Two of our friends have Christmas cactus plants

 

This is Barb and Henry’s.

 

This is JoAnn’s.

 

They’re both on our deck.  We babysit each of them all summer, then take them home where they belong in the winter, and they bloom.  We have them all year while they’re plain, but not when they’re at their best.  We’re led to believe they look something like this in December:

(not my photo)

 

So Judy decided we should have one of our own that we can keep all year-long.  She tried to buy one, but none of the nurseries around here carry them.  She took matters into her own hands and planted some starts from the existing stock.

 

Now we can have our own Christmas cactus.  However, when researching propagation she discovered that we don’t actually have Christmas cactus; with those little sharp edged leaves we all have Thanksgiving cactus!  There is a slight difference.