Thanksgiving Cactus vs Christmas Cactus

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Thanksgiving cactus vs Christmas Cactus, many times they are confused or mis-labeled.  I show you how easy it is to tell which one is which.

Do you know the difference between a Thanksgiving cactus and a Christmas cactus?  

I see folks all the time wondering why their so-called ‘Christmas cactus’ is setting buds and blooming much earlier than late December or is blooming in February.  

The easy answer is they are most likely calling their Thanksgiving Cactus (Schlumbergera truncata) a Christmas Cactus (Schlumbergera x buckleyi).   (There is controversy over the Christmas cactus being in the buckleyi group rather than the Russelliana group, but few current plants sold are the true Russelliana type which is actually one of the parent plants)

Do you have a Christmas Cactus or a Thanksgiving Cactus?  I will show you how to tell the difference.

Related: How to Root Christmas Cactus Cuttings

Christmas Cactus or Thanksgiving Cactus?

This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking a link I may make a small commission at no cost to you.

How Can You Tell?

It is true that conditions where the plant is located can also have a bearing on bloom but 9 times out of 10 it is just a different plant.  

What makes it even more confusing is garden centers and grocery stores sell the Thanksgiving Cactus as a Christmas Cactus, so if it is listed on the plant, always go by the botanical name to avoid confusion. Also where you live can have a bearing on what these beautiful plants are called.

(note: all of the cactus I spotted in stores this season were Thanksgiving Cactus but they were selling them as Christmas Cactus.)

One way you can tell is to look at the leaves.  

The leaves of the Thanksgiving Cactus have sharp points, which is why they are also called Crab Cactus, Lobster Cactus whereas the Christmas Cactus has more rounded edges.

It doesn’t matter which you have the care is the same. 

Related: Best Thanksgiving and Christmas Cactus Care Tips

Here is a photo of mine. Can you tell the difference?

Christmas Cactus or Thanksgiving Cactus?

The plant on the right definitely has spikes on the edges while the left one has more rounded lobes.

They both are lovely and will reward you well in late autumn and winter when you crave a bit of blooming happiness.

I have several colors of Thanksgiving Cactus.  

This white one below is such a gorgeous color and it has a shimmer to it that just sparkles.  It is one of my favorites.

This photo is from last Fall and the plant is twice as big today so I am hopeful to get a ton of blooms this season.

Christmas Cactus or Thanksgiving Cactus?
White Thanksgiving Cactus / Christmas cactus

The orange and red Thanksgiving cactus is called Exotic Dancer and it just bloomed in abundance last year, it too is twice as large this year.  

It has a lot of fuchsia pink mixed in with the orange for a truly exotic appearance.

Christmas Cactus or Thanksgiving Cactus?

I bought 3 of my plants as cuttings online and rooted them.  

My one and only Christmas Cactus is a cutting from my mother’s plant.  And I have another cutting from someone else.

Want to know how I rooted my cuttings? Click Here  I have 100% success rate!

Force to Bloom?

Many folks have all sorts of tips and tricks to get the Holiday Cactus’ to bloom (I lump all 3 varieties in this group, including the Easter Cactus), I have tried none of them.  

My trick is the keep them outside in Summer in a well-lit but not direct sunlight area, then bring them into my studio cottage or house on a windowsill when the nights start getting down to 40 degrees and let them do their thing.

Place them in a room that gets no artificial light in the evening.  Holiday cactus need 12- 14 hours of darkness to set blooms. I confess to not being so fussy about it. My Primrose Studio Cottage does get the light from passing cars at night and they still set blooms.

For us here in N. California that starts to occur around the 1st of October. (this year I was nearly into November and they had already started to set blooms while outside!)

Once they have set blooms you can put them in any room free of drafts and abrupt temperature changes.  They will bloom longer in cooler temps.  They prefer 60 to 70 degrees and humidity.

My plants totally took me by surprise this year and bloomed again in June!  

They had been moved to the greenhouse and set bud, then bloomed.  The light amount was way more than they were supposed to get if you listen to all the experts.  So who knows!

General Care of Thanksgiving and Christmas Cactus

tips and tricks for success

Easy Care Tips for Christmas Cactus

This care guide for your Christmas Cactus also applies to Thanksgiving Cactus. Keep your plants happy and blooming for years to come

Mine are way overgrown now and are top-heavy, I have had them in plastic starter pots and they need to be moved to a bit larger and heavy pots.

  Or I could just give them a good prune, click here if you want to see how that is done.

