Among the best loved of all Christmas flowers is the Christmas cactus with its gorgeous, exotic looking blooms.

You can count on having beautiful flowers on your Christmas cactus in time for the holidays year after year, and they make wonderful, long lasting gifts.

In fact, if properly cared for, a Christmas cactus can live and bloom for hundreds of years! How’s that for a gift that keeps on giving?

The Christmas cactus is not, as the name would suggest, from the desert. These cactus originate high in the mountains of Brazil, and they are actually forest plants.

You would typically think of a cactus as a plant that doesn’t like moisture, but this not the case at all with the Christmas cactus. It needs to be kept consistently moist for the best growth and blooming.

A Christmas cactus might even drop its flowers or flower buds if the soil becomes too dry.

Due to being called a cactus, one might also think that this flowering plant would thrive on heat. Not so. Your Christmas cactus should be kept away from sources of high heat such as fireplaces, heating ducts and heaters.

A Christmas cactus is extremely easy to care for. It does appreciate some fertilizer during its active growing period. Any fertilizer suitable for blooming houseplants will suffice.

Keep your Christmas cactus in a sunny location! While it can be kept alive in low light locations, it needs a lot of light to realize its full potential and produce abundant growth and beautiful blooms.

You can move your plants outside during warm weather, but don’t set them in direct sunlight or allow the soil to become too dry.

If your Christmas cactus has started to dry out rapidly and/or wilt quite frequently, this is a sign that it needs to be repotted into a larger container.

You should use a potting soil made especially for succulents, or you can make your own potting soil by mixing two parts plain commercial potting soil with one part clean sand or vermiculite.

Your Christmas cactus should be pruned after blooming for best results. Simply take off a few sections of each stem by pinching at the joint. Alternatively, you can prune by using a sharp knife to remove the sections.

Christmas cactus will root very easily, and you can use the pruned cuttings to propagate new plants just by rooting them in moist vermiculite.

To force your Christmas cactus into bloom for holiday flowers, it should be kept in a dark place for 12 hours every night. You should begin this process around the middle of October to ensure blooms by Christmas.

It usually takes around 6-8 weeks to see flower buds beginning to form at the tips of the stems, after you start the forcing process.

Christmas cactus come in a variety of gorgeous colors, and make beautiful, festive Christmas flowers!