Green Christmas Decor: Live Tree, Poinsettia and Christmas Cactus

Potted poinsettia offer a sumptuous Christmas decor choice. Paired with a shiny red pot, a pot in a hand-woven basket or a fabric-covered pot, this beauty with its pointed blooms enhances any room.

Create an asymmetrical effect with one large poinsettia on one end of the mantle or one side of the coffee table and balance it with a pair of candlesticks on the other side.

Alternate poinsettias in different colors, such as flame-orange with cream or classic red with rose for an eye-catching Christmas display on the mantel or along the center of the dining room table. For a centerpiece, choose poinsettias under 14 inches tall from the base of the pot to the top of the plant so that guests can see each other.

Display a Christmas cactus in a decorative bowl or pot. Whimsical containers, such as a ceramic Santa's boot -- or even a real boot with a liner to catch water -- create an appealing Christmas-themed decoration.

For a simple and quick Christmas decorating scheme, tie matching cloth ribbons around a decorative pot for each Christmas cactus and place them around your home, such as in the entryway, on the coffee table, in a group of three on the dining table and on the kitchen counter. This creates a unified effect and gives you instant color throughout your home.

Instead of a Christmas tree, I bring a two-foot in diameter Christmas cactus indoors each year for Christmas. It's the same cactus that lived in my grandmother's patio from when I was a child. It brings forth cascades of blooms in translucent fuchsia. It's a living symbol of all the love and care my grandmother gave her plants and her family all of her life.

Outdoors, Christmas cacti do well in partial shade. Mine stands on a block in a half wine barrel, where its lush growth fans out in proportion to the container. The large trees in the yard protect it from the sun during the hot summer months, and as the days become shorter and darker it primes itself to bloom outrageously. I keep the house at 65 degrees -- comfortable for me and the plants, and it saves a significant amount of energy over having the heat cranked up.

Christmas Cacti produce shapely, vibrant blooms. Displaying them in light makes the most of their translucent delicacy. Direct a spot from the ceiling, or position a lamp to shine through the blossoms.