Schlumbergera truncata, the yellow-flowered plant, on 2-23-21, #782-3.

Hello everyone! I hope this post finds you well. The temps are much better now after our cold snap and spring is right around the corner…

I may not always be the most observant fellow but I do usually notice when something is weird. I have the two Schlumbergera truncata that flowered in November on the kitchen windowsill. The others were in my bedroom on the new plant shelf, including the Schlumbergera russelliana and Schlumbergera gaertneri. They are all doing great except the Schlumbergera gaertneri which is having its ups and downs. I think Mrs. Wagler took the cuttings at the wrong time of the year. ANYWAY, I notice the plants on the kitchen windowsill more than the others, especially when I am at the sink. I guess I hadn’t been paying as much attention as I thought because on February 23 I just noticed two HUGE buds on the yellow-flowered plant. I guess I didn’t notice because I never expected that to happen in February, especially since it flowered in November…

Schlumbergera truncata (Holiday (Cactus) on 2-23-21, #782-4.

Hmmm… Mid-February was kind of rough with miserable cold, snowy, and cloudy days. I suppose the cloudy days triggered the yellow-flowered plant to bud. The red-flowered plant didn’t do it and neither did the Schlumbergera in my bedroom. I decided to move the plants from the bedroom to the kitchen windowsill to get more light and see what happens. Remember, I mentioned before that lowering the light and temperature will trigger them to bud any time of the year. The kitchen is also cooler than my bedroom…

Schlumbergera truncata (Holiday Cactus) on 2-26-21, #783-1.

On February 26, one of the flowers on the yellow plant had opened…

Schlumbergera truncata (Holiday Cactus) on 2-26-21, #783-2.

For me, this is a first for a Schlumbergera truncata to flower in February…

Schlumbergera truncata (Holiday Cactus) on 2-26-21, #783-3.

Right next to one of the fruits from the hand-pollinating experiment… The two fruits on both plants are steadily growing. As you can see, the old flowers hang on to the fruit whereas they just fall off if they weren’t pollinated.

Schlumbergera truncata (Holiday Cactus) on 2-26-21, #783-4.

Then today when I was taking photos, I also noticed there are tiny buds on the red-flowered plant as well. I took about 20 photos of that plant, back and forth from the kitchen to the computer several times, to get that photo! Finally, I got one that was good enough. 🙂

All the plants are doing pretty good, well at least the cactus and succulents… Almost everything is dormant or semi-dormant. I have had some issues with mealy bugs or some kind of white scale on, um… the new Aloe. The supposed to be ‘Blue Elf’ that wasn’t a ‘Blue Elf’ got them first then the new Aristaloe aristata was LOADED. It passed them on to the old A. aristata. I sprayed, cleaned, repotted, etc. several times. Giving plants a bath with LOTS of leaves like the A. aristata is quite a chore and they absolutely hate it (especially this time of the year). A few other plants got a few, but they were all in quarantine so most of the succulents were fine. Even if the Kalanchoe luciae had mealy bugs it would be impossible to tell with all the chalky bloom on its stems. They are fine as far as I can tell. The ‘Blue Elf’, which looked more like a ‘California’ died first, then the old Aristaloe aristata. That wasn’t funny… Then the new Aristaloe aristata was LOADED AGAIN. I am not sure how many times I sprayed it but it was getting very frustrating. How was I going to keep the other plants from continually getting bugs if I couldn’t get rid of them on that plant? SO, partly because I was still a little upset that the old A. aristata died and partly because I was just fed up, I threw it out the back door… Enough is enough! I have grown plants for a long time and never had any bug issues to speak of. I know where they came from… The other three of the five plants from the same source are perfectly fine and were not in the back bedroom…

ANYWAY, other than that, all is well… I am almost finished updating all the plant pages in phase 1 then I will go to phase 2… The wildflower pages… 🙂

I hope all is well with you in your neck of the woods. 🙂

Until next time, be safe, stay positive, stay well, be thankful, and GET DIRTY!