It does seem to be difficult to find a true Christmas cactus. The ones I see for sale marked Christmas cactus are actually Thanksgiving cacti. 🤷‍♀️

Exactly. Almost everything labeled as Christmas cactus or Easter cactus is actually a Thanksgiving cactus. Even professional growers mislabel them. I can understand amateur hobbiests, but the pros? Really?

What about Easter Cactus, are those true? Picked up two today for cheap, one pink, one red. I love the epiphytic cacti, all kinds.

Above are Thanksgiving cactus, I just leave them outside, they will get like this in November.

The actual bloom time isn't what makes them a Christmas cactus, its the species and cultivar. The same plant may bloom weeks or months earlier or later in different climates. I am trying to find the original Bridgesii cultivar, and it shouldn't be this hard, given how easy they are to propegate from cuttings. You clip a couple sections and stick them in dirt, with nearly 100% success rate. There is no barrier to availability, other than the mislabeling of Thanksgiving cactus as Christmas cactus. If I could find a cutting, inside of 6 months, I could make 100 plants.

Original Christmas Cactus

Scroll down to where it says Synonym. Buckleyi = Bridgesii

They aren't in commerce.

Which is why I'm reaching out to see if anyone has one. 😁

And I mentioned that there are some available on ebay if you search for Buckleyi.

The ones in eBay are the standard pink flower version, and I was looking for the white flower variety, which are a bit more rare.