Christmas cactus woeful

Klug

Hi,
I bought a lovely looking Christmas Cactus about 4 weeks ago. It had buds on it and was healthy looking.
I have looked in my house plant book for advice and followed it.
It is on my kitchen window which is sheltered by an outhouse but in full brightness. However, the buds have not filled out or opened and seem to
be falling off.
What have I done wrong anyone please?
Thanks for any pointers

Lube

I keep mine in a South facing porch unheated in winter. Its flowered in November but currently no flowers just some new buds.

http://plant-forum.blog.co.uk/2010/01/20/christmas-cacti-7809256/

The most common reason for failure to flower is continuing to keep your Christmas cactus in a nice warm room that has the electric light on in the evening - your cactus doesn't realise it's autumn!!

wellused

I had a Christmas Cactus which no doubt flowered over the festive season on the first year but on subsequent years flowered during November and although the flowers were abundant had died off by the time Christmas came around. By Christmas 2011 it had grown quite big and after it had lost its flowers it was looking rather drab, so wishing to move it out of view I placed it outdoors in my plastic greenhouse under the carport, just after Christmas 2011 we had some very hard frosts and it was a couple of days before I remembered the cactus, when I looked it was showing severe signs of frost damage so I looked for any lobes which may have escaped the freezing weather, I found three which looked as if they may be viable candidates to use as cuttings, I planted each one in a 4" pot filled with suitable free draining compost and placed them indoors on a windowsill, after a few weeks two of the cuttings started to lose their colour and so I decided that they were not going to make it but the third although sitting dormant still appeared to be alive. After about three months I noticed that the single lobe had two new baby lobes growing from it and since then it has become another little cactus plant, it didn't flower last year and if it had shown signs of budding I would have rubbed them off anyway to preserve the plants energy, but doesn't it make you feel good to realise that no matter how plants are mistreated they can always recover given half a chance.

fwor

The advice I received was not to water it too frequently, and not to move it once it starts to put out flower buds.

Seemed to work for both mine this year.

Yorkie1

It may have got shocked by the journey home, if it was exposed to the open air (as opposed to wrapped up against cold temperatures).

Also, I agree with fwor's comment about moving it once the buds have formed. I recall reading that that can cause it to lose the buds. I would keep the plant, contain your disappointment this time round, and it will flower again for you probably later in the year.

Mine thrive on neglect, I'm afraid to say.

blossomhill_2

I've had success in the past with cc's by leaving them outside in all weathers after flowering tipped on their side so they don't pool water or get hidden under frost/snow and bring indoors when they start to show bud