Thanksgiving Cactus Care: How to Get Your Cactus to Bloom

Native to Brazil, the Thanksgiving cactus (Schlumbergera truncata) is a low-maintenance house plant that blooms in or around November. You can spot a Thanksgiving cactus by its serrated green leaves that resemble crab claws and red or magenta, tube-like blooms that look like a flower within a flower. Contrary to its name, the Thanksgiving cactus isn’t a true cactus but an epiphyte—a plant that lives on other plants. In their natural habitat, Thanksgiving cacti often grow from trees.

The Thanksgiving cactus, Christmas cactus, and Easter cactus are succulents in the Cactaceae family. Stores often sell these holiday cacti under blanket names such as “Christmas cactus” or “holiday cactus.” The main differences among these cactus plants lie in their leaves and bloom times:

• Christmas cacti bloom in early winter. The true Christmas cactus (Schlumbergera bridgesii) has scalloped leaves and blooms in early winter.
• Easter cacti bloom in early spring. The Easter cactus (Rhipsalidopsis gaertneri or Hatiora gaertneri) has rounded leaves and blooms in February or March.
• Thanksgiving cacti bloom in late fall. The Thanksgiving cactus (Schlumbergera truncata), nicknamed the crab cactus, has claw-like leaves and blooms in late fall.

Caring for a Thanksgiving cactus is relatively easy—you’ll likely need to tend to it once a week. Here are a few care tips for keeping your plant healthy before, during, and after its bloom time:

1. 1. Use cactus soil. Regular potting soil is often too dense for plants like holiday cacti, which don’t need to retain much water. Cactus soil—a potting mix of perlite, moss, pumice, sand, and gravel—drains water well and dries quickly.
2. 2. Water when the soil feels dry. The Thanksgiving cactus doesn’t require much care aside from keeping it watered appropriately. Unlike other cacti, which thrive in dry conditions, the Thanksgiving cactus favors Brazil’s wet, humid rainforests. To successfully care for your holiday cactus, use the “soak and drain” method: Water your cactus thoroughly over a sink and allow the excess water to drain out the bottom of the pot. Wait for the top layer of soil to dry out before watering again. Overwatering your Thanksgiving cactus can result in root rot.
3. 3. Place in indirect sunlight. The Thanksgiving cactus thrives in an environment with indirect light, which you can create by keeping the plant a few feet away from windows or utilizing sheer curtains to filter bright sunlight. Too much bright light during the day can cause the usually green leaves to turn yellow or red. The only time holiday cactus plants benefit from direct sunlight is during its blooming season in late fall.
4. 4. Prune after the plant’s blooming season. Pruning will help your Thanksgiving cactus grow bigger and bushier. The perfect time to prune is right after the first bloom. You can continue to prune the plant until late spring. You can use the leaves that you cut from the plant for propagation—the process of growing a new plant from seeds, cuttings, or other plant parts.
5. 5. Pot in a hanging planter. If you prune and water them properly, holiday cacti can grow to be fairly large plants. Potting your holiday cactus in a hanging planter or hanging basket is ideal. It’s important to know that these plants grow better in a crowded pot. You’ll likely only have to repot your plant every few years. When repotting, the general rule of thumb is to move the plant to a pot two inches larger than its current home when repotting.

A Thanksgiving cactus plant’s bloom time is in late fall. The flowers, which come in various hues of yellow, pink, white, and red, last roughly two to four weeks. If you purchased a Thanksgiving cactus plant without buds or if it’s your plant’s second blooming cycle, you’ll likely have to “trick” the plant into producing flower buds by taking one of two measures in early October.

Your first option is to house the plant in cool temperatures. For six to eight consecutive weeks, place the plant outside overnight. Temperatures that range from 50–55 degrees Fahrenheit will prompt the holiday cactus to bud. Bring the plant inside if temperatures drop below 40 degrees.

Your second option is to place the plant in total darkness overnight. So your cactus can form buds, it needs roughly thirteen hours of complete darkness every day for six to eight consecutive weeks. Turning on a light during the plant’s dark hours can interrupt or even be detrimental to the budding process.

The best time to propagate is one to two months after your Thanksgiving cactus has finished blooming. For successful propagation, make sure you snip off a segment of the plant with three to four leaves. You’ll want three to six leaf segments for the new pot. Allow the segments to “heal” or dry for up to 48 hours. Then, plant the healed stem segments into the soil so that they’re standing straight up. Care for the plant as you would a mature Thanksgiving cactus and you should have a newly rooted plant in approximately three weeks.

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