Retail stores are said to rush the season

They have nothing on my Christmas Cactus.

I suppose rushing the season is just how it is these days. At least that is the message I'm getting from one of my Christmas Cacti.

I have several of them actually, but this plant has been blooming for more than a week already. Even if it is a Thanksgiving Cactus, it is still early.

No matter. I love their delicate pink flowers whenever they open.

I bought this plant after Christmas two years ago at Home Depot because it had a pretty pale pink flower. Note the buds in the photo above. Last year I was surprised to learn the pot I bought really contained two different plants, as evidenced by the flowers that have already opened. They are a much deeper color. It was such a pleasant surprise.

I actually have several Christmas Cactus plants that always bloom at Christmas. The large one, shown at right, is the mother plant. The one in the pot next to it was started from a cutting. This is just one of several that I've grown from cuttings.

I obtained this plant from a garage sale in Bull Shoals many years ago. She said it had been in her family for generations. This reminds me a Christmas Cactus my Aunt Hazel had for many years that had belonged to her mother.

Perhaps these should be renamed legacy plants.

These plants are so easy to grow. They don't require anything special. Because they are succulents, they will live with sparse watering. In fact, they like to be on the dry side. They like indirect light, but are not too fussy about it. They have even withstood little cat paws that bat and flick at them as though the fronds were a toy.

Getting the plants to bloom

I've often heard that to stimulate blooming, these plants must be placed in a closet from for six to eight weeks before Christmas. I have never done that and my plants bloom like clockwork. The natural shortening of days in the winter are enough to encourage blooming. No closets are necessary in my experience.

For anyone new to indoor gardening, I think a Christmas Cactus, or even several, is a must have.

I join the people in the City of Chicago who mourn the loss of Maggie Daley. The former first lady died yesterday. Her family was with her. It was after all, Thanksgiving Day.

Though I no longer claim Chicago as my home, the city of my birth will always have a special place in my heart as it is where some my most deeply-rooted influences began.

I never had the pleasure of meeting Maggie Daley, but much of what was known about her indicated that she was a good, loving woman who cared deeply about her family and others. Her charity work is well documented. Her influence on her husband, Rich Daley, who I have had the pleasure to meet, was evident. I'm sure he would admit he was a better man because he loved her.

Rich Daley has had his critics; it went with the territory. I was not one of them. People either hated him or loved him. I was among the latter group. I found him to be genuine, honest, emotional, and driven by that which inspired him.

I met him during the early 1990's, when he and I were on the same side of the fight against a Peotone Airport. I was always impressed by him, his simple understanding of complex issues, the power he wielded only when absolutely necessary, his intellect, and his cunning. Rich Daley was a leader, not just locally, but nationally as well. When he spoke, people listened.

As has been said so many times in recent hours, Maggie Daley was the woman behind the man with an influence that is obvious in every part of the city the two of them reigned for so many years.

My heart goes out to Rich Daley and his entire family. I can only imagine the loss they must feel.