WICHE: Cool nights and short days initiate bloom  -A A +A  The
flowering of many plants is initiated by how many hours of light
and dark in a 24-hour period.  By Jeneen Wiche  There are many
things that come together to allow plants to thrive. When it
comes to plants native to our area, we are not required to go to
great extremes to provide the ideal environment. An ideal
environment, however, means a great many different things
depending on what kind of plant you are.  This time of the year
we can do a couple of things for some favorite flowering plants.
The goal is to mimic a plant’s native habitat as closely as
possible; this is difficult in our homes, but success is likely
if you move some things outdoors through the remainder of
autumn.  For many tropical flowering plants we can initiate bud
set through managing day length and nighttime temperatures.
Instead of sticking your Christmas cactus in the closet for 12
hours a day, try just leaving it in a dark corner of the yard
for a few weeks.  The flowering