Easter cactus – care & repotting of the houseplant

The Easter cactus belongs to the Rhipsalideae tribe within the cactus family, which, so to speak, unite the climbers among the cacti. Because the Rhipsalideae grow as epiphytes or lithophytes, i.e. on trees or on rocks and in crevices, hanging or creeping or shrubby and sometimes climbing.

The Rhipsalideae developed mainly on the east coast of South America, some species were able to spread to Central and North America. The Rhipsalis baccifera, also known as rush cactus, has even managed to spread from tropical America to southern Africa and further east, via Madagascar, Réunion, Mauritius and the Seychelles to Sri Lanka. This widespread cactus species is also often found in our house as a house plant. It is probably the best-known cultivar from the genus Rhipsalis, which together with the genus Lepismium, the Christmas cactus (botanically also a separate genus, the Schlumbergera) and the Easter cactus (botanically the genus Hatiora) form the four genera in the tribe Rhipsalideae.

Typical of the Rhipsalideae is growth in articulated shoots, which can be round, angular or flattened in cross-section, and small flowers that attach to the side of the shoots, open during the day and often remain open all night.

The areas of origin of the individual species in these four genera vary somewhat, as do their appearance, of course, otherwise the respective species would not have been grouped into their own genera, but the basic care needs are similar for all these exotic species. There is still a lot to discover here for lovers and explorers of cacti. Specialist nurseries have an astonishing number of species and hybrids of all four types, some of which are unusually bizarre growth forms and almost crazy colors. But now it’s all about the Easter cactus:

There are several varieties of the Easter cactus

Probably because otherwise it would be too boring, the botanists subdivide the genus of Hatiora again into two subgenus. Of course, only a bloody layman thinks like this, the botanist simply took a closer look and recognized two groups with considerable differences in the species of the genus:

The sub-genus Hatiora develops shoots that are cylindrical, round like small sausages, never have ribs and shoots new shoots with a significantly lighter color towards the top. The subgenus consists of two types:

• The Hatiora herminiae comes from Brazil, where it grows in the states of Minas Gerais and São Paulo in mountainous cloud forests up to heights of 2,000 meters, it flowers in decorative pink tones. It is known to be difficult to cultivate and is therefore usually grown grafted, mostly on Selenicereus, the cacti known as the “Queen of the Night”. However, there are cactus lovers who cultivate the Hatiora herminiae without roots and are successful with it. If you come across a Hatiora herminiae, you might want to graft a shoot on it as a precaution so that you don’t take any chances with this very rare cactus.
• Hatiora salicornioides is native to the Brazilian states of Bahia, Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Paraná. It grows in a lush, branched form with mostly upright shoots and can reach a height of up to a meter, whereby the old shoots become lignified. The cactus, available from us as club cactus or Pindsvine cactus (rarely), develops golden-yellow to orange-colored flowers, which, however, only grow to a good 1 centimeter. This rush cactus is very easy to care for, and if you hold it near a south-facing window at temperatures between 22 and 26 degrees, it is often as vigorous as a weed. This cactus doesn’t like temperatures below 10 degrees, and the soil should always be able to dry off easily between watering.

The subgenus Rhipsalidopsis differs from the other Hatiora by its flat shoots. These different cacti belong to this subgenus:

• Hatiora epiphylloides native to two Brazilian states, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. It exists as H. epiphylloides subsp. epiphylloides with quite long and uniform shoots and as H. epiphylloides subsp. bradei, in which the shoot segments at the top part like a trumpet funnel, both bloom in yellow and orange tones.
• Hatiora gaertneri is one of the parents of the “Easter cactus”, but is also cultivated in specialist nurseries (and is often called the Easter cactus itself). The species-specific plant impresses with its large, really exciting red, star-shaped flowers.
• Hatiora rosea is the second parent of our Easter cactus and is so named because the flowers can really be all pink tones imaginable. The Hatiora rosea also comes from Brazil and grows there in the cloud forest in the southernmost states, often at heights of up to 2,000 meters. Lovers of the color pink (or parents of little girls) can purchase Hatiora rosea from good specialist dealers.
• Hatiora × graeseri is finally our typical Easter cactus, as the “x” tells us a hybrid, and as the author has just revealed, a hybrid of Hatiora gaertneri and Hatiora rosea. The hybrids are bred for even larger and more numerous flower abundance, but the exact color of the flower is often a surprise – it can actually move within the entire range of what our eye sees as “reddish”.

In terms of flowering, however, it depends less on which Hatiora variety you cultivate and more on whether it is an Easter cactus or a Christmas cactus – or should be, see below.

Easter cactus or Christmas cactus?

They both have limbs, and they both bloom in shades of red and pink. If you just smile tiredly and think that the two can easily be recognized by the flowering period, that is not entirely true. We certainly trust you to be able to tell Easter and Christmas apart – only your Easter cactus and your Christmas cactus cannot do just that.

