"Dennis Brown" wrote in message m...
Can you believe it is the end of May and our Christmas cactus is blooming
with more buds coming on it each day? Can anyone tell us why this is
happening... we don't mind but are very curious about it.


Den

I've always heard that the way to get Christmas cacti to bloom is to
not water them. I don't imagine the cacti know what time of year it
is but simply respond to the lack of water by trying to produce seed.
FWIW, my experience is that a lack of water does indeed force bloom in
Christmas cacti.

For another example of "don't you know what day this is?" behavior in
plants, I traveled from NC to northwest Florida back in April.
Passing through small towns in southern Alabama (eg. Opp) and northern
Florida (eg. Florala), I was amazed at displays of hundreds of
amaryllis blooms. Most were in garden beds but, in some cases, they
were even used as foundation plantings with spectacular results. They
certainly didn't look to be hybrids and were as red as a harlot's
dress. Quite impressive plants when "au naturale".