The Christmas Cactus
A few days before Christmas, last month, I went out to check the plants around the pool, and cut a few herbs. I was stunned and delighted, to see tiny pink nubs forming on the ends of my Christmas cactus. I felt like Mrs. Walton, for a tiny moment!
One of my favorite holiday films is The Homecoming; it was the pilot for the Walton’s television show, which aired in the 1970’s, about a family during the depression, that lived on Walton’s Mountain, in Virginia.
Patricia Neil, with that deep, raspy voice, plays the Mother, of a large, close-knit family, who is waiting for her husband to come home, on Christmas Eve, he has had to leave the mountain, to find work in the city.
The film covers the hours of Christmas Eve, sharing with the audience the various activities of the family and community, as they prepare for Christmas. We see the Mother debating making her applesauce cake, for which she needs additional sugar that she can ill afford, and her worrying about her husband and children. In the midst of commotion, she goes to the basement, I believe for apples, and finds her forgotten Christmas cactus in full bloom.
Though I was not a big fan of this Brazilian cactus, as I found it fussy, I have been watching this movie since I was a child, and I am always taken aback by the moment the plant appears, wondering how could she forget she had a plant in the basement? How long was the plant down there? Did she ever water it? Why does it bloom on Christmas? How does the plant know it is Christmas?
The plant needs cooler temperatures and or approximately 12 hours of darkness to bloom; thus if you are in a place where there are significant seasonal changes in both temperature and hours of day light, it makes sense that the cacti would bloom around Christmas; and that Mrs. Walton kept her plant in the basement. It is also rather drought tolerant, though you do not want it to dry out completely.
It has taken an extra month for my plant to come into bloom, and I moved it into the kitchen, over the sink, where this beautiful splash of pink helps to blur the winter wonderland, outside of the window. I must say the little plant has grown on me.
