Gardening Advice - Christmas Cactus

I had a letter criticising me for encouraging people to kill snails and I agree that architecturally they are pleasing and are fascinating creatures, although this is not the adjective that I normally use when I find a newly planted row of seedlings decimated by their deprivations. There are many varieties of snail in Britain but my nemesis is known simply as the garden snail. I am always amazed by their ability to climb to the top of my runner beans with no arms or legs to help them and although I am in a state of constant war with them I find their numbers do not seem to diminish.

May I make a plea for three creatures that are not cute and cuddly but are valued friends to a gardener! First of all the black beetles that are found scurrying around the ground, they are voracious predators and will even kill slugs. Second, the centipede, a long brown creature with fifteen pairs of legs, eats lots of pests. Lastly, any form of spider. I know the sight of them fills a lot of people with horror but they truly are our friends in the garden.

Are you having difficulty getting your Christmas cactus to re-flower? The reason being that the flower buds only start to develop in late summer as the days get shorter. If you keep your plants where the lights are turned on in the evenings, they may never flower. To prevent your plants getting too much light move them to a spare room, greenhouse or outdoors in mid-August and keep them there for four to six weeks. As soon as you can see the buds, bring them back to their normal position, where the buds continue developing regardless of day length. Christmas cactus originate from the jungles of Brazil and are not used to direct sunlight so if the segments turn pink this is a sign that they are getting too much light.

Article by Mike Santer