Zygo cactus

I picked up a new Christmas Cactus last week because mine, even though it is flowering, is still very small. This is much bigger and a different color. It is in full bloom now and gorgeous. I can't seem to be able to take photographs of it that I like but I'll keep trying.

Rosmarinus Officinals

I also picked up this rosemary bush. I hope I don't kill it: it needs a lot of water and I have already stressed it because of lack of watering. But if it survives, it will be fun using the rosemary in new recipes.

The new teacup pot for the mini-shamrock

Had to have this new pot! II like the green and blue combination here. This plant was repotted twice in two weeks because I didn't like the first pot. But I can't kill this shamrock. Even when it seems to die from lack of water, it revives immediately when I water it again.

The jelly is Amy's apple caramel jelly made from our drops. She traded it for one jar of John's apple chokecherry jelly, which they are crazy about.

I hope you are all having a wonderful, long weekend!

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Schlumbergera bridgesii

We recently learned that the Christmas cactus at the library may be fifty years old. It is very large and has thick woody stems in the pot. This year the cactus bloomed for Christmas, and since I have a very small, young Christmas cactus that did not bloom, I decided to learn how to get it to bloom for next Christmas

Fortunately, the book I was currently reading, A Field Guide to the Familiar: Learning to Observe the Natural World by Gale Lawrence, has a short chapter on Christmas cactus. She says that the scientific name for the cactus is Schlumbergera bridgesii. If you search the Internet for this, you find that there are other species of plants called Christmas cactus with different scientific names. I am going to stick with her designation.

Ignoring for now the interesting information about Christmas cacti that Lawrence has in her book, I'll only quote her paragraph on getting the cactus to bloom for Christmas:

.....you must slow down your watering in September, giving your plant just enough water to keep it from shriveling and allowing it to rest for six to eight weeks. If you have a room that doesn't get used after dark in the fall, you can station the resting plant there. Otherwise you'll have to cover it each evening to assure it at least thirteen hours of uninterrupted darkness. If you can't control the light, perhaps you can manipulate the temperature. At a cool 50-55°F (10-13°C), the Christmas cactus will produce buds no matter how much light it gets.

December 3, 2010

I moved my cactus into our bedroom because it is unheated. I did not control the light and I did not moderate the temperature — and I have no blossoms. Next year I will do the right thing.

December 15, 2010

Gale Lawrence retired from UVM and developed two web sites. They have not been updated since the early 2000s, but are worth looking at. She also has links to other natural history books and sites. Visit her at The Naturalist's Almanac and Book of Days and at The Vermont Almanac. Lawrence is the author of four books and two of them are at the Barton Public Library.

My Christmas Cactus Set on Flickr

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