double joy

when i was growing up, my mother had a christmas cactus that had belonged to her mom...my grandmother. it was a very large plant and every late fall it would begin to bud all over. by thanksgiving the blossoms would appear and somehow they would continue through to the new year with my mother seemingly doing very little except watering the cactus faithfully. i thought to myself, "when i grow up, i want a plant like that." because i remember looking at it and seeing one of the most incredible blooming plants ever....

well.... i grew up and got myself a christmas cactus. it bloomed once and that was only because i bought it in bloom! after that, nothing. no matter how i pampered the thing, what kind of advice i got, how much i talked to it, i got nothing.

but then, the other day i was looking out the bay window where i'd relocated it last year and what did my eyes behold? what? oh joy, joy!! happy dance! buds on the cactus. i was singing... and laughing in sheer delight at my good fortune. and telling the cactus what a lovely plant it was this year.... how blessed i was by it sprouting these wonderful buds for me. and the neatest thing ever? some of them have double buds on the leaves... now i ask, how impressive is that on a plant that hasn't had buds in about 5 years?

happy day.....