Coaxing Christmas Cactus...

What steps should be taken to ensure a blooming Christmas Cactus this December? Ward Upham, at K-State extension offers these tips:

• Stop fertilizing in the fall (now). In order to form buds, only water enough to keep the stems from shriveling.
  
  
• Do not re-pot the plant at this time. It is best to keep the plant a bit potbound. Move to a bigger pot in spring only when you haven’t repotted in several years and/or the current year’s blooms were fewer in number than the previous year’s.
  
  
• If possible, let the potted cactus spend each summer in a shady spot outdoors. Leave it there until frost threatens – which in our area will often mean enough exposure to 50° to 55° F nighttime temperatures for the plant to start producing flower buds.
  
  

For indoor-only plants (or those that must come in before forming buds), put the potted cactus in an unused room, in a cardboard box or under a dark cloth, to ensure that it has 12 hours of complete dark for 25 consecutive nights. Day and night, keep it at temperatures between 59 and 69 degrees."

After bud formation, the cactus will need another nine to 10 weeks to complete their flower development and bloom, after which you can resume its normal feeding and watering.