Last year I brought two Christmas cacti plants and about 6 poinsettias. The poinsettias were a mix of red, multi colored bracts and one day neutral variety. Although I tried to get them all to survive indoors until past the frost date, only one did and the tag was long gone by May! The last remaining poinsettia was planted outdoors in a protected and mainly shady spot. When we were being threatened with a frost I hurriedly dug the thing up and plonked it into a pot. A few days later I did pot it properly.
So here we are in October and I know that poinsettias need to be conditioned to put out the flower and bracts, so I have started putting it into a cupboard off the study each night. According to my garden center it should be fine with just a week of conditioning but I am hedging on the side of caution and keeping it in the closet until I see a sign that it is putting out flowers. It still has a few weeks. Note that the blue bucket is just a temporary holding saucer that makes it easy to water, and carry back and forth to the closet. When the flowers start to form it will be a nice neat seasonal container to sit in. 
The Christmas cactus is a different plant and I don’t think it needs conditioning, though if it doesn’t put out some sign of a flower it might just get the closet treatment too. Right now it is on the kitchen counter, so bright indirect light is what it gets, but some evening lights may be a problem. I just read that it does like long nights, so that will be a closet job too!
Enjoyed your comments about the holiday plants. A couple of years ago, a friend gave me a start from her Christmas cactus. It’s doing well in the only room in our house with adequate sunlight. I haven’t conditioned it, but let it bloom when it’s ready. And, boy, does it ever bloom! The amaryllis plants are also on their own schedule. Those plants put out some incredibly beautiful blooms of incredible size.
Your comments about square foot gardening was very interesting. I just picked up an older edition of the book at a garage sale. We live just north of Dayton. I want to start a raised bed next spring to grow vegetables and herbs. Your thoughts?
Donna
The Square Foot gardening was a great idea. There really is not much difference between the old book and the newer one except maybe the mix. If you want the ‘recipe’ for that I can find it, but just good compost, peat moss and vermiculite is great. What it was good for were plants that sat alone like basils, peppers and tomatoes. Not so good for row crops unless you have an 8×4 bed at least.
I really only did the cactus for one night, and it seems to have buds on it so I really do not think that needs conditioning unless it is in a room with lots of artificial light like my kitchen which has kids wandering though at all hours!
Thanks for the comment.
Kate
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