Thursday, November 9, 2023

Thanksgiving Blooms

 




When we no longer are in danger of a frost in the spring
I take my cactus plants outside and put them on the picnic table.

I leave them there all through the spring and summer 
until the nights start getting cold in the fall.

When they come in the house,
I put them in one of the upstairs bedrooms where it is relatively dark.
Then when they begin to bud I bring them downstairs.
I brought this one down last week.

It is in need of being repotted after the first of the year 
because there is only one side of the plant that is blooming.

The story behind it is that this was started from a few leaves off of my 
mother-in-law's cactus that she had had since Strongheart 
was a boy.  
Hers sat in the kitchen and was huge but it just never bloomed...
until...
the Christmas after she passed away.

I asked my father-in-law if I could take a few leaves from it so I could try and start a new one.
And it has bloomed every year since. 
It always blooms early
and most years by Christmas it is not longer blooming.
But we always think of Mom.

"the rain is over; it is gone.
the flowers have appeared in the land."
Song of Songs 2:11b-12a

I have a correction to make.  I originally had this post titled "Christmas Blooms".  When I visited my friend Granny Marigold I realized that what I have is not a Christmas cactus, but rather a Thanksgiving cactus.  She has a picture of how to identify the Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter cacti .  It definitely makes sense because it always blooms in November but not in December.  Thank you, Granny M for sharing that bit of information.



12 comments:

  1. That Thanksgiving Cactus has a wonderful story behind it! :)

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  2. Well I'll have to go see what it is that I have. Mine isn't blooming yet. Thanks for that tidbit!

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    1. You are welcome. I wouldn't have known either if it hadn't been for Granny Marigold's post.

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  3. What a lovely way to remember her. Please show us an update after the new year, when it’s repotted.

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  4. I just learned the very same thing from GrannyM. :)
    Liz gave me the plant last year and just now it has started to bloom.

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    1. I was really thankful to have the information that Granny M shared. Enjoy your blooms!

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  5. I have a Chirstmas cactus that blooms around this time and I love it. What a lovely story!

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    1. I think they are so pretty. Thank you for your kind words.

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  6. How pretty! I guess my Christmas cactus is really a Thanksgiving cactus as well. Dan brought it in about a week ago when they were calling for freezing temps. It is in full bloom. I've simply got to take a picture if it. Funny, mine is from a piece or two broken off the large plant that belonged to his mother.

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    1. I'm looking forward to repotting mine after the first of the year so it can have fresh soil and hopefully next year it will be full of bloom again, like yours is this year. That's special that yours was started from a couple of slips from Dan's mother. Their memory continues on.

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