This may look like the same photo from Wednesday. It is the same plant. But I took the photo so that the tag was visible and readable in the photo. It says “Holiday Cheer Christmas Cactus.”
Hmm. I am not sure about you, but with the exception of our Canadian friends who celebrated their Thanksgiving on Monday, I am not quite ready for holiday cheer. And I am sure not ready for winter!
So what’s happened to my zygocactus? Nothing, really. Sadly, they’re not terribly good at flowering for any particular holiday. They tend to flower on their own schedule and their own time. In fact, an article that I just wrote about using plants for holiday entertaining suggests that one doesn’t try to use these particular plants if one needs them in bloom for a party–they can be terribly unpredictable.
What I did differently this year was I put them outside for the summer (or what passes for summer here in the frozen north:they were outside from about mid-June until just past Labor Day). After that, they came directly into the house.
The one that’s in flower is in a northeast window. But lest you think that this is an anomaly, here are two that are in a northwest window. As you can see, they are not far behind the first.
Still, I am not planning to use them for any holiday parties and I have numerous plants, some of which show no signs of budding. I am hopeful that this means a long bloom season for these plants!
Gardendaze 
$24.95?!?!?!?!
No, I didn’t pay that much. But almost as much. The place where the plant comes from, Logee’s, is one of those destination plant centers. I am very lucky that it’s local (in Connecticut) but I still mostly mail order anyway.
In fact, just this weekend, they are hosting one of those “plant influencers” who has her own YouTube channel and all that. She’s bringing up a bus full of folks from New York City.
I was talking about her and another instagrammer who wrote a houseplant book at my house plant lecture Monday (this plant was with me). She is the real deal. He–although he’s got way more followers and takes lovely photos–doesn’t seem to have any relationship with plants. His entire discussion of the prayer plant family is something like “I can’t keep them alive for more than a year.” Sad.
Karla