FLORIDA CHRISTMAS CACTI

26 November 2019 Remember how beautiful Jackie Ike's gift of HOT PINK Christmas Cactus was last year? Well, this year it's even more beautiful AND EARLIER in the year . . . here are the first buds to appear . . . 29 NOVEMBER 2019 30 NOVEMBER 2019 Despite its reputation and its slogan of The Sunshine State, Florida DOES get cloudy and cold(ish), so when the winds rose and the temps fell, I sheltered and covered the cactus & the amaryllises Jackie gave us last year . . . . . . this went on for about two or three weeks. Now, in Late December, they only have to be moved so they can follow the sun and stay out of the rain. Which is why I bought this cart; I sometimes feel like Eliza Doolittle of 'My Fair Lady' as I trundle my cart of flowers from sunny area to sunny area in the lanai. 12 DECEMBER 2019 Anyone care to count the buds?? Note how many double flower buds there are on single lobes this year. As you probably know, cacti can reproduce from cuttings, so when a lobe drops or is knocked off the plant, I just stick in in the dirt and wait for it to take root and grow; about 90% of them do so. This plantling had fairly-large buds on it when I gave it to my friend Patricia (DogMom of my foster Cairn, Bailey, f/k/a BUSTER BROWN IN FLORIDA on 28 December. These three plantlings I gave to my hairdresser Linda, whose family heirloom Christmas Cactus died the same week her sister did.

  PAGE 1e