Three Types of Holiday Cactus

If you like the holidays, you can bring the smile of them throughout the year by growing and caring for your own holiday cacti. In this article, we’ll learn about the three species of holiday cactus and how to tell them apart.

What are the three kinds of holiday cactus?

Holiday cacti include Easter cactus, Christmas cactus, and Thanksgiving cactus.

The cacti vary in an intriguing way including when they bloom, the shapes of the flowers, the shapes of stems, and whether they are hanging and to what extent.

This guide includes an overview of each of these species and how you can distinguish them from other holiday cactus types or choose the right one for you.

Easter Cactus

The first holiday cactus to talk about is the Easter cactus. The proper scientific categorization is Rhipsalidopsis gaertneri or R. gaertneri.

As an endemic Brazilian cactus, the Easter cactus naturally grows at Santa Catarina and Parèna, reaching up to 4,300 feet above sea level at 1,300 meters. The plant grows in mountains, roosts on rocks or trees and thrives in subtropical forests with high annual rainfall.

It’d be a doubt whether people get that much attracted to the Easter cactus or not, if not for the flowers colors. The flowers bloom in colors that go from the pastel monochrome to outright rainbow: pink, lavender, peach, orange, red, and white.

Each day, they (the flowers) will blossom, they will close down in the night, and then they will go ending up staying there only for a couple of week after which they will be nowhere to be found.

But is that knowable, it is the Easter cactus then? A cactus named as this one blossoms post winter that is during spring as it comes to life March to May.

The best rule of thumb for the Easter cactus is to water it when its soil feels dry to the touch, about once a week. The plant must be exposed in moderate or diffused bright light that can stimulate beauty of yellow flowers (not full direct sunlight).

Normal household humidity does not concern the Easter cactus, whereas it can even endure cooler temperatures, about 55 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit (12 to 16 C).

The succulent for peace demands the correct home plant fertilizer that has equal macronutrients to include (10-10-10) applied every 30 days until it blooms after the pre-blooming period.

Christmas Cactus

The three classes of holiday cactus, each have their own unique appearance, but perhaps the most familiar to us is the christmas cactus, the Schlumbergera bridgesii. It belongs to the Schlumbergera x buckleyi genus, which happens to be a genus that holds only a few other types of species.

The Christmas cactus is also originally a product of the tropics rainforest areas that grow around trees.

Here, all these elements provide a naturally organic environment with a buffer of warmth, a play of light and shade, and sufficient humidity for its flowers to bloom.

As treats Easter cactus, Christmas on the heels it may also be produced other than just white flowers or white.

If that luck of yours is working well then you might really come across the rare bicolors, which are actually made of mingling of all kinds of colors within one flower.

Easter cactus got this nickname because it thrives in the spring years, so it is appropriate for you to think that Christmas cactus is born at drunk years of winter.

The best thing about this is that the longtime indoor yarders usually have a slow winter time to do. Many people, as a result, become bored of growing houseplants, not knowing what to do. The red Christmas cactus appeared so lively to my eyes.

A Critical Watering Point for the Christmas Cactus is when the top-third of the soil patch completely dries. Next, make sure your water that drains through the hole at the bottom of the pot and the tray underneath is wet enough.

Provide winter indirect light for Christmas cactusa and keep temperatures between 65 and 70 degrees.

From the start of spring to the end of autumn, put in regular balanced fertilizers for the plants every other week. Afterwards, and then prune the Christmas cactus in the early spring.

Thanksgiving Cactus

Another type of holiday cactus is the Thanksgiving cactus, which is also known as Schlumbergera truncata.

It is the common name for both Christmas Cactus and Thanksgiving Cactus. Although they may have the similar appearances, there are few differences between them.

Euphorbia chamaesyce is a bush that naturally lives in the southeastern region of Brazil, and it grows well in tropical and subtropical forests.

Also, it has the stem in the form of square segments with tweezer claws only on the upper (contact) side.

This itself explains why you could deem the crab cactus as a cousin, or maybe even an uncle, of the Thanksgiving cactus.

