive outside. (I keep them in a bright shaded/mixed shade area.
Again thanks for this thread, it has me thinking that I just keep these too dry when I move them indoors. Outdoors there is enough moisture in the air that they're fine but once I brought them inside they have been very dry! Going to soak them in the bathtub and then begin watering them more!

Thughorse said:The coldest the plant was exposed to I would say was 40-45 degrees F. As the temperature plummeted I moved it to a warmer position, and then as the cold grew stronger yet I once again moved it to a place guaranteed to always be warmer than about 59 degrees F. It's current position also provides strong sunlight for 3.5 hours per day. The soil is very dry, i think the photos accurately document the current soil condition.

Hi I live in Gresham, Oregon Last year I tried leaving some cactus outside and it didn't work for me. The plant got stressed because of the cold and location being different. Segments got burn spots and drop off. Since you have a older plant it might come back with TLC! Try fertilizing with some nutrients (Compost tea liquid) instead of water! Good luck!

Update: plant dropped another rather large limb today. Hoping to see some fresh new growth now that there is less woody trunk instead of more illness!

Aw sorry to hear that. I lost a big chunk out of mine also - I think my problem (after people posted their responses to you here earlier) was not watering often enough during growing season! I hope you did/do take cuttings, I usually take them from the ends of the growth (several inches of plant material) and let it sit on top of the soil until I see roots then I bury it.

I think that may have been the cause of some of my issues as well. Thankfully, i took 20 or 30 cuttings so i shouldn't have a problem keeping the plant alive. I didn't leave mine outside, but the symptoms Purplebloomcactus described are very similiar to my plant. At this point, hoping to see some more life out of the original plant, but have cuttings just in case!

I feed my Schlumbergera Miracle Grow tomato plant food and it loves it. Most important though is to place it in a bright spot where it gets cool nights (in Phoenix, mine goes down to 40's but is protected under a porch). Mine bloom in Jan. through March.

UPDATE:
Some time ago, the plant did die, but thankfully i took several cuttings and now have several healthy young cacti growing like crazy in this weather!

Thanks for the update. I'm sorry it died, but so happy you do have cuttings of it. I think that's a good reminder for all of us who have old plants. We need to take cuttings and grow a few spares, just in case!

I need to take a photo but my christmas cactus all go crazy when I put them outdoors! They begin to bloom within a few days - right now it is totally covered in blooms!!

Hi I live in the hills of Gresham Oregon! I am 500 ft above Gresham main city ( flat land) and weather is cooler until July! I have to grow indoors for this reason! I can't really be in the zone 8a or 8b! Lucky, I have been in my house for 27 years to test plants! People in the hills of Oregon has to be careful where a cactus can be placed outside too! East placement can be heat exposure and may burn the plant in summer! This may sound weird this was my experience have in the Oregon area!

Yes that makes sense - I have mine next to a south facing wall and I'm able to put them out in April, this year March because it was so warm! I don't think we got any true frost this winter in Seattle, strange

Here is my picture both pots bloom intermittently throughout the summer

These are really hard to grow, in my experience. Mine are really finicky and go limp a lot.

Hello and welcome SlothfulLebanese (love the name!) Honestly I don't even think these should be in the succulent category because they require so much water when it is hot! I water mine every other day when they are outside and in their growing and blooming stage. Once I began doing that, they are good for me, rooting and growing easily!

Thughorse said:Hello,
I have a very old Christmas cactus that has been having trouble recently. It's normally bright green growths have turned darker green and seem wilted and slightly shriveled. Just yesterday, a limb fell off roughly 1/3 the size of the whole plant. About a month that ago I realized something was going on and repotted. The old soil was rock hard and had to be carefully broken up. After repotting I was hoping to see improvement but so far there hasn't really been any, and of the limb just broke off. I live in Portland Oregon which is currently very cold, but moved the cactus to a warmer spot in my home when I started noticing it's failing health. I water once a week, ish? I never have carefully monitored my watering habits but they have been consistent for the years I have owned the plant. If anyone can offer any advice I would greatly appreciate it, the plant has great value to me and I would be very sad to see it go.
Thank you,
Thughorse


PS I will try and highlight in the photo were the limb broke off... the bark is a darker color than the rest of the plant except for a couple spots of similar color elsewhere.

Hi I am from Gresham, Oregon and have a 25 year old rare Bristol Queen I need to repot because of back problems I couldn't left planter. I used a small Saw and splited in two planters! The last picture is a large root system (I rooted in Bull run water) You could use distilled water make sure your water is chlorine free. Make sure the the soil is a cactus mix, too!

Wow what a project - looks great though! And I love the photos too!

Hi It was will worth dividing This Rare plant. I have beautiful buds forming this year! I have been selling and trading. Whitton's greenhouse is sold out. I have this Thanksgiving cactus to supply buyer for years to come! When buds get bigger I will put pictures

So glad you kept it alive and thriving!!