Hatiora gaertneri (I think) is My Favorite Plant in the Garden...This Week

I'm joining with Loree at Danger Garden in celebrating a plant that has particularly tickled me this week.

Last summer, Alison and I visited Sally Priest at Western Horticultural Products (WEHOP) and Sally Priest snapped off a piece of her grandmother's "Christmas Cactus" for each of us.  The foliage was different from the schlumbergeras that we'd grown so we were excited to see what it would look like in bloom.  My poor cutting sat around for a while before I finally put it in a pot. 

For the winter, it got put on the big table in a sunny upstairs room where most of the agaves stayed.  I didn't really notice how much growing it was doing.

Didn't even think to look for buds because it would be years before it would bloom, right?

Imagine how thrilled I was when looking over the nearly empty table, the agaves having migrated outside a month or so ago,  to see these three beautiful blooms!

 

I love pass along plants!  There's so much happening outside right now that it's nice to have blooms inside as well.  Thanks Sally for this sweet gift!  Hey Alison, is yours blooming?

 

I'm not sure on the ID of this one as the leaf segments look much more narrow than the Hatiora gaertneri images online.  I'm happy calling it that late spring pink flowering epiphytic cactus that came from Sally Priest's Grandma.  A bit of a mouthful and since I have a couple "Thanksgiving Cacti" and an "Easter Cactus" Perhaps I'll call this by one of it's common names "Whitsun Cactus" as it will still be in glorious bloom this Sunday which is Whitsun aka Pentecost.  Now I need to work on finding one that blooms reliably around Christmas and we'll have the whole church year covered.  Wait, what about Saint Swithun's Day, Candlemas,  Assumption, Ascension, and the like?  Sounds like plant shopping is in order.  (When isn't it? )