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I suspect there are quite a few more people on the planet who know that there are two separate plants known as Christmas cactus and Thanksgiving cactus then there are people who are able to correctly distinguish one from the other. Plant identification, after all, is harder than simply remembering plant names. However, I suspect even fewer people know that there is a third plant named the Easter cactus. All three of these plants are among a group of epiphytic succulents in the Cactaceae family native to Southern Brazil, which have become popular in many parts of the world as houseplants. Let’s start with the Christmas cactus, Schlumbergera russelliana, a plant that grows natively in trees and on rocks in the Brazilian rainforest. Like the other two plants, it has leafless green stems that are segmented and adorned at the tips by colorful flowers. Each segment of the stem has teardrop, scalloped margins, with a few notches along each edge. The notches on the margins are cuneate, or rounded. Flowers are typically pink, though white, red, and bi-color varieties exist. The flowers are tubular shaped, hanging downward from the arching branches, and have a ‘flower within a flower’ appearance. The plant doesn’t know which holiday it is supposed to bloom nearest, of course, but flowering typically occurs in late fall or winter as initiated by short day length. Flowering will often be more consistent if plants are taken outdoors during summer and fall so that the plants experience the trigger of shortening days heading into fall.
Above left: Christmas cactus has leafless green stems with round, scalloped margins. Photo: Lestat (J. Mehlich), CC BY-SA 2.5. Above Right: Blooms. Photo: N. Barbieri, CC BY-SA 2.5. Thanksgiving cactus, Schlumbergera truncata, shares many of those same attributes. However, the key identification feature is that the margins have somewhat sharp pointed teeth rather than the rounded ones found on Christmas cactus. Many botanists see the teeth at the very tip of each stem segment as resembling the claws of a crab, and therefore this plant is also sometimes referred to as claw cactus. If you too see crab claws, then you may find this a helpful way to identify this species. There are a wide range of bloom colors, including red, pink, orange, yellow, and white. Flowering is also triggered by short day length, and generally occurs a bit earlier in fall than the Christmas cactus, though it’s important to note that for both plants the timing of bloom will largely be dictated by the individual plant’s growing environment.
The margins of Thanksgiving cactus have somewhat sharp pointed teeth rather than the rounded ones found on Christmas cactus. Left photo: M. Wei, CC BY-ND 4.0. Right photo: D. Sipler, CC BY 2.0.
Photo, above right: The least common. Photo: A. Laine, CC BY-NC 4.0 If growing any of these plants, they will do best in moist potting soil, preferably a cactus/succulent potting mix, with bright, indirect light and high humidity. When taking them outdoors in the summer, a shady location is best to avoid leaf scald. Easter cactus tends to be the most finicky of the three and will drop stem segments easily if overwatered or underwatered. This perhaps explains why they are not as frequently available for sale.
Matthew Stevens is the County Extension Director and Horticulture Agent for North Carolina Cooperative Extension’s Pitt County Center. If you have questions about this article or gardening in general, please contact the Pitt County Extension Master Gardeners at [email protected] or 252-902-1705.
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One of the big debates around Thanksgiving and Christmas is about cranberry sauce. Do you like the homemade kind that your grandma used to make? Or do you like the kind from the can with the lines on it? I suppose it’s possible that some of you don’t have strong opinions about this, or perhaps you don’t like cranberry sauce at all, but cranberry sauce is a must for me at Thanksgiving and I’m partial to the canned kind.
Cranberries in a can or homemade from a bag? That's the question. As you might imagine, being one of the foods most associated with Thanksgiving, cranberry plants (Vaccinium macrocarpon) are native to much of the Northeastern United States and Canada. Their distribution range extends to the south into North Carolina, but most of the commercial cranberry production in the United States is in more Northern states, such as New Jersey, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Wisconsin. These low-growing vines are more of a ground cover than a climber. They like especially acidic soils that are moist but well-drained. They are tolerant of periodic periods of flooding, which impacts the way they are managed in commercial production. Plants require full sun for best fruit yield, but are intolerant of excessive heat, which is why we rarely find them growing outside areas farther north. In cranberry production culture, the vines are grown in fields with mounded berm borders, referred to as bogs. These fields are intentionally flooded with up to 18 inches of water during harvest time (August-November). The fruit is then knocked off of the vines by machine and floats to the surface of the water, at which time it can be gathered in nets for harvest. You’ve probably seen the various Ocean Spray commercials featuring farmers standing in flooded cranberry bogs during harvest season in their hip waders.
Above: Harvesting cranberries that have floated to the surface. Right: Cranberry plant. Photo: R. Routledge, CC BY 3.0 While cranberries might not be common around here, they are close relatives of another fruit-producing plant that is a much more common site in backyard gardens and farms throughout the state. That plant is the blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium and Vaccinium corymbosum). Blueberries are a medium to large shrub, rather than a vine, of course, but there are similarities in the flower and fruit appearance, if not the overall form of the plant. Blueberries also like very acidic soils, as well as moist, well-drained soil with high organic matter. Though blueberries aren’t likely to appreciate flooding, some similarities exist in the machinery used to harvest fruit in commercial settings.
Cranberries are popular with many pollinators, including at least seven known species of native bees. Cranberries are also a favorite of honey bees, and many large commercial beekeepers will migrate their hives to the states where cranberries are grown to assure adequate pollination. Several species of butterflies are also attracted to the flowers.
