When we brought the house plants in from their summer home on the front porch, we noticed that both of the Christmas cactus plants were setting buds. Our "white" (or pale orchid) cactus has bloomed before around Thanksgiving, but it has also bloomed after Christmas and near Easter. When the plant is outdoors for the summer, it tends to set more buds than when I leave it inside all year. The first bud opened about a week ago and now it is a profusion of bloom.
A close up of the blossom resembles an orchid, and a double one at that.
Our large pink cactus that grew from a slip given us by Aunt Doris many years ago is also in bud but not in bloom yet. I had two smaller plants I had started but frankly, I forgot whether they had come from the pink or the white. Today I got my answer as one of the "babies" opened in bloom. Aunt Doris' cactus is into the third generation!
And yes, this is what you think it is. One of Mom Linville's amaryllis offspring has sent up a flower bud. They usually bloom at Christmas or in January, but I've found that the ones that spend the summer outside bloom early, like the cactus plants. This is one of many that I repotted this year. I think another one is even taller in the upstairs window. We have blooms galore to meet the gloom of rainy skies this week, and the warmth of an imagined tropics to face a turn to colder weather.
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