Keep your plant manageable

How to Prune your Christmas Cactus

Christmas and Thanksgiving Cactus grow continuously. So how do you keep them to a manageable size?

I will wait until after their bloom this Fall and Winter.  Transplanting them now would most likely ensure I would not get any blooms this season.  

They are a bit finicky once they start to set buds.  Moving them after buds start will almost guarantee they will drop the buds and you will get limited flowering if any.  

From all accounts, they like being root-bound and bloom more profusely when they are.  Mine started blooming the first year but I have them in small pots and may well have gotten root-bound fast.

salmon pink thanksgiving cactus with text overlay, Thanksgiving or Christmas Cactus.

Another big bonus, these things can last forever!  Well, maybe not forever but if taken care of properly then can last decades.  I have a friend who has one that is over 50 years old and it is still going strong.  Now that is a house plant!

How do your Holiday Cactus get along?  Do you try to force the blooms and what works for you?

thanksgiving cactus flower with text overlay, Thanksgiving cactus or Christmas Cactus, who to tell the difference, play video arrow

Happy Holiday Cactus Growing!


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32 Comments

  1. Dale Hurley says:

    I got 3 small Christmas/Thanksgiving cactus after Christmas and planted them all in a larger pot. They finished their blooms and though green, sturdy and healthy, are not putting out any new leaves. I only water weekly and have only fertilized (Miracle Gro) a few times. Am I doing anything wrong to not be getting new leaves? It is in a Florida room and gets nice light.

  2. Margie Hotz says:

    I love growing plants
    They make my house look alive
    Plants are good for your mental and physical health
    Having plants are fun
    Watching them grow and bloom is fun
    Starting new ones are awesome
    Love outdoor plants to
    It’s fun to be creative with your yard
    To be honest with you my mom was the one who got me into plants. Every time I would go to her house to visit her she would point out her rose bushes out back or her pansyies, snap dragons, tulips even her trees. I was not at all interested in her plants. The indoor or outdoor ones…I would be like yeah cool,cool,cool….but now I regret my lack of interest and will for the rest of my life!!!! My mom ended up getting cancer and passed away. That’s when I started to take over taking care of all her plants and having no clue to what I was doing!!! I ended up killing a lot of them and so I would go around and ask people or I would be looking up how to take proper care of the ones I didn’t kill. I brought all her indoor plants to my house. I left the outdoor ones for my dad to take care of. Anyhow the more I was learning about plants the more I was really loving having them in my house and during the summer I love going out and planting all kinds of plants!!!

  3. Oh my goodness, that is a big one. I am glad you took cuttings to save before putting it up for sale.

  4. liz griffith says:

    i have a cactus that is over 50 years old and is 47 inches by 45 inches flowers twice a year sometimes more. its about 5o or 60lbs. i want to sell it as it has outgrown my small house i have plenty of small ones growing but this is just way to big for my little house

  5. Where can you order a true Christmas Cactus? This is the best post l have read in a while. All of mine are Thanksgiving cactus and are now setting buds?

  6. This year, I called mine a Halloween Cactus as it bloomed right on the day., haha.

  7. Thanks you for the info on the Thanksgiving and Christmas cactus plants. I thought when it bloomed determined the name. Never realized it was really two different varieties. That’s why I love your posts! I never know what I will learn next! Thank you

  8. Thank you so much for the info. My mom had , what turned out to be a Christmas cactus, for 15-20 yrs. She hardly ever took care of it through all those years. Just 2 years ago she gave me this sad little plant, and in the care I have given it, it has exploded, and even bloomed for the first time this year. Thank you for the info on how to root them.

  9. Wow, that is a good question. I have heard of that and it can be from different environmental elements. Like a difference in temperature and amount of light. The amount of light can change with the season itself so even if it is in the same location the amount of light it gets from one month to the next changes. Other than that the only other thing I can think of is you may have two different colors in one pot.

  10. I have a Thanksgiving cactus I grew from a cutting about 3 years ago. It’s massive, and seems to love the eastern facing planter window in my kitchen, despite all the light – there’s an artificial light over it so I can see the dishes to wash them in winter. It bloomed last year, all white with a pink tinge. It’s bloomed like mad this year, but the first blooms were all much pinker, current ones are back to white like last year. Any ideas why? I really loved the pink ones!

  11. Just trim them back by pinching off leaves instead of transplanting up, keep them to the size you prefer with the judicious trimming and you can go to my post on rooting them, create new little plants and give them as gifts. 🙂

  12. I have 5 Thanksgiving cactus ( thank you for clarifying:) you mentioned they can last for decades … must be huge .. my plants are 8 years old and I have transferred to larger pot twice … I’m concerned in 5 more years I will need a Huge Pot .. any suggestions? Thanks!!

