John Hansen Photography

Christmas Cactus (wiki link) are a magnificent house plant. One of the few flowers that you can grow in house that will annually produce a wonderful show. They are available in a multitude of colors and are very easy to reproduce.

Referred to as November cactus by my grandmother (middle of photo) because they started blooming in November with their show long gone before Christmas. The flowering on these cactus are triggered by fall’s shorter days. Therefore the higher the latitude, the earlier in the fall these flowers will bloom, unless you supplement the sunlight with some artificial light. In my grandmother’s case that was Denmark, which is about equivalent to Churchill Manitoba in Canada. We live in Ottawa which means our Christmas cactus are in peak bloom right now (late November/early December).

My grandmother’s nickname for these wonderful plants was perhaps a bit cynical, however I think she can be excused since she was raising a family during the terrible 1930’s. She was just hoping to get some flowering plants in house to help celebrate Christmas during a time when green houses where scarce and their product very expensive.

My grandmother handed her green thumb down to my mother who has had one of her cactus produce over 600 flowers. These flowers I grew myself by simply breaking off a few pieces off my mother’s plants and placing them in vermiculite for a few months until roots developed.