Rhipsalidopsis

Day 224: Commercial growers seem to have settled on "Rhipsalidopsis gaertneri" as the specific epithet for this cactus, although the taxonomic community would now argue for genus Schlumbergera, having abandoned both "Hatiora," "Rhipsalis" and "Epiphyllum" as obsolete. As far as I'm concerned, I've given up trying to keep track of its nomenclatural leaps. I bought it as Rhipsalidopsis, and I'm going to stick with that since it gives me a way to distinguish Rhip from Hattie when I address them with admiration of their blossoms. Not all of my plants are distinguished in this manner. The Hoya collection contains other individuals besides Fitch and Bella, but perhaps that is because those plants have been the two which bloom regularly for me. Knob and Saturday are also members of my indoor garden, sitting among nameless companions. In any event, Rhip is a star among my troupe of performers, its bright red flowers bright and often abundant when they appear in spring. It is also called "Spring Cactus" or "Easter Cactus," although mine usually misses Easter by a good month or more. Its season coincides closely with Hattie's, sometimes overlapping, sometimes following to share or replace Hattie on the mantelshelf, a place of honour reserved for the bloomers in my home.