The blooms from the Thanksgiving cactus have an extended and plump texture on average inching up to three inches long. In it’s country of origin, Hummingbirds will provide pollination for the flowers of the Thanksgiving Cactus.

Perhaps the outstanding detail about the Thanksgiving cactus’s blooms is the multiple colors you can see. For instance; white, cream, orange, peach, lavender, purple, and red are the colors you can spot.

On the other hand, the Thanksgiving cactus starts blooming in the middle of the month of November, which is the same time when the first Thanksgiving holiday of the year is celebrated.

The cactus will produce beautiful flowers until somewhere in December, however, being mid-December the blooming process stops, but sometimes it continues until January.

Feeding a Thanksgiving cactus should be done on rich soil with good drain ability. Water the cactus once the soil is dry using an inch or two of water and then pour water until it comes from the drainage holes of the pots.

The soft light from a north or east-facing window is what favors blooming. The correct temperature for the Thanksgiving cactus should be maintained at 60-65 degrees.

Apply it to your garden in spring and down to the end of the fall. Subsequently, use a balanced liquid home plant fertilizer but make sure to follow the manufacturer’s recommendations for the fertilizer dilution. After two weeks, add fertilizer once.

How to Tell Them Apart

A holiday cactus chooses to make your indoor garden more beautiful and carefree, regardless of the type, you still have to learn how to make such a distinction for your plant need.

Here are key pointers to help you in differentiate the three cacti species.

Thanksgiving Cactus Has a Higher Chance to Bloom Than Christmas Cactus.

Though it has the name of ‘the Thanksgiving cactus’, which implies it should be recognized as a different plant not the Christmas cactus, it quite frequently pretends to be that latter variety.

For example, both cactus types flowers are in winter. The majority of people who love nature cannot quickly tell them apart from the average person.

Contrary to the name, very few Christmas cacti are sold there, while the Thanksgiving cactus is on the shelves, ready to be bought. This can be done intentionally to make you ignorant or they may also be ignorant of the same.

For me this absolutely happens occasionally, indeed intentionally, therefore, watch out. Such question would be simple to answer.

Why for example the Thanksgiving cactus blooms during the American national holidays will make it more interesting than that cactus, like the Christmas cactus.

The ‘Christmas cactus’ doesn’t come from places where it will survive a rough journey with other species, so that’s why this kind is delivered not as often as the ‘Thanksgiving cactus’ that can endure a little more and is also more hardy.

As cacti are defined as plants that retain moisture, the foundation of Christmas Cactus Stem Is Always Hanging.

One Easter cactus stays upright, but the other two, Thanksgiving, and Christmas cacti do hang. Inter alia, that is one more reason why differentiating them, in turn, is very difficult.

If you already know how it is growing before it gets more mature, you may have a better idea of the outcome. Then you can analyze the shape of stems by their angles.

Due to the Thanksgiving cactus’ modestly leant posture upright, it begins with a moderate pitch. In its progress age, it multiple stems will later keep hanging on it.

Unlike Christmas cactus, the stem of its triangular shaped flowers never sit erect.

They Are Belong to Different Stem Shapes

Every holiday cactus exhibits wide assortment in the shape of the stems.

Thanksgiving cactus consists of flattened stems, pointee-like perforations or cutting on their ends and survive in harshest of the conditions. The Easter cactus shows a wide stem in comparison to the shape of Christmas cactus which is rounder and squatter having no tooth.

I reckon, Christmas cactus’ stems turn out to be similar to those of the Easter cactus than the Thanksgiving cactus. Scalloped slopes, indeed with the smoothness of the surface. Actually, I will be flashing my pearly whites, smile and welcoming hand gestures!

They Have Different Flower Shapes

The laws of nature appear in its shape of flowers are as well that will assist in your search which of the holiday cacti you own.

To cite an example, the flower of Thanksgiving cactus has some petals upwardly oriented while the others are turned down, with the petals rounded.

The flowers are born out of the Easter cacti with a story-shaped petal that has a pointed edges. And you know for certain those flowers are those flowers, and not those Thanksgiving cactus flowers.

In the case of a Christmas cactus, it forms a flower in a bell shape. The flowers are almost like arrows, they have pointy edges and narrow petals.