Its Schlumbergera ‘Thanksgiving & Christmas Cactus’ Season

Hi Guys,

I hope you all had a wonderful Spring and Summer growing Season of 2023 and you had lots of fun looking after and growing your Cacti and Succulents this Summer, or maybe you are living in the southern hemisphere and its your Spring now and you have all of the growing season ahead of you.

I have been extremely busy this Fall /Autumn with our wonderful new Cactus and Succulent Polytunnel, but I will share a Blog post about our new Polytunnel when all the plants have been put away in there, but for now I want to share with you a few photos of my Schlumbergera truncata cacti commonly known as the Thanksgiving or the Christmas Cacti that are blooming so beautiful right now, its always such a pleasure to see the blooms on these Schlumbergera at this time of year when all of the desert cacti are resting.

My Schlumbergera truncata ‘bright pink flowering’

I am amazed at how much earlier this year my Schlumbergera have come into bloom, last year it was a late start for them and I had many of my Schlumbergera only coming into bloom in January and February, I have noticed a few other growers saying the same too.

I always love to cross pollinate the flowers on Schlumbergera to make my own Hybrids and I have had great success with getting seed this way, although its much faster to propagate these plants from their clades ( leaves ) its so much fun to grow them from seed and always exciting to see what flower colour your cross pollinations will turn out to be, I have grown many from seed and they start to bloom from about 4-5 years when grown from seed.

Cross pollinating the flowers of my pink and orange flowering Schlumbergera.

Check out the video I have made for my You Tube Channel called Desert Plants of Avalon of my Schlumbergera Cactus Seedlings that I have grown from seed from my cross pollinations and you can watch this video below:

If you want to know how to cross pollinate Schlumbergera flowers to get seed then check out the video I have made for my You Tube Channel called Desert Plants of Avalon on How to Cross Pollinate Schlumbergera flowers and you can watch this video below:

Schlumbergera put a lot of their energy into producing flowers, and once they have finished flowering its not unusual for Schlumbergera to wilt and look a bit limp, this is normal as the cactus goes into a bit of a rest period straight after flowering and this is when watering should be reduced, after my Schlumbergera have flowered I cut right back on watering them and let the soil in their pots dry out that little bit longer before watering them again, once Spring arrives and they start to grow new clades ( leaves ) I water more regularly and water them every time the top surface of the soil has dried out, never overwater your Schlumbergera as even during the Spring and Summer they like their soil to dry out slightly in between watering, and although they can survive weeks without water they don’t like to go weeks and months without water like the desert cacti can.

Check out the video I have made for my You Tube Channel called Desert Plants of Avalon on Why your Schlumbergera cactus goes limp after Flowering, and you can watch this video below:

Here are some photos of my Schlumbergera that are blooming beautiful this month ( November 2023 )

My Schlumbergera truncata ‘Gold Charm’

My Schlumbergera tendenza ‘Orange Brazil’

Schlumbergera Enigma Thor Wild

My Schlumbergera ‘Enigma’ Thor Wild.

My Schlumbergera truncata ‘Yellow flowering’

My Schlumbergera truncata ‘red flowering’ this Schlumbergera is at least 70 years old.

My Schlumbergera truncata ‘pink and white two tone’

My Schlumbergera truncata ‘White Flowering’

If you want to know How to Care for and Grow Schlumbergera then do watch the video I have made for my You Tube Channel called Desert Plants of Avalon below:

Wishing everyone a wonderful upcoming Winter and a blooming amazing plant powered Holiday season ahead.

The Funky Cactus

The Funky Cactus – A Boutique Store for Funky Flora.

Hi Guys 😀

If you LOVE Cacti and Succulents and Houseplants and you live in the U.K then I have some very good news for you, I have been asked to be an affiliate for the most INCREDIBLE Cactus and Succulent and Houseplant Store called The Funky Cactus.

The Funky Cactus

I am so happy to let you know that there is a very Special 20% discount offer on all purchases from The Funky Cactus via my Affiliate link HERE: https://thefunkycactus.co.uk/desert-plants-of-avalon/ for all of my UK Followers available until 26th May 2023.

THE FUNKY CACTUS

The Funky Cactus is an amazing boutique store based in Leeds England, and is owned by a super Funky Couple called Nicola and Tony who are passionate about plants, as well as an awesome shop and website they also have an Etsy shop, The Funky Cactus have an outstanding track record for providing a great customer experience.

The Funky Cactus have a really awesome selection of Cacti and Succulents and Houseplants as well as beautiful Terrariums and pots, so do go and check out their incredible range of exotic plants that they have for sale and because there is a special 20% discount offer via my Affiliate link until the 26th May 2023 go and click on the link and grab yourself a bargain or two.

As an Affiliate for The Funky Cactus it means that I get a small commission with each purchase that goes through my Affiliate link: https://thefunkycactus.co.uk/desert-plants-of-avalon/ and by following the affiliate link it really helps to support me.

The Funky Cactus
Affiliate link for your special 20% discount offer available until 26th May 2023: https://thefunkycactus.co.uk/desert-plants-of-avalon/

I have filmed a special unboxing video for my You Tube Channel called Desert Plants of Avalon, where I unbox awesome Cacti and Succulents from The Funky Cactus, and you will see just how healthy and beautiful the plants from The Funky Cactus are, do watch the Funky unboxing video below.

