How to Make Thanksgiving Cactus Bloom on Time
24.08.2024 - 07:08
/ balconygardenweb.com
/ Editorial Team
Without those vivid-colored blooms, your Thanksgiving cactus will look dull. Don’t worry; we have excellent gardening tips to make your cactus bloom earlier, on time, and beyond.
Thanksgiving cactus usually blooms from late fall through winter, right on time for holidays and celebrations. Flowers appear around Thanksgiving, which is the fourth Thursday of November! The blooming period lasts around 7-8 weeks, sometimes longer.
If you’re lucky, your Thanksgiving cactus flowers will fall off and return again in spring under favorable conditions, including hours of light and night. Autumn and winter months have shorter days, followed by colder and darker nights, which trigger the flowering.
Many people confuse these two because they look very similar. It can be tricky to tell the difference between a Thanksgiving cactus and a Christmas cactus if you don’t know what to look for.
There are two ways to differentiate: Look at the flowers! If they are long and tubular with fused petals, you’re looking at a Thanksgiving cactus. On the other hand, if its blooms are shorter and have more rounded petals that are separate, you’ve got a Christmas cactus.
But what about the specimens that don’t have the flowers yet? Simple. The Thanksgiving cactus has pointy, claw-like projections on its leaves, but those on the Christmas cactus are less sharp-edged. They’re scalloped, like a teardrop, and that’s how you tell them apart.
Your Thanksgiving cactus will do well under indirect light. Remember to place it in a spot with less than 12 hours of indirect sunlight, preferably a few feet away from a window. And use a sheer curtain to filter the light.
The best spot would be an east-facing window that receives gentle morning sun and then indirect light