The holiday season is a great time to enjoy the beauty of a Christmas cactus.
This popular houseplant, with its vibrant pink or white flowers, often blooms in time for the winter holidays.
If you cultivate your own Christmas cactus, you can enjoy not one but many plants with just a few simple steps.
Here’s how to propagate Christmas cactus from cuttings and get your friends and family in on the fun.
Getting Started
Christmas cacti (Schlumbergera spp.) are native to Brazil’s tropical forests, so they tend to thrive in slightly humid environments.
That said, they can be successful houseplants as long as you provide them with adequate light and water them when their soil has dried out completely.
As it grows, your plant will produce offsets—smaller versions of itself that sprout from the soil around the mother plant.
You can easily remove these offshoots from the soil and use them for propagation.
Taking Cuttings
The best time to take cuttings from your existing Christmas cactus is during springtime when new growth appears at the ends of each stem segment.
Use sharp gardening shears or scissors to snip off several sections about 2-3 inches long from the ends of stems that have several segments attached.
Make sure each cutting contains at least two segments bearing buds or nascent leaves (or “eyes”).
Then place the cuttings aside until they develop calluses over their cuts; this typically takes 1-2 days.
Preparing Cuttings
Once callused, fill a pot with moistened potting mix specifically formulated for succulents or cacti (available online or at garden centers).
Create small depressions in the mix and insert one cutting into each depression.
Press lightly on the surface of the potting mix around each cutting so that it stays upright while rooting.
Mist lightly around each cutting once they are firmly planted in their pots.
Then cover loosely with plastic wrap or an upside-down clear plastic cup to keep humidity high while roots form (usually within 4-6 weeks).
When roots appear through drainage holes in the bottom of containers, gently tug on cuttings to check for rootedness.
If resistance is felt, then transplant into individual pots filled with fresh succulent/cacti mix later that day or first thing the next morning before watering newly potted plants.
Conclusion
With proper care and attention, propagating Christmas cactus by taking cuttings is an easy process that will give you multiple plants in no time!
The key is patience—you don’t want to rush things or risk damaging fragile stems by yanking too soon—but if you follow these steps closely, you’ll be able to share beautiful blooming plants with family members during this holiday season and many more seasons down the road! Have fun!
