Getting Christmas cactus to flower at Christmas

[FurForksSake]

Hi,

I’ve got a Christmas cactus I’ve been looking after for 3-4 years now. The thing tends to flower at thanksgiving. I’d love it to flower at Christmas.

ive just watered it as it was completed dried out, is now the time to move it to my cold dining room and cover it in a box?

Generally I stop watering around now but don’t move it and it stays in the lounge next to the telly.

Any ideas gratefully received. It’ll be the narcissus bulbs I ask about next. I did them once years ago in our old house and can’t remember a bean about them aside from putting them in a hurricane vase and putting them in the garage!

If it usually flowers at thanksgiving then it's probably not a xmas cactus. Thanksgiving cacti have sharp,pointy leaves. Christmas cacti have much more rounded edges to their leaves. In the UK it's quite hard to find a genuine Xmas cactus.

Oh! I bought it in ikea of all places! I thought it was about when you forced them to flower. Good to know. I’ll just stop watering and leave it alone. Last year it was covered in gorgeous bright pink flowers.

You can’t force it to flower (unlike Poinsettias or Hyacinths). Definitely don’t cover it with a box! They respond to shorter days, and cooler temps, so should start to bud up in the next month or two, but that can be a movable feast. And continue to water but at longer intervals.