{"id":8901,"date":"2020-10-04T15:46:06","date_gmt":"2020-10-04T15:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/?p=8901"},"modified":"2020-10-04T15:46:57","modified_gmt":"2020-10-04T15:46:57","slug":"plant-a-day-2020-day-254-holiday-cactus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gardenescapades.com\/blog\/2020\/10\/04\/plant-a-day-2020-day-254-holiday-cactus\/","title":{"rendered":"Plant-A-Day 2020 (Day 254) Holiday Cactus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I have six or seven of these plants, all from different places and none of them are as healthy as I\u2019d like. Thus, I don\u2019t get the flower show in autumn\/winter that I would like to see. Still, the plants don\u2019t ask for much and the flowers are extraordinary when they do appear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of these plants have been orphaned and brought in by me. Several were from workplaces. The largest one is from neighbors who moved and dropped the plant off. The most recent two plants are cuttings from a sad plant my dying sister Nikki passed to me in the hopes I could revive it. The plant itself was beyond hope, but I was able to get two strong cuttings off of it and they are thriving. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My challenges with these plants include sunlight. I keep them in the greenhouse and I haven\u2019t found the right level of light that they prefer in there, so they tend to be a light green and not the deep, rich, dark green I\u2019ve seen in healthier specimens. Also, I can\u2019t keep them in complete darkness at any given time since the greenhouse is exposed to any ambient light, including streetlights and neighbor\u2019s porch lights. Lastly, I\u2019m not sure I\u2019ve gotten the potting medium exactly right. I try to mix orchid bark with potting soil, but that seems only partly successful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n