I've threatened to get rid of them for a while now, because they haven't bloomed for a number of years. But my husband wouldn't let me.
In fact, this past spring one of my plants lost a lot of its limbs. Large sections of it just fell off and I thought the entire plant was going to die. I put both my plants out on the front porch and hoped for the best.
Thankfully, the leaves stopped dropping off and they seemed to like being outside on the porch.
I've concluded what I had been doing wrong.
I was taking too good a care of them.
For one thing, I think I was watering them too much. I tend to forget to water my plants that I have on the porch, so that was good for them.
We kept them out on the porch until we felt the nights were getting too cold for them to be outside. Instead of bringing them in the house, I brought them inside and put them in the garage. I placed them on top of our old chest freezer we had out there and kind of forgot about them.
Lo and behold, my husband called me one Wednesday when I was down at the Senior Center where I volunteer (My cousin and I do crafts on Wednesday), and said, "Guess what? Our cactus plants are going to have flowers!" Well, I didn't believe him until I came home and saw them for myself.
The first picture is the one that almost died.
As you can see they are full of blooms!
I left them in the garage for a while and brought them in one at a time to see if the shock of bringing them into a heated house would make the blooms drop or not. We keep our house fairly warm in the winter.
So far they are both doing fine.
So my advice for getting them to bloom is keeping them in a cool and dark place. Apparently our unheated garage was the perfect place for them to thrive. Cool and dark all night.
Now I know what to do every year.
Quit taking such good care of them!
Keep them cool and in the dark and don't over water them.
Do you have a holiday cactus? Which one do you have? Does yours bloom?
Oh I'm so glad the plants are blooming for you! I've always thought they bring joy in the winter after all else is gone. I did have one years ago. I'm wondering what to do with my geraniums, bring them inside or store them in the farmer's insulated shed. Research has indicated, let them go and buy new ones next spring, but they are so healthy now and I remember Mama putting her pots under the house. Then when spring came she brought them out and they revived.
ReplyDeleteThank you for giving me an encouraging comment. I probably will blog again ~ someday.
Hi, Charlotte. I'm not sure what to do with your geraniums, I've never kept mine over the winter, but who knows they may keep if you put them in your shed. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteMy cactus' are blooming now too. The biggest one is full of buds and will probably open at Christmas time. I no longer put my plants out on the porch. Two years ago a groundhog chewed on them. One is barely surviving, the others have recovered. I don't overwater them when they're in the house. In fact, I need to mark on the calendar when to water them so I don't forget! I potted Amaryllis bulbs yesterday so hopefully I'll have them blooming in February.
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