A friend gave me a zygocactus a few years ago. It has funky-looking segmented leaves and then blooms once a year in the fall. The flowers are beautiful, brightly colored confections that can cover the whole plant. I had always heard it called a "Christmas Cactus," but I've since learned there is a "Thanksgiving Cactus" variety as well. The official name for this plant is Schlumbergera, after the man who first made it popular outside its native Brazil.

I like Schlumbergera during its blooming period because it's quite lovely. But last summer I decided that I don't like it enough to care for it all year and give it space on an increasingly crowded plant shelf. So I put a sticker on it to get it ready for a new (and perhaps more appreciative) home; the Schlumbergera would be someone's dream find at the neighborhood yard sale.

Then it decided to bloom. In July.

Everything I had read before said that it would only bloom in November, and that is IF I cared for it properly, with limited light in September and October and many other tips about watering, heat conditions and so on.

Schlumbergera never made it to the yard sale. I don't know if the blooming was a sudden self-protection mode or whether it was just responding to whatever harsh conditions I had placed it in (forgetting to water it, most likely).

I can feel it beginning though... a sort of blooming in myself - a new sense of curiosity and rising to the challenge that I haven't experienced before. Now I know that it can bloom more than once a year, so how can I make that happen?

In researching the zygocactus I've read comments from people who have had one in the family for decades. Some are even passed on as a kind of family heirloom.

Why are we are all waiting for Schlumbergera? Is it the promise of beauty bursting forth in a dark winter? Is it the appeal of the consistent friend, coming for a short but cherished visit just once a year?

For me, it's a new appreciation for a plant that delighted me with the unexpected. I can appreciate that, especially as a symbol of holiday cheer and thanskgiving.