Zygocactus International Flower comparisons
It is often difficult to compare varieties of zygocactus, Christmas cactus or schlumbergera when they flower at different times.
It makes it even harder when some zygocactus varieties are only found in the northern or southern hemispheres flowering at different times of the year.
The following pages will compare Australian/USA bred varieties with some European bred varieties by Thoruplund as some of these were sourced in Australia to make the comparisons possible.
The zygocactus flowers were photographed at the same time simply choosing random flowers from commercially grown plants. Unfortunately some varieties were at the end of their flowering cycle while others had just begun so we have taken the best flowers available on the day.
Twighlight Tangerine zygocactus is probably the oldest known variety shown here. It has been readily available in Australia, USA and Europe. It is a small to mid sized variety and a useful reference point for all the other zygocactus, Christmas cactus and schlumbergera varieties.
Christmas Fantasy is probably the next oldest variety and was released in Australia, USA and Europe in the late 1980's and early 1990's. Christmas Fantasy zygocactus is a very good reference variety as it is very similar in size to the earlier White Christmas, Gold Charm and and Gold Fantasy (also known as Gold Flame in the USA).
Cheyenne is by far the largest zygocactus flower in the orange color range. It is both long and broad with big broad petals. It is the same color as Savannah.
Sanibel is the same color as Christmas Fantasy and was released in the USA in 1989 and in Australia in the early 1990's. It is a broad flower.
Rusty is a deep orange color released in Australia in the last 20 years and is similar in color to the European variety, Freya from Thoruplund which was released in 2011 in Europe.
Additional flower color comparisons currently underway and will be listed shortly.