Prune Your Christmas Cactus in 5 Steps

Pruning a plant is a bit like trimming your particular person hair: Logically, you already know that it is going to all develop once more. Nevertheless the part of you tentatively holding the scissors is feeling pretty apprehensive. Don’t panic! Pruning doesn’t must set off so much anxiousness; significantly on a species as forgiving as a result of the Christmas cactus.

Schlumbergera x buckleyi is a much-loved houseplant well-liked for its longevity and winter-flowering nature. Of their native Brazil, Christmas cacti anchor themselves to shady cliffs and tree nooks and accumulate nutritional vitamins from wildlife droppings and decaying leaf litter. Potted up in a entrance room, they like well-drained, barely acidic soil. In stark distinction to their desert-dwelling cousins, these vegetation need light temperatures and a great deal of water. 

Why Prune Your Christmas Cactus?

Youthful Christmas cacti have an upright growth sort, nonetheless as they age, the basal stems thicken and develop to be woody. The branches will lengthen and start to drape downward. This provides it a extremely elegant look, nevertheless over time, it should in all probability look leggy and a bit scraggly. Pruning can reshape and improve the appears to be like of these lovely long-lived beauties.

Pruning can also help promote flowering. This species varieties flowers utterly on the ends of the stems, significantly the place the segments of the flattened stems meet. Additional stems will lastly equal additional flowers.

One other excuse to current your houseplant a haircut? To make additional of them! This species can merely be propagated with stem cuttings. 

Step 1: Wait Until It’s Accomplished Blooming

Prune your Christmas cactus correct after it has accomplished blooming nevertheless sooner than it begins actively rising as soon as extra. That’s often spherical February or March. Pruning proper now will direct the upcoming energy in path of manufacturing new stems instead of down present stems. The end result? A lush, bushy plant comparatively than longer stems.

Don’t prune previous summer season season. The Christmas cactus begins to direct energy in path of flower bud formation in early fall. As quickly as buds begin to sort, it’s best to go away them undisturbed. As short-day vegetation, Christmas cacti require a lot of uninterrupted weeks of cool temperatures and prolonged (12+ hours per 24-hour day) stretches of darkness to set off flowering.

Step 2: Uncover the Appropriate Pruning Stage 

Lucky for us, the pure type of a Christmas cacti’s stem makes pruning pretty foolproof. The segmented stems are composed of many leaf-like buildings often called phylloclades. Botanically speaking, these are often not true leaves, nevertheless they do carry out photosynthesis. Choose a slender joint between division segments. It will probably naturally produce 1-2 new phylloclades the place it was decrease.

Stay away from decreasing the hardened, woody growth down near the crown. Woody stems are a pure part of the rising older course of and a sign of a mature plant! Comply with the softer, inexperienced growth near the highest of the stem.

Step 3: Make the Cut back

The second you’ve been prepared for: time to prune your Christmas cactus! Some gardeners merely twist the stem at one in all many slender joints. I need to utilize a pair of pruners or a knife to avoid tearing. In case you choose to utilize pruners or a pair of snips, make sure they’re clear sooner than using them. In case you’re hoping to propagate your cuttings, make sure each stem decreasing has on the very least 3-4 segments and is a lot of inches prolonged. 

Step 4: Decide on a Quick Snip or Exhausting Cut back

In case you merely must tidy up or take away a number of stray stems, a lot of quick snips ought to do it. Older vegetation which is likely to be additional giant might start to drop branches that they’re going to no longer assist. On this situation, you may want to decrease considerably more durable.

For those who’re making an attempt to drastically reshape the plant or take away a number of of its mass, you can prune as a lot as one third of the foliage. Eradicating a few third of the leaves at any given time might ship it into shock. The plant might or couldn’t flower inside the upcoming season.

Step 5: Make Additional Crops

Now, what to do with all these bits of stem? That’s the correct various to broaden your Christmas cactus assortment (or a superb pal’s) and propagate a lot of new vegetation! Chances are high you will want to start a lot of stem cuttings to up your odds of worthwhile propagation.

Let the stem decreasing dry for a day. This will allow the wound to callous over, which, in flip, will forestall rot. Then, place the decreasing upright in moistened potting mix. Christmas cacti require very sharply drained soil that is comparatively nutrient poor. Use a potting mix significantly made for succulents and cacti, or make your particular person potting mix out of potting soil, perlite, and coarse gravel or sand.

Put the planted stem decreasing in a shiny, warmth (65-75°F or 18-24°C) location. Maintain the potting mix persistently moist nevertheless not waterlogged. Quite a lot of spritzes with a sprig bottle will help amp up the humidity with out drowning the stem decreasing. You’ll be able to too affix a plastic bag or dome throughout the vegetation to maintain up humidity.

It can probably take 2-3 weeks for roots to sort. Be affected individual! As quickly as new growth begins rising on the tip, you can re-pot the stem decreasing in a much bigger container of your choice. Chances are high you will want to attempt planting 2-3 stem cuttings collectively to help fill out a much bigger container. New cuttings is likely to be propagated at any time of 12 months, nevertheless you might need among the finest results in late spring.