How To Make Your Thanksgiving Cactus Bloom
Nothing is more annoying than a Thanksgiving cactus that looks perfectly healthy… and then gives you absolutely nothing when it’s time to bloom. All those green segments, all that waiting, and not a single flower. Rude!
The good news? A Thanksgiving cactus can bloom more than once, which means we get a few more chances to make this work! We just need to figure out what it’s missing.
How To Convince Your Thanksgiving Cactus It’s Time To Bloom
If yours is sitting there looking perfectly healthy but flower-free, these are the conditions that usually make the biggest difference.
1: Lights Out, Your Cactus Needs Its Beauty Sleep!
Thanksgiving cactus is a short-day plant, which is basically plant-speak for “I’m not making buds until these nights get longer.“
Aim for 12-14 hours of uninterrupted darkness every night for about 5-6 weeks. And yes, the uninterrupted part matters. A spare bedroom where nobody turns the lights on at night works much better than a busy living room. But don’t leave it in the dark all day. It still needs bright, indirect light during its daytime hours!
Quick note: You don’t have to panic if you accidentally flip on a light for a minute, but regularly interrupting those dark hours can interfere with bud formation.
And if you’re wondering where to keep it during the rest of the day, we wrote a guide on the best place to put a Christmas cactus for more blooms, and the same placement advice applies to Thanksgiving cactus too.
2: Turn Down The Heat If You Want More Buds
Thanksgiving cactus doesn’t just care about how dark the nights are; it also likes them a little cooler. Unfortunately for me… I’m the kind of person who needs the house so warm it practically feels like a sauna.