Wishing all you plant growers a Funky Cactus Powered Day.

cold damage on cactus, Matucana cold damage

Cold Damage on Matucana Cactus- The causes & How to prevent.

Hi Guys 😀 

In this Article I will be talking about cold damage on Matucana Cactus plants, what causes it, what it looks like and how to treat it and to prevent it from happening again.

For lots of Tips and Tricks on growing Cacti and Succulents please check out my You Tube Channel called Desert Plants of Avalon and don’t forget to Subscribe.

A little bit about Matucana Cacti

Matucana are a genus of Cacti that are mostly globular, but can become more columnar as they age, these cacti are mostly solitary, but some may form clumps as they mature.

There are approximately 20 species of Matucana in this Genus

Matucana are only found growing naturally in their habitat in Peru, they grow at altitudes from 6,000 to 13,000 feet in the Andes Mountains, and although these cacti are getting more popular to grow in cultivation, in its natural Habitat in Peru it is getting more critically endangered.

The flowers on Matucana are very beautiful and can be red, pink, yellow or orange, but red is the most commonly seen flower colour, ( see image below ). These cacti will flower from about 3-5 years old when grown from seed. 

Matucana, Matucana madisonorum, Matucana madisonorum flowers, Matucana flowers,
My Matucana madisonorum cactus in beautiful red flower, note how more columnar in shape it is compared to my other Matucana on the left, these cacti are globular but can grow more columnar as they mature.

Stay tuned for a special care video on Matucana coming up in the next few weeks on my You Tube Channel called Desert Plants of Avalon, where I will be sharing care tips and tricks on How to grow Matucana.

Cold Damage on Matucana & the Causes

I grow quite a few Matucana in my collection and although ideally they prefer to overwinter at a Winter temperature no lower than 10c / 50F , I do find that as long as my Matucana cacti are kept totally dry with no water given at all from mid September until April then they overwinter in my Polytunnel with no problems at temperatures no lower than 5c /41F .

However this Winter was a bit of a different one and I know there will be a lot of other growers that will agree with me, this Winter was unusually a lot colder in December in the U.K and Ireland and I know a lot of growers in Europe and in the U.S also experienced colder than normal temperatures this Winter, with mnay below freezing day and night temps, due to these very low temps my electric heater in my polytunnel struggled to keep the minimum temperature inside of the polytunnel at 5c /41F and instead the air temperature inside my polytunnel stayed around  2-3c / 35-36F  for most of the two weeks of very cold weather we had in December, on a positive note the temperature kept above freezing in my polytunel and the majority of my plants seem to have come through pretty much O.K except for one of my smaller Matucanas, a Matucana Madisonorum.

After the icy cold weather I checked over all of my cacti, and I noticed yellowish orange patches had appeared on top of my smallest Matucana madisonorum, at first I thought it was a fungus, the most common one being Rust Fungus and I decided to bring it inside the house and isolate it and treat it with a systemic fungicide spray, but after checking out a few cactus groups on Facebook I realised that there were quite a few other growers also experiencing this on their Matucana cacti too, especially Matucana madisonorum, many of these growers had grown these plants for years and just like me this was the first year they had encountered these strange yellow/ orange patches on their Matucana, my Friend Ziggy on You Tube also had exactly the same thing happen on his Matucana madisonorum too, so now we all know that its was due to cold damage and what caused the cold damage was the temperatures dropping too low for this particular type of Cactus. 

cold damage on cactus, Matucana cold damage
These unsightly yellow /orange markings appeared on my Matucana madisonorum Cactus during the very cold freeze in U.K and Ireland During December 2022.

How to treat 

As soon as you notice this type of cold damage on your Matucana cactus move it inside to a warmer position straight away, a bright position in a room with a temperature above 10c /50F is best, because this is due to cold damage it will not spread to your other plants, but if you are not 100% sure that what your cactus has is due to this cold damage then it may be best to isolate it from your other plants, there is nothing you can use to get rid of the yellow /orange marks, but moving the cactus into a warm room or position will help to heal up the markings and the good news is this unsightly looking yellow/orange blotching is only on the epidermis of the cactus skin and is more of an aesthetic problem and should not infect the inside of the cactus, the yellow /orange blotches will eventually go white and in time the cactus should make a great recovery.

How to Prevent 

The best way to prevent this from happening again to your Matucana cactus is to overwinter it at a winter temperature ideally no lower than  8-10 c / 48-50F, if your greenhouse /polytunnel is unheated then its best to bring inside your Matucana if colder than average winter weather is predicted.

The majority of my Cacti including my Matucana seem to overwinter perfectly fine if kept at an absolute minimum temperature of 5c /41F and kept totally dry all through the Winter, but this Winter was an exception due to the extra cold temperatures we experienced, all my other Matucana seem to have got through the cold weather all safe, but they are a lot more mature ( 15 -20 years old ) the little one that got cold damage was around 5 years old.

I have made a video on my Cactus and Succulent You Tube Channel called Desert Plants of Avalon showing you what Cold Damage looks like on Matucana Cacti and you can watch this video Below:

 

For lots of Tips and Tricks on growing Cacti and Succulents please check out my You Tube Channel called Desert Plants of Avalon and don’t forget to Subscribe.