Christmas Plant

(Warning: this is a houseplant entry.)

A friend of mine has a Christmas cactus that she’s had for years. She always invites us over for a holiday meal, and I’m always a little bit jealous of her cactus. It is big. It is probably about two feet across. It has glowing red flowers that look so festive – like, well, Christmas. It’s all propaganda, I’m sure, all this red and green, and calling it “Christmas Cactus” instead of Zygocactus. Just like Pointsettia. Except Pointsettia doesn’t have a catchy name for Christmas, just good P.R. Her plant is something like this:



I’ve been shopping for a Christmas Cactus recently. There are tons of varieties, not just red. There are white, pink, white with a red blush, yellow, salmon, sunset shades…but then I realize that I don’t have room for one. Or a dozen. In a variety of colors. Ahem. My windowsills are full.

I already have a plant that blooms for Christmas. I have to remind myself that if I have to choose (and I do have to choose) that I’d rather have this plant than a Christmas Cactus. Really. It’s actually one plant that I’ve divided a few times in the years that I’ve had it so there is a windowsill full of them. It blooms reliably every winter, with white and green flowers. Best of all, at night it fills the house with an incredible scent of vanilla and cloves. The various plants have been blooming for 3 months now, and it's February. It still delights me.

I have to admit to feeling a little smug about this plant. It’s an orchid. The secret is that it is easier to care for than any Pointsettia, and even a Christmas Cactus. It doesn’t wilt if I forget to water it for a few weeks. It blooms profusely despite. It doesn’t require any special techniques to have it bloom on time, as somehow the windowsill is fine. The Pointsettia and the Christmas cactus require careful control over day and night to get to bloom well and on time, and they aren’t fragrant. Best of all, it does well here in Albuquerque.

Its common name is “Lady-of-the-Night” orchid, or La Dama de noche as all Brassavola's are considered. My prolific plant is a hybrid Brassavola 'Little Stars' (B. nodosa x cordata), headier in fragrance than my species B. nodosa and more floriferous. When my first plant bloomed, and I sniffed it, I declared that if I had to choose one orchid to fill my windowsill, this would be it. I still would. But it doesn’t mean that I won’t be jealous of my friend’s Christmas Cactus.