Christmas Cactus

I love these succulent plants, they're quite different in appearance from their desert dwelling cousins, and come from the south eastern coastal mountains of Brazil.  They grow on trees or rocks in habitats which are generally shady with high humidity.

Their stems resemble leaf-like pads joined together and flowers appear at the joints and tips of these stems in white, pink, yellow, orange, red or purple. A vivid scarlet is most commonly grown for Christmas time.

I'm trying to grow lots of plants for my small pots and this Cactus is easily propagated by talking short Y-shaped cuttings of the stem tips.  If you remove a single segment and plant it a quarter of its length deep in a pot filled with slightly sandy soil, it should begin showing signs of growth after two or three weeks.  The pot needs to be in a well lit area and the soil kept moist.  I didn't get mine planted soon enough for this year, but I have one or two cacti substitutes.