While Pitt County gardeners are not likely to have a bountiful harvest if they attempt to grow cranberries, they might be a fun experiment for some adventurous types. The flowers are pretty, as are the fruit if you are able to get any to reach maturity. If you can’t, don’t worry –there’s bound to be a can of cranberry sauce at the grocery store so that your holiday dinner isn’t cranberry-free. Matthew Stevens is the County Extension Director and Horticulture Agent for North Carolina Cooperative Extension’s Pitt County Center. If you have questions about this article or gardening in general, please contact the Pitt County Extension Master Gardeners at [email protected] or 252-902-1705. As the leaves start to change and fall in autumn, my mind and eye are often drawn to those deciduous trees and shrubs whose leaves are transforming from green to shades of orange, yellow, red, and purple. One of my favorite trees for fall foliage is the Ginkgo, Ginkgo biloba, which creates a dazzling display of golden yellow foliage in mid-fall.
from green to gold, not nearly as gradually as some other tree species change in fall. Likewise, the leaves all tend to drop off the tree and to the ground more or less at once, rather than periodically over several days and weeks. The effect is quite incredible, both when the leaves are on the tree and when laying below it, particularly if the tree is placed in a landscape where the fallen leaves can be left and appreciated for at least a few days. Ginkgo are a unique and interesting tree for a number of reasons, beyond just its fall foliage, which I'll return to in just a moment. For one, it is the only living member of its botanical family, Ginkgoaceae, meaning it has no close relatives. There is evidence that several other genera of Ginkgo existed during the Mesozoic era, however, and of Ginkgo biloba specifically existing in pre-historic times. Perhaps a paleobotanist such as Ellie Sattler of Jurassic Park made this discovery, but because Ginkgo biloba is the lone survivor, it is often referred to as a "living fossil". Further down the plant-nerd rabbit hole, we go to learn that Ginkgo is a gymnosperm,
Full height of a mature ginkgo is 50-80 feet tall, though they are slow to medium growing and will thus take quite a while to reach that size. Ginkgos are tolerant of a variety of soil textures and nutrient levels. They need full sun and good drainage to thrive. If you're planting a ginkgo, you'll want to be sure to choose a male tree, due to the aforementioned seeds, unless you want to harvest them. The seeds can be roasted or boiled, and are said to be both tasty and nutritious (I haven't tried them), and in fact an extract from the seeds is included in supplements often found in health food stores, and is touted to have benefits for memory and circulation issues.  These tall trees, which reach heights up to 80 feet, may be used to create shade in a park or pathway. Matthew Stevens is the County Extension Director and Horticulture Agent for North Carolina Cooperative Extension?s Pitt County Center. If you have questions about this article or gardening in general, please contact the Pitt County Extension Master Gardeners at [email protected] or 252-902-1705.
About a year ago in this space, I wrote about a fascinating tree, the Bald Cypress, Taxodium distichum, that was unique in that it is a conifer that is deciduous rather than evergreen. Conifers, as a group, have narrow, needle-like foliage, and produce cones. Unlike the majority of cone-producing plants that retain their needles year-round, such as pines, firs, cedars, and spruce, the Bald Cypress is one of a select few that goes through a change in fall foliage color prior to dropping its leaves entirely. In fact, there’s really only one other tree species commonly grown in North Carolina that does this, and that is the tree we’ll cover today – the Dawn Redwood, Metasequoia glyptostroboides. In addition to the commonality of being deciduous conifers, these two trees also share the attribute of having tremendously fun Latin names to pronounce aloud – go ahead, try them both! Take it slow and you’ll do just fine. The Dawn Redwood is a towering tree, as you might guess from the inclusion of redwood in its common name. Though not a member of the genus Sequoia that comprises the famous California redwoods, the name Metasequoia alludes to the similarities between species, and indeed they are both members of the same botanical subfamily. Notably however, Metasequoia is more tolerant of colder temperatures than its California relative, and though it will get quite large at 75-100’, that is only about a third of the height of the tallest known California redwood. At that height, it’s certainly not easy to incorporate in the average landscape, and thus Metasequoias are most often found in parks and public gardens, such as the Pitt County Arboretum. Our specimen is not nearly 100’ tall, but at about 30 years of age it is one of the largest trees on the property.
 A row of Dawn Redwood trees. Photo: J. Robbins, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 Metasequoia is native to Central and Western China, and was thought to be extinct until the 1940s, when it was re-discovered during a plant exploration mission. Trees are pyramidal in shape and when fully mature, the oldest branches in the bottom third of the tree will often weep or point downward. The trunk of this tree is quite attractive, as it has a reddish-brown bark that will exfoliate in strips over time, creating grooves of various shades of red, brown, and burgundy. Dawn Redwood produces attractive male and female cones. The greenish-brown male cones are borne in clusters and individually are typically 1/8’ wide or less. Female cones are barrel shaped and may be up to an inch long. The female cones are a pale green color when they form, similar to the color of the leaves, but turn brown when they are fully mature. The leaves, which are a light green through most of the year, turn a cinnamon brown color in the fall, lasting for a few weeks before dropping to the ground.
Though Bald Cypress is noted for its wide adaptability to soils that are both very wet and very dry, the Dawn Redwood is not quite as adaptable. It needs well-drained soil, and can tolerate occasional periods of wetness, but it will not grow in standing water the way bald cypress sometimes do. Though Dawn Redwood may be a bit too large to add to your home landscape, it is a beautiful and fascinating tree that any true plant lover should seek out and appreciate. Stop by and visit ours any time! Matthew Stevens is the County Extension Director and Horticulture Agent for North Carolina Cooperative Extension’s Pitt County Center. If you have questions about this article or gardening in general, please contact the Pitt County Extension Master Gardeners at [email protected] or 252-902-1705. |
Matt Stevens
Pitt County Extension Director & Horticulture Agent Archives
January 2025
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