Holiday cacti are a type of cactus that blooms around specific holidays, like Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.
They are generally low maintenance. They tolerate low light levels and — unless they are in bud or bloom — forgetting to water them now and then won’t do much damage.
“One of the reasons why they end up being so long-lived in our homes — and there are many families that have a Christmas cactus that their aunt grew or their grandmother had — is because they don't require repotting very often,” said Aaron Steil, Iowa State University Extension horticulture specialist. “In fact, they'd rather just be left alone. Many of them can be in their pots for many, many years without repotting.”
For the cactus to come into bloom, it needs 12 to 14 hours of darkness and needs to be kept at 60 to 70°F. If you aren’t seeing flowers on your Christmas cactus, the most likely reason is the plant hasn’t received enough uninterrupted darkness.
“If we are turning lights on in our house or have a lamp that's on a timer or something like that, that can actually either cause the plant to bloom later than it normally would, or not at all,” Steil said.
Try keeping your cactus out of an area with lots of evening traffic. If you have a spare bedroom or an office space that isn’t used at night, you could set your cactus up there. Then when the buds start to open, you can bring it out into a central room where you can enjoy the blooms for a week or two.
