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David Epstein: Hi, I am David Epstein welcome to growing Wisdom these three plants that I really like to have in the house they really add some color they are traditional for the holiday season but you can have them almost anytime of the year and they are the Amaryllis, The Christmas Cactus and Cyclamen. We are going to talk with Lee Thomas today from Weston Nursery and Lee is going to help us sort of understand how to care for this a little bit better.

Lee Thomas I would like to start with the Christmas cactus.

Lee Thomas: Sure, when you do get in bad or in bloom keep it route rapidly dry if try not to over water nice cool place but good lights some place not to far from a good South or West window. It should bloom for a couple of months two or three months and after that just let rest let it run dry. It will tell you when it needs water get a little bit wrinkly.

You can put it out for the summer when the weather gets warm as the cool weather approaches bring it back in. Begin to feed it in the late summer when its start to bud up and it can bud up in October you have to put it in a very cool spot to keep it from blooming in November they can live for years and years and years family past them down for sometimes a hundred years.

David Epstein: Wow! So, the next plant that we have got here is the Amaryllis now you might get one as a gift that is art and bloom and you may get the actual bulb and have to plant that.

Lee Thomas: You want to pop that plant about a halfway down its body water when you first pot it. Let it be relatively dry until the first bud appears. And then from that point on you can water it as needed and just be very careful not to get to saggy its should bloom from months after bloom time cut the flowers off.

It will have its leaves by then what do you want to hold over as a personal preference a lot of people some discard it. They like to make a flowers starting in November, December, January into March there great houseplants you can put the them on inside table you do not have necessary have to give them light.

They have made their flowers there are happy as long as it cool they will continue to make their flowers a little food once a month for the decorating period is good. Pinch off and its pink blossom is still like little hard beads that encourages to make their flowers. When do get done which is usually on March. You can either discard them or you can keep them for the leaves.

David Epstein: Well, Lee thank you very much for coming on Growing Wisdom and we appreciate you watching this video. We hope you come back every week for our videos and more here at growingwisdom.com.

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