Bud drop can caused by a few different reasons. Water your cactus thoroughly, then let it get pretty darn close to dry before watering it again. Turning the cactus when buds are still under an inch long, as well as over or under-watered. Also, a newly bought plant can lose buds just because it's been moved to a different environment. Jungle cactus like it cool (50-65 degrees) to set bud and when in flower, plus, the flowers will last so much longer in a cooler room than in a heated one, so you could try moving it to a cooler place and put it where it will receive bright indirect light. Sun is not needed for budding or flowering.It just might be it's too hot where it is now. Even set in a north window in a cool room will suffice. Billy Rae

Hiya Cyirra and all, Congrats on the blooms! They're really, really lovely! I don't have any of the yellow/gold types so it's really fun to see yours. What conditions are you growing yours in? I still have the one in these older pics ('Dark Marie')--it's in my den right now and is budding up nicely (and making a couple of early blooms each week too). Here's a pic of one of the early blooms from this week, it will make its larger flush in a month or three. I've gone a bit overboard with Christmas cacti over the last couple of years, but they're so durable, and they love it here (indoors) and they bloom regularly for me (although often not until mid to late winter) so why not, right?? Here's a pic of a small rescue plant I got two years ago as an utterly wilted MESS with only five segments. Some bright light and occasional water have helped it revive. Happy gardening indoors and out everyone, and tomato, please post pics of yours when they bloom! Grant

I left mine out with the last cold front, it got down to 34 with a windchill of 24. I didn't bring anything in. They all did fine, lots of buds and blooms. BUT, if it's going to be below freezing you might want to drag them in. I bring stuff into the house but it's not heated downstairs unless we're down there so the temps can get to freezing but I've never had any plants damaged. The really tender ones, like the seabeans that I sprouted, won't take any cold so I bring those up where there is heat. Stay warm and good luck! I'm sick of winter! Isn't the reason we live in the south to avoid freezing? Tally HO!

Good luck with your Thanksgiving cactus! Love to see pics when it blooms! I too use tomato fertilizer on them for the last year, so far it's worked well, good blooms last year. Normally I get 3 blooming periods out of them no matter what fertilizer I'm using, the main difference seems to be is that the plants got much larger with the tomato fertilizer. It's low 40's here in the mountains often at night already so I have to do the inside late night out early morning thing to get good repeat blooms here for the next week or two or whenever I run out of time for it. Your a bit warmer than us so you should be able to keep them out for awhile longer with no problems, also probably no in out lol. Maybe yours will get some buds before you bring them in, mine get buds usually within two weeks or so after I bring them in. I simply can't leave them out until they do, it gets too cold. I keep all of mine in a partly shaded northeast window (lots of bright light but only a little direct sun), house is normally 50-60% humidity all year or higher, it's cooler near the window - probably 60 to 65 degrees, so yours should do well too where you keep them. I've found it can get a bit dark in some areas of the house by early January in my corner of PA so I tend to shine a cheap drop light with one of those curly 13 to 20 watt compact fluorescent bulbs (equivalent to 60 to 75 watt) on any plants that seem to need some additional light. Usually 8 to 10 hours a day has been quite helpful to them if they need it. Cheap to run too. Not enough to make anything but my african violets bloom but enough to make some of the other plants a little happier. Makes it so I can put some plants in some unexpected places when I run out of room!