In general I suck at succulents. But a much-loved exception at my place is one of my few succulent success stories, the holiday cactus, which I've managed to master growing both indoors and outside. I grew up knowing these as a 'Chain cactus', more commonly called a holiday cactus. But depending on where you are in the world, the time of year your holiday cactus flowers is NOT the answer to whether you have a Christmas, Easter or Thanksgiving cactus.
That's because their common names originate from the USA. Christmas may be celebrated at the same time of year around the world, but the seasons can be entirely different. We have a Summer Christmas here in New Zealand for example.
To add to the confusion around the timing of flowering, growers can manipulate temperature and lighting to get holiday cactus to bloom on demand for sale, plus both the Thanksgiving and Christmas cacti share similar flowering periods of mid-Autumn to early-Winter, sometimes flowering again in spring, Yep, that's also when the Easter cactus usually flowers.
The colour of their flowers doesn't help either. All three Holiday cactus can flower in shades of white, yellow, orange, coral, pink, red and purple. But, as you'll see coming up, there ARE a number of more obvious differences that do help you work out whether yours in a Christmas, Thanksgiving or (the hold grail), the Easter cactus.
Who's who?
Speaking of names, that can get confusing with these guys too. Still commonly called Zygocactus here in New Zealand, but often combined into the genus Schlumbergera overseas.
Thanksgiving Cactus = Schlumbergera truncata.
Christmas Cactus = Schlumbergera x buckleyi (a hybrid of S. truncata and S. russelliana), sometimes mislabelled Schlumbergera bridgesii.
Easter Cactus = Hatiora gaertneri or Schlumbergera gaertneri or Rhipsalis gaertneri! Schlumbergera is the most used.
Easter cactus: A plant of many names
The rarest of the three, the Easter Cactus, has had a bit of an identity crisis over the years. Epiphyllum, Hatiora, Schlumbergera and Rhipsalidopsis have all claimed the Easter Cactus at one time or another. As well as the common name Easter cactus, they're also known as the Whitsun cactus.
PS: If I've forgotten any common names or you want to help me geek out even further on these gorgeous plants, feel free to get in touch. Photo contributions are very welcome too.
Which holiday cactus do you have?
The differences between Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving cacti...
FUN FACT: Holiday cactus 'leaves' are actually flattened stems called cladophyll or phylloclades.
First up, here's a quick guide to the more obvious visual differences but make sure to check the list of differences below this image too, as it goes into the time of year they flower, the growth habit and much more to help you work out which is which...
What does a Christmas cactus look like?
The Christmas cactus has scalloped edges to the leaves with a rounded lobe. A little pointier than the rounder Easter cactus, but the Christmas cactus lacks the sharper, clawed points of their parent plant, the Thanksgiving cactus. Christmas cacti have stems that arch more downwards. Their flowers tend to face downwards also, following the stems.
Christmas cactus have tubular flowers. similar to the Thanksgiving cactus, but more rounded and more downward facing. Although Christmas cactus are more often found in shades of reds and pinks they can be found in other colours. Their pollen colour is pinkish-purple to brownish-purple, another way to tell the difference from the Thanksgiving cactus whose flowers have yellow pollen.
Christmas cacti tend to flower around mid-autumn to early winter and may flower twice in a season again in spring.
What does a Thanksgiving cactus look like?
Thanksgiving cactus have clawed, pointed edges to the stems. Each segment has 2 to 4 saw-tooth edges and their stems grow more upright, spreading out more than the Christmas or Easter cacti. More flower colours tend to be available in the Thanksgiving cactus than the Christmas cactus, including white, yellow, orange, red, pink and purple.
Their flowers grow more upright than the downward facing Christmas cactus flowers, growing more horizontally. They produce yellow pollen on their anthers, compared to the Christmas cacti's pink pollen. Like the Christmas cactus, Thanksgiving cactus usually bloom twice a year, from around mid-autumn to early-winter, and often again in spring.
What does an Easter cactus look like?
Typically the most rare of the three, and often with a price to match, the Easter cactus has rounded edges to the leaves, lacking the scalloped edge like the Christmas cactus or claw-like points of the Thanksgiving cactus.
The flowers of the Easter cactus are a telltale difference compared to the Christmas and Thanksgiving cacti. Easter cacti have spikier-looking, star-shaped flowers. The Easter cactus normally has red or pink coloured flowers with yellow pollen, but can be found in other colours (white is my favourite).
With all three it's best to propagate from stem cuttings when they are not in flower (best done when temperatures are warm around spring), but for the Easter in particular, I've found propagating more successful using a longer stem cutting with multiple segments, whereas for Thanksgiving and Christmas I find they root nicely from as little as two segment cuttings.
Spot the differences...
ABOVE: Scalloped stems and tubular, downward-pointing flowers with pink pollen on a Christmas cactus.
And yes, an extensive ultimate care guide is in the works, I'll link to it once it's live :)
Happy growing,
Anna
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Anna is the owner of plant store Love That Leaf which specialises in products and advice for indoor plants. She is also the resident writer for NZ Gardener magazine on the topic of indoor plants. You'll see her houseplant care articles in-stores and online on Stuff, The Post, NineHoney, Express, Echo and more.