Weird Timing

This certainly seems to be the year for plants blooming at weird times. The snowdrops are still going strong out by the birdbath. Then this afternoon, I noticed that my Christmas cactus is budded. I've heard of Christmas cactus' (cacti?) and Thanksgiving cactus', but I have never heard of New Years cactus'. Christmas cactus' are photosensitive, i.e. they need a certain number of hours of darkness for a certain number of days to bloom. This plant is getting neither. Nor has it bloomed since I bought it in bloom years ago.

I originally placed it in the large window in my living room which gets lots of sun all afternoon. My thought was that plants often do not get enough light indoors. I also pull the shades each evening when the sun goes down. By keeping it behind the shades, I thought I could give it the hours of darkness it would need in the winter to bloom. But the poor thing languished for years, neither blooming nor growing.

Last year, I decided to move it into the kitchen which gets early morning sun only. It perked right up. Its leaves were a healthier green color. I didn't expect it to bloom because now it was exposed to light almost constantly. On my nights off, I keep a light on in the kitchen all night. It should not be about to bloom.

Many years ago, I tried to get a poinsettia, another photosensitive plant to bloom. I had managed to keep it alive after Christmas. I researched the exact number of hours of darkness and the exact number of days needed to get it to bloom the second year. I was living in a tiny apartment at the time, but had a small storage closet that was perfect for the experiment. Every evening I faithfully placed the poinsettia into the dark closet. And every morning . . . I forgot to take it out again. After a week or so, I realized the poor plant was spending more time in the closet than out of it. I decided to stop torturing the poor thing and end the experiment.