Growhappy, maybe it's a Canadian Thanksgiving Cactus that emigrated from here to your country. Our Thanksgiving here in Canada is this weekend so the flower buds would be right on time...LOL...

On a more serious note, it is a wonderful surprise! Enjoy...

GH,

Mine, which is (white with pink throat) is doing the same thing now like it does every year around this time. You'll find each one will set buds and blooms when ready with not a lot of extra help from it's owner, just the cooler temperatures and shorter daylight hours.
I never give mine any special treatment, Christmas cactus included, never any dark room, or dry out for a month period in Sept method, it's just not necessary for them to set buds and put on a show!

I Only wish they would bloom forever!

Enjoy your flowers!
Billy Rae

Here is a link that might be useful: White Thanksgiving Cactus

greattd, what a beautiful plant. Love the color and delicate form. Sandy

LOLOL! Here we go again! I agree with Billy Rae, by the way. The cacti cultivars I seem to have collected over the years will bloom right on time no matter WHAT kind of environment they are in. But I will assure you that none of them receive a special dark OR a cold treatment! Some folks will swear that that they must receive so many hours of total darkness per night, or temperatures below such and such degrees. And don't turn those pots, 'cause the buds will jump off the plants! LOL

Say, Billy Rae....did your 'white' plant used to be really white, and gets a bit pinker as the years go by? That's been the situation with mine. Even the 'daughter' plants I've propagated are much pinker than their 'mother' used to be.

GH, you're SURE that those are flower buds, right? And not new stems segments forming? I don't think of the baby flower buds as being red. Just wondering.

GH, you said, "I walked 'outside'"..Like BillyRae and Rhizo states, there's no need for shorter days or cold nights, but I truly think it has something to do with buds. I notice Billy's plant is sitting outside, too.
My friend kept her Cc in a southwest window and it bloomed every yr; she didn't give it special treatment either, unless becuse it was sitting behind a thick drape in the window, it wasn't gettting excess light.. I just don't know.

Billy, I'm curious about the color of your CC too. Did it change color over the yrs? It's really pretty though. You're brave keeping it sitting on the ledge...Mine would be on the ground, what a mess that'd be..lol..Or did you place it there to pose for the pic? Toni

Thanks for the compliments!

Rhizo,

I use to have around 15 jungle cactus, wanted every color there was, ahhh, but it was getting ridiculous and I was running out of room, QUICK! I'm now down to a more manageable 5. Anyway, I keep four of them in a heated garage with winter temps staying around 45-50 degrees. The garage is attached to the house (not used for car) The cactus sit on a shelf in a north window and really bloom wonderful, every stem has a flower, sometimes two! A red one stays and other I have had indoors never bloomed half the amount the ones in the garage did, so I think the drop in temperature in the fall & shorter daylight hours does set the buds in motion. Flowers also last longer in a cooler room as well.
Mine has never been all white.
I'm not sure how true this is, but I have been told the more cooler the room, the more pinker the throats will become.

Toni,
I placed the cactus on the bottom section of a dutch door for the photo op, lol.Like I stated to Rhizo, it's always been white and pink. I have never seen mine all white.

By the way, the Christmas cactus photo I posted was taken last year, it's not in flower yet, but full of buds.

Billy Rae

Billy, sorry missed that sentence..LOL..I'm sooo tired, only slept 4 hours last night, words are blending together.
It's a pretty CC anyway..How's your 'antique' CC doing? Is it still around? What's its age now? Toni

Hey Toni,

I think the shorter daylight hours and cooler temps effect all of US as well, yawn, lol. It sure seems easier to stay awake better in the warmer months!
Yep, I still have the old girl, not sure of the "exact" age, but it's around 103 or so. I'll have to do ask some questions to see if I can't narrow it down more. Do you still have yours?

I also wanted to comment on bud drop with these plants. I did an experiment last year and turned one of mine when the buds were still small, less than a half inch long or smaller. Within a week, some of the buds were on the floor, yikes!
So I turned it back around the way it was, it dropped a couple more, then it stopped.
Later, when the buds where larger, 1/2" to an inch long, I turned it again and there was no bud drop at all.

When buds are small, they seem more fragile, still soft and still forming. When they have to swing their little heads around when the cactus is turned to get the light in the opposite direction, the neck of the bud "can" break and drop.
It seems when the buds are better formed, more hardened off and more pliable, the cactus can be turned without any problems with the buds. I turn mine all the time when they are in bud, but not until they are at least a 1/2" - 1" in length.

Billy Rae

The buds do drop when you move the plant, though I'm not sure at what stage of bud formation this happens.

I'm giving most of mine the cold treatment now, save a couple that I left inside. It will be interesting to see if there is a difference in flowering.

Rhizo doesn't do anything to her CC and they bloom faithfully every year. Yet there are others who do give at least the cold temps and get blooms every year. There was a very lively debate about this around this time last year. Wonder if that thread is still around???

GH

Billy Rae, your Thanksgiving Cactus is awesome! I don't think I've ever seen one with flowers in that colour. I usually don't keep more than one of those plants here due to lack of space but it would always bloom in its spot right in front of a north/east window. Our days get very short here starting in the fall so I've never had to do anything special for it, just let it be. These plants are amazing and always a wonderful surprise when they fill up with blooms.

