Christmas Cactus

Schlumbergera 'Exotic Red Lip' is a Christmas cactus with white flowers edged in cerise red, for a crisp, two-tone show through autumn and winter. Flattened, bright green stem segments arch out and over the pot edge, and as the nights lengthen each segment tip swells into a fat bud that opens to a tubular flower of layered, pointed white petals, each finished with a red edge. It is an easy, long-lived houseplant that will flower again each year with a simple autumn routine. Find more seasonal colour among our flowering houseplants.

Origins

Christmas cacti are jungle cacti from the coastal mountain forests of south eastern Brazil, where they grow on tree trunks and rocks rather than in desert sand. They have no spines and need different care from a desert cactus. Most modern cultivars descend from Schlumbergera truncata, the crab or Thanksgiving cactus with toothed, claw-like segments, and some also have Schlumbergera × buckleyi, the older round-segmented Christmas cactus, in their parentage. In the UK all of them are sold as Christmas cactus. It sits alongside Schlumbergera 'Vida' (orange), Schlumbergera 'Kornelia' (fuchsia pink) and Schlumbergera 'Malissa' (white) in our range, and the spring flowering Easter cactus is a close relative.

Care

Give it bright, indirect light and keep it out of hot midday sun, which scorches the stems. Water when the top few centimetres of compost have dried and never leave it standing in water. Buds form as autumn nights lengthen and cool, so a spot away from lamps that stay on in the evening helps. Once buds appear, leave it where it is, because a move or a sudden change in temperature can make them drop. Keep it above 10C. It is non-toxic to cats and dogs, which makes it one of the easier pet safe houseplants to place.