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How to Grow and Care for Christmas Cacti

Looking for a plant that will bloom while others sleep? You've come to the right place.

  • Grow in bright, indirect light.
  • Plant your Christmas cactus in Miracle-Gro® Cactus, Palm & Citrus Potting Mix.
  • Water when the top 1 to 2 inches of soil are dry, and increase humidity around the plant.
  • Feed your Christmas Cactus from after blooming until fall with Miracle-Gro® Succulent Plant Food.
  • Encourage blooming with less light and cooler temperatures for 6 weeks.
  • Prune after blooming for the best shape.
  • Root the stem sections you pruned off the plant to create more Christmas cacti.

Christmas cacti are a cinch to find in just about any garden center or grocery store starting in fall and continuing through until early spring. These easy-to-grow houseplants bloom while everything else is taking a break, so they're great for adding a bit of color inside during the winter. Many of the plants you'll see labeled "Christmas cactus" at the store are actually Thanksgiving cacti, which tend to bloom a little earlier. Don't worry, though—you care for both the same way.

Christmas and Thanksgiving cacti (both part of genus Schlumbergera) are native to the coastal mountains of southeast Brazil, and naturally grow among the tree branches or in cracks in the rocks at high elevations. These free-draining, shady, somewhat moist conditions of their original homes are a far cry from the deserts where we often think of cacti growing! That's important to know because you'll want to care for a Christmas cactus differently than you would other kinds of cacti.

Where to Grow a Christmas Cactus

Given its native climate, it won't surprise you that Christmas cacti thrive in bright, indirect light and humid conditions. Growing your Christmas cactus in a north- or east-facing window is ideal, but wherever you end up putting it, make sure to keep it out of direct sunlight. If you see the leaf-like pads turning red, that's a huge hint that they're getting too much light.

You can actually move Christmas cacti outside during the summer—they'll love the humidity! Just be sure to keep them in a protected, shady area (you could even hang them among the tree branches for a landscape surprise) and don't let pots sit in water after a heavy rain.


How to Repot a Christmas Cactus

Christmas cacti grow best—and usually produce more flowers—when their roots are snug in their containers. When the roots have pretty much filled the pot, though, follow these steps:

  1. Select a new pot that is just 1 to 2 inches wider than the current one and has a drainage hole.
  2. Fill the new container about ⅓ full with Miracle-Gro® Cactus, Palm & Citrus Potting Mix, which provides excellent drainage and a little bit of food to help your Christmas cactus thrive right off the bat.
  3. Gently remove your Christmas cactus from its original pot and place it in the new container. Check to make sure the top of the root ball is about 1 inch below the top of the container to make watering easier.
  4. Thoroughly water the plant, let it drain, and move it to its long-term home. Remember to set a plant saucer underneath the pot so moisture won't damage your furniture. 

Tip: The best time to repot is in late spring once plants have recovered from blooming and started to grow again.

 

How to Water a Christmas Cactus

Remember, Christmas cacti like soil with more moisture, unlike most other succulents. In general, water a Christmas cactus when the top inch or two of soil is dry. To help increase the humidity around your plant, fill the pot saucer with pebbles and add water to just below the tops of the pebbles (the pot shouldn’t be sitting directly in water). The air will become more humid as the water evaporates. For tips on watering when you’re trying to encourage your Christmas cactus to rebloom, keep reading.

 

How to Feed a Christmas Cactus

In order to give you those gorgeous blooms for the holidays, give Christmas cacti regular, feedings with Miracle-Gro® Succulent Plant Food from the time they finish blooming all the way into fall—that’s how they store up enough energy to produce the next round of flowers.

 

How to Get a Christmas Cactus to Bloom 

To get a Christmas cactus to bloom, you need to give it 6 weeks of "short days" (meaning 13 to 16 hours of total darkness) and cool temperatures. In the fall, move your plant near a window without direct light in a cool room (55 to 60 °F) that doesn’t get used at night. Keep the door shut and the lights off, stop feeding, and cut back on watering. After 6 weeks, bring the temperature in the room up to 65 °F and allow the plant a little more light. As soon as you see flower buds starting to form at the ends of the stems, move your Christmas cactus where it belongs: center stage for the holidays!

 

How to Prune and Propagate More Christmas Cactus

When given the kind of TLC we’ve been talking about, Christmas cacti can live for decades. To keep yours full and bushy, you’ll want to prune it once it finishes blooming. Don’t worry—it’s a really simple process. Just remove 2 or 3 stem sections per branch on about half the plant by giving the stem a quick twist between segments. You can prune the other stems next year. If branches start breaking off because the plant is so large, trim it a little more. That’s it!

Instead of tossing those pruned sections into the compost, why not root them to make more lovely Christmas cacti for your friends? The process for propagating Christmas cacti is pretty simple:

  1. Let the cuttings sit for a few days to allow the end to dry.
  2. Dip the end of each cutting into rooting hormone and stick it in a small container filled with lightly moist potting mix. You can root several cuttings in a single container. Just make sure your container has drainage!
  3. Let the cuttings sit for a few weeks, keeping the potting mix just slightly moist.
  4. Once they have roots, you can start to water them a bit more.
  5. As they grow, move your new Christmas cactus babies into their own pots.

 

How to Deal with Christmas Cactus Problems

These plants are pretty easy to grow, but they do have some common issues worth knowing about.

  • Blooms drop off before opening. The culprit here is usually a sudden change in light, drafts of cold or hot air, or large swings in moisture level. Move the plant if it’s in a draft, even out your watering, and if you recently moved the plant into more or less light, try leaving it alone for a while to recover.
  • The plant is turning red. This means the plant is getting too much light, so move it to a new spot that's farther away from the window.
  • Areas of the plant have turned black and slimy. If this happens, it’s likely that your Christmas cactus has a fungal or bacterial disease. Unfortunately, the best course of action usually is to throw out the plant and start over.
  • The base of the plant looks woody or corky. This is normal and simply means that you’ve had the plant long enough for it to begin aging—and that’s a wonderful thing. Congratulations!

 

When properly cared for, Christmas cacti (and Thanksgiving cacti) can brighten your home with beautiful flowers and unique foliage during a season where few plants bloom. Give it a try—it's a wonderful indoor plant that you'll love for many years to come.

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