Billy, you got that right about 'yawn' sleeping..this is the time to do so.
If you have time, why not show a pic of your older cc..it's lovely..I'll never forget the first time you posted it, how impressing.
I have some cc left, but the squirrels did a job on mine 2 yrs in a row..and I was so careful, ordering a pure yellow, white, and multi-colored, placing them in the same shallow, clay pot. Idon't know what I'm going to get this yr..
Every book I've ever read on CC states not to rotate a CC in bud..I think you have a point Billy, about not turning when they're young..I'll have to remember that.

GH where have u been?

Nature, the days are short now..too short for my liking..but just think of it this way..in 5 months it'll get bright earlier again..LOL..Toni

Thanks naturelover,

Yes, they can take up a lot of room!
The first time I saw the white and pink color combination I'm like ooooohhhh, I must have that! I looked and looked and looked, most places only sold the basic colors you see year after year like the red & fuchsia. I stopped by a greenhouse that I would normally avoid because of their very high plant prices but I needed to look for this one. I went back where they kept all their houseplants and I could hardly believe it, they had two of them! That greenhouse has since closed, so this one better not go get weird on me!It's a very slow grower though.

Toni,
I don't have an updated photo of the old cactus, so I'll have to post the older one again, although it still looks pretty much the same.
For some reason the old girl never grows real long down toward the floor like I have seen some do, it just grows outwards like a tree, kinda strange!

Here it's growing in I think a 12" pot

Billy Rae

Here is a link that might be useful: 100 + yr old Christmas cactus

Zygocactus do need shorter days/longer nights OR cooler night temps to bloom. This can easily be achieved by growing them outside for the summer as the days get shorter and nights get cooler as we head into fall.

Unheated rooms, rooms not lighted at night or windowsills that stay cooler than the rest of the room all also work to trigger the bloom cycle without effort on the part of the plant's owner.

Mine have been outside since May and all of them have buds in different degrees of development, one looks like it could bloom any day.

I haven't done anything different, they are on a bench in an area that gets bright light but no direct sun, I fertilize when I remember to and that's about it.

My Thanksgiving AND Christmas cactus are setting buds right now. They are still outside getting the cool/dark fall nights as usual. I love it!

Tom

When one keeps them outside or in conditions approximate to outside one doesn't need to do anything special to get them to set buds. Mother Nature does it for you.

Buyorsell, I agree 100%..just leave CC out until the first frost and they do their thing..The same w/Kalanchoes..Many of my Kalanchoes have buds..Oh, and this applies to Gardenias, too..because the nights have been cold and the days, semi warm, my gardenias are loaded w/buds. Mother Nature is something all right.

Now my 'Gold Charm' is setting buds! I'm still waiting for the other ones to follow suit. Get the hint, guys! LOL

One more observation:
I bought 2 plants last year during the "flowering season" for this plant. 'Thor Alice' gave me 2 measly blooms and 'Gold Charm' gave me nada. This year, the 'Thor Alice' was the first to load up with buds, though there are a couple of sections with NO buds?!. 'Gold Charm' followed suit and now has some sparse areas with buds. I did remove segments from it last month to trade and i wonder if this has any effect on the number of buds I'm seeing now???? All this to say, it seems that once they've been acclimated to your home for about 1 year, they bloom. Coincidence or not???

GH

Strictly coincidence I think.

I had 2 in my home that never bloomed for 6-7 yrs. & they were certainly acclimated.

It wasn't 'til the year that both my kitchen light fixtures died simultaneously & it took a couple of months 'til satisfactory new ones were installed that they 1st bloomed. After 2-3 months of no overhead light (at all) after dark in the winter did they kick into bloom. After that, I kept the windows open a wider amt in winter & that made the air cooler, helped them bloom more.

Yeah, cooking by the Light of the Refrigerator was loads of fun!!!

Well, I don't have any buds forming yet on either holiday cactus. I don't put any of my plants outside in the summer. That way bugs are not an issue. Unfortunately, for holiday cactus bud formation, it has been too warm inside the house.

That is all going to change tonight. Snow and frost are in the forecast and the north window, where they reside, will be getting colder now. Not to mention that the days are getting shorter. We probably won't have any blooms for Thanksgiving though.

Larry

Well Larry,

I'm w/ you in the Indoor Growing Only Brigade. It's just started to cool down here in NYC. I don't usually get bloom 'til btwn Xmas & New Years.

I'm going to try a different tactic this year & withhold water for the next month to see if I can cause bud formation to speed up. While the days are getting shorter here, it doesn't really get dark early here for another month ('til the time change). We'll see what happens ...

I am withholding water at this time. I haven't watered them since the last couple weeks of September. I fed them lightly then, as well. It's a lot of fun waiting to see what will happen with the Christmas Cacti!!!

GH

Here's another one who keeps the plants inside all year round! It's way too early for me to even think about checking the CC for flower buds, though. Mine will be in full flower sometime in early to mid-December, though.

I am wondering about one of my plants this year. It's a clone that I propagated several years ago, it has three identical 'sisters'. Or USED to be identical, lol. I transplanted this one into our pal Al's potting mix, and it has proceeded to double (or more) in size in the course of 6 or 7 months! Good grief. I'll be curious as to whether this will affect the flowering performance. The growth has slowed down, as I would expect it to at this time of year. (Thank GOODness, lol)

Al's potting mix sounds great!

Rhizo, doubled or more in size??? It sounds like the perfect magical soil that plants are sure happy to be in! Wish they sold that in bags here!

Billy Rae!

I am not exaggerating, either. And I don't mean that the stems simply grew in length...the whole darned plant looks like it's been taking steroids or something! The trunks have bulked up like crazy. Of course, we all know that that growth is directly related to the vigor of the root system in that potting mix.