  13. It is the day length that affects bloom. So the daylight hours are the about the same at both times.

  14. OK that make so much sense now, I have Thanksgiving cactus and not Christmas one. I was always wondering why is it blooming so early, now (Oct 19th).
    OK so how come it is blooming 2x now in fall and then in the spring again? Not that I’m complaining, just curious…. : ))
    Thank you.

  15. I inherited my Christmas cactus from my FIL and it bloomed from Thanksgiving into the spring in his care. My MIL took a piece of her mother’s a good 60 years ago. I’ve had to move to different houses it’s couple times in the 3 years I’ve had it and it never blooms the first winter after. I’m hoping next year it will be ready. 😊

  16. Mine are in small pots and can fit on a windowsill. They are getting top heavy now and I need to decided if I want to move them up to a larger pot or trim them back to keep in the smaller pots. Thanks for the tip on the macrame hangers.

  17. I used to collect these plants, but have been either in the wrong place or on the move, and don’t have any of my beloved bloomers left. I enjoyed your article. Makes me homesick for houseplants. I need to find a place to settle soon so I can have some of these beauties with me again. I also used to make my own macramé plant holders. I have books in storage somewhere, but I believe Pinterest can help you find patterns or resources for them.

  18. No, I am not painting my windows, I just do some at the gallery where my art is displayed and sold. I could do my own windows but with so much going on it is just not on my list. That deck board where the frog was peeking out is part of a small bridge type area that crosses between my garden and the front porch, thankfully, it is the only board showing rot and needs replacing.

  19. That sounds wonderful. My friends’ that have one 50 years old gave me a cutting from theirs. I love the color and hope it blooms for me soon. Hers is absolutely huge and gorgeous!

  20. Marc Miller says:

    We have two Christmas Cacti. One over 60 years old,it was my grandmothers, and one a cutting from it 47 years old. They bloom proficiently at around Christmas and Easter. Both plants have always been in a northeastern window and never outside. They have not been repotted for years and only are watered once a week. Pictures of their blooms are anticipated by FB friends each year. Combined they have over 300 blooms.

  21. Thank you for these great informations. I have one too and it blooms pink in November. I put it in my north window and water it twice or three times a month and it still is alive (Im not so in house plants). I will try to propagate my cactus because I love the color of this one I got.

  22. Christopher says:

    The one houseplant I can grow! lol I live in Iowa and keep mine out all summer and fall and bring in after the first freeze (not a hard freeze). This year all but 1 have blooms already, and I have a good dozen or more! So easy to care for and I have started mine both in water and in dirt, don’t always have the best of luck with that but working on it. I have heard it is best to let the cutting dry out a few days before starting in dirt so I am going to try that next time.

  23. Thanks, Pamela, for this post.
    My Christmas cactus is 53 years old. It needs more fertilizer, judging from the looks of your plants……
    I’m so old, it might be time to just retire the plant–which is too heavy to truck around to the retirement home….LOL
    MJ

  24. The Easter Cactus look gorgeous too, I just don’t have one yet. I want to get one though, there is always room for more plants!

  25. I only have one Christmas Cactus and 8 Thanksgiving but there is room for more. I am hunting down some others as we speak.

  26. Thank you, Tina. I will check them out!

  27. My mom always had a Christmas cactus around when I was growing up. I guess I had no idea it could possibly be a Thanksgiving cactus.

  28. Susie Barkley says:

    Thanks. Pamela
    I just checked and mine is as I thought a Thanksgiving cactus….I just brought it in last week and it has already set the buds and looks like it is going to reward me with lots of them this year.
    Thanks again for the info. I am going to try to find a Christmas start up when I go to the plant store…
    Susie

  29. I’ve wondered about this myself and am pleased to have received the answer to question, Pamela. Thank you.

  30. Mary Louise Scott says:

    HI Pamela,
    Thank you for the details re Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter cactus! I’ve never heard of the Thanksgiving one. Glad to know the difference by checking out the leaves. I had a friend who had a huge one and it bloomed like crazy near Christmas and then went bloomless til Easter and was off and running again. She never moved its location since it thrived so well in its spot. This was in northern NM. The room had lots of indirect light and warmth and apparently the right stuff. I have not been very successful since I moved to Phx AZ. Lighting in my house is not good and too cold inside in the winter…..too hot outside in summer……………….what’s a girl to do! May try again when I get in my new location. Thanks again!

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