Flowers are usually scarlet in color. Christmas cactus are distinguished from the Thanksgiving cactus by its rounded leaves with blunt tips. Flowers are carmine-red with a purple tinge in the center. Finally, there is the Easter cactus. Easter cactus has long, flattened joints, dull green leaves with rounded margins and a few bristles at the growing tips.
Flowers are a deep scarlet and star-shaped.
Many hybrids between all these cactus now exist and you can have many different growth habits, foliage characteristics, and flower colors that have not been previously seen with the older varieties. During bud initiation, maintain night temperatures of 55-60 degrees. Flowering will occur at temperatures below 55 degrees, regardless of day length, but flowering will be erratic. Night time temperatures higher than 70 degrees inhibit bud development. Stressing plants by withholding water before initiation of short days may improve bud set.