Orchid Cactus?

[m16802]

My mother had a single stem of this plant for over 15 years until I got ahold of it and gave it some life. She always called it an orchid cactus.

Now, maybe 15 more years, I have this beautiful plant! It has only bloomed once since I took it from Mom It was a gorgeous white flower - a single flower from the edge of one of the stems (not from the end, it kind of came out of the middle). And that was well over 10 years ago.

First, help me find out the kind, if you can. And secondly, any suggestions on how to encourage it to bloom again? It gets great sunlight, and has tons of new growth (seems to like where it "lives" in my window.)

Thanks!!

PS: I know my photos are sideways

[Carl_B]

Okay well you say it get's "great light" but your plant suggests otherwise... you see all that spindly prickly growth? that is the plants way of telling you it's not happy about the amount of light it's getting, epicactus produce that sort of juvenile growth in poor light conditions it's usually an issue in winter when light levels decrease and the heating goes on (poor light + warmth means spindly etiolated growth)

If that was my plant I would start by giving it a major haircut, remove anything which is long and spiny take it right back to the centre of the plant how long has it been in that pot? epicactus should really be repotted every 2-3yrs (some do it yearly...) I would repot it into a nice free draining mix (3pts potting soil to 1pt perlite or similar) try and give it more morning or late afternoon sun epicactus like dappled shade many people tend to put their epicactus outside under a tree or porch in the summer months they love the air movement and light levels (make sure you acclimatise the plant to the light just putting it outside without a chance to get used to it will result in sunburn) next year start feeding it in the spring with a balanced fertiliser every other watering and the following year it will hopefully put out a few blooms for you these plants bloom from mature older growth some find that fertilising in the autumn with a high potash fertiliser (think tomato food) hardens off this years growth for potential flowers the following year.

This was a plant I received in a neglected state in 2012 it produced it's first flower for me this year it is most probably Epiphyllum crenatum ssp. kimnachii 'Cooperi' notice that there is no spiny or spindly growth this is how yours should be once you give it a good hair cut unfortunately there are some 14,000 hybrids and so once a plant loses it's tag it's almost impossible to put a name to a plant.

2014-06-07 16.26.55.jpg (68.45 KiB) Viewed 820 times

2014-07-03 21.13.41.jpg (79.59 KiB) Viewed 820 times

[greenknight]

I agree about that spindly growth. They need a winter rest - not totally dry like a desert cactus, but much reduced water and no fertilizer, to induce semi-dormancy at that season. They do need some water to keep the roots alive. Best if they're wintered in fairly cool conditions but protected from frost. If you can't provide that, do the best you can with less-frequent watering.

I never had any trouble getting flowers, summering the plants on an east-facing porch where they get just early morning sun, moving them to a cool room when frost threatened. They bloom massively with that treatment - but even with less-ideal conditions, you should be able to get some flowers. It did bloom once for you, after all.

[m16802]

Thanks for your help! I'll get to work