The Thanksgiving Cactus Blooms Again

It's That Time Of The Year Again ..

Like clockwork, this time of the year, our Thanksgiving Cactus begins blooming.. I look forward to this event. Maybe not all year long, but when I am reminded that it’s going to bloom. When I see the buds start to form I know it’s that time of year and thus I look forward to the coming weeks when it will bloom. During the other months of the year, the plant is a consistent green color that requires very little effort to keep her happy. Just the occasional watering and feeding and that’s about it.

The cactus started forming buds .. At the tips of the segmented stems otherwise called leaves (even though they aren’t really leaves) several weeks ago, and I knew it wouldn’t be long before the first of the flowers would open and the entire plant would appear more pink than green.

It's really called a Thanksgiving Cactus .. I typically catch myself calling this a Christmas Cactus when it’s actually a Thanksgiving Cactus. The stem/leaf shape is what makes the two different, as well as the time of the year they bloom. The Thanksgiving cactus blooms in late fall right around Thanksgiving and the Christmas cactus blooms closer to the Christmas holiday in December.

Here is a series of buds from formation to bloom

But enough of the botany lesson .. Because I don’t know enough about the plant to teach one. The more exciting part for me are the flowers. I love watching them open up into a beautiful display of almost every shade of pink imaginable. They almost always beckon for me to take photographs of them before they start to wither and fall to the floor. This year was no different than the last. I moved the plant out to the end of the half wall that divides our kitchen area from our family room. Here we can enjoy her beauty as well as take photographs along the way.

The side that is currently blooming. It's the side that faces, and gets, the most sun

The back side is not in bloom yet but the buds are there. It won't be long, another week or so, and the whole plant will be in bloom!

My two favorite parts of this flower are ..

Its color - Which draws your attention immediately
Then its unique design - To me, the design, almost appears, as though the flower is swan diving through the air, as a human would, with the chest out and arms slightly turned backward, enjoying the free fall through the air.

The petals of the flower are a bright pink and fade to white towards the center. The pink colored stigma sticks way out just past the anthers, that can sometimes appear a light shade of yellow.

The Artistic Photographs ..

I’ve gotten some great photographs of these flowers over the years. I take a few, and then realize that I would rather separate one individual flower from the masses, so as to catch its individual beauty. I isolate the flower, utilizing a piece of black, artistic matboard. One side is shiny why the other side has a dull matte finish. Utilizing both will give you different effects when editing your photographs. I prefer the shiny side.

This is the sheet of black mat board I use

I just tuck it behind whatever it is I would like to isolate, or it works well for removing the background you don't want in your still life photo

Here are a few pre-edited photos

Now For The Finished Photographs!

And here are a sample of the photographs after I am done with my edits. Some where taken and I used a white piece of matboard instead of a black piece.

I have my favorites, but I will let you decide your favorites

In The Heart Of The Bloom

Poem by BDMiller

Petals of pink, like whispers of dawn,
A delicate dance, a floral song.
Captured in frames of memory and light,
Photographs tell a story, a moment so bright.

Details unveiled in the click of a shutter,
The intricacies of petals, a visual flutter.
A symphony of hues, a visual feast,
In the heart of the bloom, a serene release.

Elegance in simplicity, a visual embrace,
The Thanksgiving Cactus, in its quiet space.
Photographs capture the essence so true,
Of a flower's beauty, in moments we knew.

So, gaze upon those images, framed with care,
The Thanksgiving Cactus, a treasure rare.
In the simplicity of a photograph's view,
Elegance blooms, forever anew.

Thank you for swinging by my blog and checking out the post. Have a great day!

Little baby Pepper and his once young Daddy.. Yeah I once had more hair than I do now. I miss you little guy!

All words, pictures and art pieces are the sole property of B D Miller Gallery, unless otherwise noted and credited, and are not to be reproduced or copied without the prior written consent of B D Miller Gallery.