A Thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever..........

[knife7knut]

Going to try this again;last time my computer bounced me.
Today as I was in the kitchen making my coffee and oatmeal and gazing out the window,I glanced at the Christmas cactus my wife keeps in the window and noticed that it was blooming.This is a somewhat rare occurrence for this plant and I usually see it when the flowers are going to seed.I never realized the blooms were so brilliant.

The story behind this particular cactus is that it was given to my wife as a small clipping by her mother who in turn had gotten it from her mother and so on.My wife has never had too much luck keeping plants alive and for some reason this one would seemingly die out only to regain life some time later. As my wife couldn't bear to throw it out when this happened it has stayed in it's place in the window.

I'm not sure how long plants can survive but this one must have been around for awhile as my mother-in-law died in 1969.Seeing it flowering today reminded me of her and how she cherished it and all plants.Sort of a piece of her living on with us. Anyway here are some pics of it;I hope you enjoy it's beauty as we do.

[jerryd6818]

Thank you for posting that, Ray. It has been so long since I last saw a Christmas cactus blooming, I had forgotten how beautiful they are. Great story.

[big monk]

As Jerry said,____Great read Ray****____we too have one, given to the wife by her mother,before she passed,____ it just keeps blooming,year after year !!!___we have sprigged this one several times and passed it on to family members__again thanks for posting__Monk

******Christmas Cactus,enjoying the morning sun,coming throygh the den window !!!!!!!!

[RobesonsRme.com]

Beautiful plants. Thanks for posting.

Sarah's mother had one in an old dishpan and it covered the whole pan and hung almost to the floor when sitting on a 3 1/2 Ft stool.

We took it with her to the assisted living facility in 1997. She got ill and died in December, 98. The plant was in full bloom when she was taken to the hospital.

The people at the center told us the temperature in her room went really high and killed the cactus.

I've always been a bit skeptical of the truth of that.

I'm no expert, but Mrs. Hewitt was. She kept her cacti on a screened porch and they were basically exposed to the outside temps. She said some were Christmas cactus and some were Easter cactus. She had one of those at the center and it "died" too. The Christmas cactus generally bloomed in December and the Easter cactus bloomed in the Spring, right around Easter.

Keeping these in the house messes with that blooming schedule. They respond to a yearly cyclical temerature change. That might explain why your cactus seldom blooms.

Ms Sue's cacti bloomed every year, one at Christmas and one at Easter.

The Christmas cactus was the same color as what you all have shown. The Easter cactus was an orangy coral color.

My wife certainly hated losing those. A pox on somebody if they actually stole them.

Charlie Noyes

[Miller Bro's]

Keeping these in the house messes with that blooming schedule. They respond to a yearly cyclical temerature change. That might explain why your cactus seldom blooms.

I have had one for years inside and it blooms twice a year, once around Christmas time and then in the summer

[RobesonsRme.com]

See? I said I wasn't an expert.

Charlie

[knifetime]

You might say my wife has a green thumb.Hear are 3 of her plants.

[TripleF]

Beautiful! Great heritage too!