It is difficult to imagine that the Easter cactus and Christmas cactus will bloom in time for Easter or Christmas in their Brazilian homeland, at most it could be that the Hatiora are more of the late bloomers. Here, however, the “Easter cactus” does not bloom until Easter because it is slower than the Christmas cactus, but because it has been treated in terms of lighting in retail so that it shows its flowers on time for Easter. They can even set it so that it fits the exact Easter date of the respective year, and – Simsalabim – the Easter cacti appear in the shops shortly before Easter. The trade trusts that you are not one of the experts in cactus care, you usually do not get adequate care instructions with the purchase, that costs a lot of Easter cacti and Christmas cacti life. But it produces the desired result: Next year, just before Christmas, you rush to the Christmas cacti that have just appeared in the shops, and shortly before Easter a new Easter cactus will of course be bought. However, the inadequate care instructions and information are changing, especially in times of the Internet. For example, there is a good chance that your Easter cactus or Christmas cactus will be in your house for considerably longer than just one season. Then it is quite likely that the bloom will appear at a completely different time next year … punctually just before Christmas, throw yourself on the Christmas cacti that have just appeared in the shops, and shortly before Easter a new Easter cactus will of course be bought. However, the inadequate care instructions and information are changing, especially in times of the Internet. For example, there is a good chance that your Easter cactus or Christmas cactus will be in your house for considerably longer than just one season. Then it is quite likely that the bloom will appear at a completely different time next year … punctually just before Christmas, throw yourself on the Christmas cacti that have just appeared in the shops, and shortly before Easter a new Easter cactus will of course be bought. However, the inadequate care instructions and information are changing, especially in times of the Internet. For example, there is a good chance that your Easter cactus or Christmas cactus will be in your house for considerably longer than just one season. Then it is quite likely that the bloom will appear at a completely different time next year … However, the inadequate care instructions and information are changing, especially in times of the Internet. For example, there is a good chance that your Easter cactus or Christmas cactus will be in your house for considerably longer than just one season. Then it is quite likely that the bloom will appear at a completely different time next year … However, the inadequate care instructions and information are changing, especially in times of the Internet. For example, there is a good chance that your Easter cactus or Christmas cactus will be in your house for considerably longer than just one season. Then it is quite likely that the bloom will appear at a completely different time next year …

If you’ve bought your cactus at other times, or just not sure, you can tell whether it’s an Easter cactus or a Christmas cactus by the shape of the flower: the flower of the Easter cactus looks like a star and the flower of the Christmas cactus has it, so to speak “Several floors”, from which two opposite petals always emerge – it is probably better if you look at the differences on the Internet, a picture really says more than 1,000 words.

Most of the year, however, the plants won’t bloom anyway, so that’s not the most adept differentiator if you want to be specific. Then you should rather stick to the leaves (yes, they are also called that on the cactus), they are really easy to distinguish: The leaves of an Easter cactus are more or less smooth and round, with some varieties maybe with a few waves on the Leaf margins. The leaves of a Christmas cactus have little tips pointing upwards at the edges.

Flower induction or not?

If you want your Easter cacti to bloom exactly at Easter, you can force it like the trade, this is called flower induction. However, it is not that straightforward, and in order to be able to plan precisely, you would first have to observe exactly how long your hybrid or natural variety takes before the flowers open, which is slightly different depending on the variety. What the varieties and hybrids have in common, however, is that as short-day plants they need a period of short days to set flowers, with no more than 10 hours of light per day. In case of doubt, you have to do this about 2.5 months before you want the flower to bloom and by putting a cardboard box over the cactus after 10 hours. You can find out more about the background to natural flower induction in the article on the Christmas cactus.

Depending on this planned flowering time, your cactus must also be sent to its rest breaks:

• The cactus that is supposed to bloom at Christmas goes into a long dysentery break of around six weeks after blooming at Christmas / at the beginning of the year. In addition, he gets a break of a good month in autumn, during which he stands a little cooler – that is then the impetus for flower induction. Put it in a cool place and water sparingly, it can stay outside, the temperatures here are (unfortunately) usually cool enough at this time.
• The cactus that is supposed to bloom at Easter will take a break to induce blossoms sometime between late autumn and winter. He gets his second resting phase immediately after flowering, then he is not watered for six weeks and not fertilized.

As I said, when the rest breaks must be exactly depends on the individual variety and probably also on where and how the individual plants were grown.

You can also save yourself the whole game and simply allow your cactus a long rest period in winter and maybe a short time after the flowering period and otherwise just let it bloom whenever it wants. Some of these cacti then bloom several times a year, with pleasure and easily and without having to deal with cardboard covers.

When the cactus then shows the first flower approaches, it would like to be treated like the prima donna in Spe, which it is just growing up to: it no longer wants to be turned and certainly not to be rearranged, otherwise it could really happen that it simply removes its flowers throws off. If you don’t annoy him and the flowers have developed, they will stay on the plant for up to six weeks.

By the way, if your cactus were to be kept at temperatures above 23 degrees all year round, it would never bloom, but only develop new shoots. In this section on flower induction, no distinction was made between Easter cactus and Christmas cactus, it is very likely that with the right light deprivation you could make an Easter cactus bloom at Christmas and a Christmas cactus at Easter.

The rest of the care of the Easter cacti

The rest of the care of the Easter cactus is really straightforward:

• Bright location without direct sun, best outdoors between May and September.
• Easter cacti are best planted in cactus soil, which is well-drained potting soil.
• It is poured sparingly and only when the soil in the pot has dried up again.
• If epiphytes are used to rain, the leaves can be sprayed more often.
• During the season (growth and flowering period) he receives some cactus fertilizer once a month.
• In spring you can repot the Easter cactus as required, in a slightly larger pot and with new soil.

Conclusion
If you want to get an Easter cactus to bloom exactly at Easter, things get complicated. If you just let it grow in front of you and let it decide for yourself when it would like to bloom, it only needs a little rest in winter and will usually please you with its flowers without any problems – sometime in spring.