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Care of Cactus
Christmas cactuses produce amazingly beautiful flowers on plants with gracefully arching stems. They are popular plants for decorating during the holidays. When you get them home, place your Christmas cactuses near a bright, sunny window and keep the soil evenly moist. It is quite common for these plants to drop flower buds when you get them home, but there is little that you can do. Still, many blooms and buds will hold on, and their great beauty in shades of magenta, red, pink, orange, gold or white make their purchase worth it.
Holiday cactuses will reward you with blooms every year for many years if grown correctly. After all the flowers have dropped off, allow the soil to become fairly dry between waterings and keep the plant in a bright window. An east or west window will provide plenty of light. They also will thrive on a porch or patio in a semi-shaded position during the summer.
They are triggered to bloom by long nights and chilly nighttime temperatures in the 50s. The easiest way to get a plant to bloom again is to place it outdoors in October (if you have been growing it inside). Leave it outside and allow the progressively longer and cooler nights to initiate buds to form, but do not leave the plant out on a night when a freeze is predicted. Once you see little flower buds at the tip of the branches, move the plant into a bright window inside and keep the soil evenly moist.
Check out this video on the Christmas Cactus!
The LSU AgCenter and the LSU College of Agriculture