I would keep an eye on the part dead center of the last picture. The yellowish green stem in particular. This could be a problem. It could either be the beginning of a corked stem or a couple diseases common to Holiday cacti. Is it soft or mushy? Keep an eye out for blisters on this stem or spreading of the discolor. If blisters occur it is Edema, which will kill your plant if you don't take action immediately. Edema occurs when the growing media remains moist and the greenhouse air is cool and moist. The plant roots absorb water at a faster rate than is transpired through cells causing the cells to rupture. This rupturing of the epidermis and the inner cells causes the raised, crusty appearance on the underside of the stems. This can be fixed, however. Fusarium wilt is also common and if it spreads, with no blisters this could be the problem. Fusarium is a virus which colonizes the water-conducting vessels (xylem) of the plant. As a result of this blockage and breakdown of xylem, symptoms appear in plants such as leaf wilting, yellowing and eventually plant death. Fusarium is used as an herbicide in South America, where Holiday cacti are native to. It is usually fatal to your plant, unless you can take cuttings of the noneffected areas quick enough. I'm not trying to scare you, but make sure you keep the plant's soil as dry as possible until you can repot. If it were my plant, I'd take a few cuttings as insurance, then either take it back, or repot in new soil and pot immediately after a good bleach bath.

Brad...did the cuttings have buds when I sent them? I don't recall seeing any, but I was so nervous trying to select decent cuttings, my mind was racing..lol. Last night I had to go to the store to buy sweet potatoes. We're having Thanksgiving dinner at my sisters; I'm in charge of Yams/Sweet Potatoes..Whatever the difference is. Anyway, before coming home, I decided to stop at four stores in seach of a variegated TC/CC. lol. Usually, TC's are availabe before Thanksgiving, but turns out, 3 out of 4 stores haven't ordered them yet. Only Jewel's, our grocery store had a few, all the same color, and no variegated. I spoke to one manager, (hardware store) asking if they ever have variegated TC's. She never heard of variegated, but suggested I phone the woman in charge of ordering, Friday. I don't expect a variegated to suddenly appear, but one never knows. It's worth a try. Cream and white are very pretty, but yellow and green are the best.. Toni

Like a few here, I'd much rather grocery shop than shop for clothes!!! I'm not a one-stop shopper though. My main shopping is done at the Commissary at MCAS Miramar, once a month. That's what we call "Stock up". Then we shop Wal-Mart's food section (limited; we don't have a Super Wal-Mart yet, and though they're planning one, the town criers are lobbying against it). I shop sales and fresh stuff at Stater Bros and Henry's (like a Wild Oats), but will only go into Vons if they have a really good sale on something I need/want (like the red seedless grapes they have today). Wal-Mart, Stater Bros, Henry's and Vons are all within a half mile of my house so gas is not at issue. If Albertsons has something good, there's one on my way home from work, but normally that's not a stop. To Claudia near Bakersfield: I hear ya. My DH and I used to live in a small town in Arizona with one grocery store. Decent grocery prices were 70 miles away, down in Tucson or in Phoenix. We used to make a once-a-week run to Tucson for a class I had to take, so we'd take a cooler along and stop at the grocery store before class. Also, my daughter broke a bottle of Worcestershire in one of our cars about 6 years ago. Whew! It smelled until the day she wrecked that car! DonnaR/CA

The plants known as Holiday Cactus, Lobster Cactus, Xmas Cactus, Sunrise Cactus, and many other names, belong to several genera of jungle cacti but can generally be treated alike. All are true cactus plants, some have small spines in the aeroles, and the flowers grow on last year's growth. These plants are generally segmented and flat, and roots form between the segments for easy propagation. These plants come from the jungles of Central and South America and therefore cannot store water like their cousins from the deserts can. Instead, they rely on almost daily rains, and enter a semi-dormancy period when the short dry season comes. For most of the species concerned, this dry season occurs in the short-day period so that the combination of short days and cooler nights leaves these plants drier but not dessicated. The soils of these usually epiphytic plants consists of decayed leaves, insects, pieces of bark, etc., generally anything the wind or birds leave in the crotches of the trees or on the ground below. In cultivation, the stone/gravel/sand mix for desert cacti is supplanted by peat/leafmold/loam for these. The difference is high organic matter, the similatity is that both kinds of cacti need well -draining mixes. Once the right soil has been given, it is important to note that full sun in the summer is not a good idea in most places, but that some sun is needed. When the days grow short (Sep/Oct in northern hemisphere), water sparingly, giving the plant about 6 weeks of a cooler, drier regimen. This period will induce bloom, especially if the diurnal range is in the 20-30 degree F range, something hard to do in the average home. Although some thought can be given to shading the plants from bright lights at night, this does not seem as critical as the rest period. More important is to shelter the plant from dry winds (heating ducts), changing the environment once buds have set, and ethylene gas (from plastics, propane heaters and ripening fruit). Any of these three conditions can cause the falling off of the flower buds, commonly called bud blast. The small roots of these cacti are not equipped to deal with drought, and the stems have adapted to living in the shade cast by their tree hosts. Given even a rough approximation of their jungle home they will bloom in a panoply of colors, in season, every year.