Rhizo & Toni , it was interesting to hear your opinions on this. The last 3 years I have grown my Schlumbergeras ( Thanksgiving Cacti and Christmas Cacti ) "as you grow house plants" rather than "as you grow cacti". So I have potted them up every year and also fertilized in summer ! This has resulted in a lot of growth and also a lot of flowers. Because I read "here and there" that these plants are supposed to be "potbound" , I'm sort of waiting for things to go wrong , because of the way I grow them ... What I can say for sure is that potting up has not reduced flowering ! New plants Fall -05 bloomed again for Easter -06 after beeing potted up in February. A 2 1/2 years old Christmas Cactus ( from single segment cuttings Summer -04 ) potted up in July -06 are now full of flower buds. I had not expected any flowers at all since I potted it up so late ( had first decided not to , because of this "potbound-thing" but changed my mind because the plant had grown so much ). Now the "all-over-effect" / the "general health" of the plant in the long run , when growing them "more intensivly" , that I can not be sure of ... So far it looks good , but it would be interesting to hear more about what you all think about this. To me this is THE QUESTION , when it comes to Schlumbergera !

Telling the differance between the holiday cactus is really confusing for a lot of people, usually people are refering to the same plant when they say Thanksgiving and Christmas cactus. These are what's available in stores between Thanksgiving and Christmas and have the wide leaf segments with jagged edges . But the true Christmas cactus are the ones with slim smooth edge segments and tend to hang down and these are what have been passed down through the generations and can seldom be found to purchase retail. Easter/Spring cactus are usually sold between Easter and Mothers day around here and the plant looks a lot like the real Christmas cactus but the flowers are very differant and they open and close up each day. My Thanksgiving cactus start blooming around the first of November and bloom through December than rest for a few weeks and than bloom again but not as many flowers and my Christmas cactus are starting to bloom now. It's still a bit early for Easter cactus to be blooming in most areas. I grow all three types and once you see them side by side it's really easy to tell the differance. Jo

Tommy/Manuel, I find that is also true here in the U.K. Sellers don't know what they're selling these days, and they probably wouldn't appreciate being told they've got it so wrong! I think a lot of the UK's confusion is mainly due to the fact that we don't celebrate Thanksgiving as no doubt you're aware, so here they get called CC's by default. To be honest, before I joined the forum I'd never come across the term Thanksgiving cactus as I too had been brainwashed into thinking there were just the CC, EC and the even lesser known RoseEC. types. My oldest plant that I've had for an age, was according to me a CC, but now I know better! Gill

Kyle -- I found that the coleus would wilt after just a few days in the gritty mix. It seems that the coleus roots like a moist mix, and I don't think the gritty mix could do that. To be truly happy in the gritty mix, I think the coleus would want water every 2 days, and I just can't water that often with my schedule and all the other plants I have. Once I placed it in the peat mix, it needed to be watered less often and does not wilt anymore. However, I have found that I am now battling with fungus gnats in the peat based soil -- which leads me to my original question -- is there a sterile mix that would be more water retentive than the gritty mix that may work? 100% turface? 75/25 turface/vermiculite? 75/25 turface/bark?