Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Today's picture/holiday cactus

I recently read of someone calling their "Christmas" cactus plants "holiday" cactus, which I think is a great idea. Right now mine are coming into bloom, and here it is almost Hallowe'en! They often bloom in the late fall/early winter, and again at Easter time, so holiday is what I will call them from now on.

I put two very close together so they almost look like one plant. The one on the right is a cactus I gave my mother on her last Christmas, 1972. It isn't very big, but it keeps right on blooming. It is kind of a peach color, while the other is a fuchsia, with a funny story. Tom was going to buy a cactus for the house and asked what color. I said anything but fuchsia. And this is what he got! In his defense it wasn't in bloom when he bought it. Ever since then we have called it the "anything but fuchsia".

I wrote about my mother's plant way back in the second month of the blog, with no comments because hardly anyone knew I was here!

18 comments:

  1. When we downsized to move here I sold my plants. Have since purchased more but no "holiday" cactus yet.

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    1. You must have had a lot to have had to get rid of some! This would be a good time of year to buy one!

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  2. What a lovely way to remember your mother. I don't think I've ever succeeded in keeping an indoor plant that long! My biggest success here is growing orchids.

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  3. I like the idea of your naming your cactus "Holiday". You are right in that they bloom when they want to. Yours look large to me and very healthy.

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    1. They aren't that large individually but look bigger right close together!

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  4. My mom has one in her kitchen window (it's fuscia, too!) and it bloomed last year. I love the pretty blossoms, but wish it would bloom more often.

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    1. I have no idea what makes some bloom more than once a year, and others not. Same with clivia. A complete mystery.

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  5. "Holiday Cactus" can live for such a long time. My Mom had one for years and years. When she passed away it came to my house to live. She used to let it live outside in the summer and then bring it in each late Fall. One year she brought a hitchhiking toad that had been hibernating in the flower pot. When we discovered him, he was sitting on the shelf next to the plant, blinking his eyes wondering how he got to where he was. His little Toady hidey hole was right there in the cactus pot.

    I had the plant at my house for many years and kept it inside all of the time. One year we suddenly had a mouse in our house. I could not figure out what that mouse was eating. No food boxes, or bags had been chewed into. No nests from paper products had been made. We tried to catch the mouse live, but accidentally crushed it as we moved the bookcase to try to put a plastic shoebox over it to catch it. A few days later I discovered where it had been nesting and what it had been eating...my Mom's Christmas cactus. Luckily we didn't get anymore mice in the house. It had eaten a lot of the plant leaves at the base and had chewed a tunnel into and under the plant. The original plant didn't survive, but I was able to take some cuttings and they grew for many years, but finally the plant that those cuttings made died. I am curious if there is a world record for the survival of one continuously growing Holiday cactus. I bet there are some that have lived 30 or more years.

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    1. What a story!!!! In 2022 mine will be 50 years. Years ago I delivered food to a woman via Meals on Wheels and she had an enormous one that was very old. Mine has never grown big, but it keeps on hanging on!

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  6. P.S. Your cactus pictures took me so far down memory lane that I forgot to tell you how pretty and healthy your cactus are. They are such graceful looking plants.

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    1. Thank you! They really look good so close together. They fill in the gaps each of them have.

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  7. I love it when a home sports many healthy house plants! Unfortunately, I have not a green, but a black thumb and manage to kill off any but the hardiest ones. Having said that, my orchids (both birthday gifts in different years) are well, and a pink azalea I was given by my favourite neighbour keeps surprising me by flowering at the most unlikely times, such as now, in October.

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    1. Wonderful about the orchids and azalea!! Such beauty.

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  8. Anything but fuchsia, that's funny. We have a cactus that blooms right on time for the Martin Luther King holiday. Not once have I ever had that day off from work, but at least I have a flower for him, a fellow Georgian.xx

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    1. Is that the only time of year it blooms? Pretty wonderful!

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  9. Mine is coming into bloom this week also. I love the new name: holiday cactus!

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