I have a Christmas Cactus. There is nothing unusual in this as many people own the same type of plant. It began life as a tiny single shoot intended as a gift, but never given out. Instead, it sat on a living room end table for several seasons before it decided to flower. As the name implies, it is supposed to bloom around the Christmas season, and mine did just that for the past two years. The rest of the time, it remained a simple green flat leaf plant sitting in the sun hoping for an occasional drop of water or two to keep it going.
Well, last year mine chose Thanksgiving to burst forth with blooms of vibrant magenta – lots of them. I figured that for some weird reason, the plant had simply gotten out of synch with reality and was trying desperately to survive as best it could given my track record with greenery (not good). So it came as somewhat of a surprise that it bloomed again at Christmas, just as fully and vibrantly as it had before. But apparently the plant wasn’t finished yet, because just a few days ago, I noticed blooms on it again, right in time for Easter. My Christmas Cactus is, it seems, is turning into a holiday cactus.
I’m really not sure why. For several years, it has sat in the same spot on the same table by the same window and been given the same lack of care and inattention as always, and yet it has bloomed on all the major holidays so far. Maybe this is its cry for help; maybe it is starved for affection and a really good fertilizer. But that puts me in a real predicament – do I go on doing what I have been doing and let it bloom to death crying for some ignored need, or do I pamper it more and perhaps never see another blossom?
I’m going to have to think about that one. In the meantime, I’ll just enjoy the show and wait for the next major holiday to see what happens. I wonder what it will do on Memorial Day, or should I expect something for Mother’s Day? (I do expect something – though not necessarily from a plant…)
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