Is your Christmas cactus lush and healthy and ready to be pruned? Take the Christmas cactus cuttings from your succulent and make new plants. The dependable, showy Christmas cactus is among my favorite houseplants. I remember my grandmother had one that bloomed each year. Perhaps that’s what inspired me to make sure I have one in the house each holiday season.
There’s something about seeing those wee little buds appear at the end of the “leaves” that fills me with hope and excitement. Sometimes it’s probably because I feel so amazed that a plant that’s been rather neglected manages to bloom. (My green thumb is more in its element outdoors.) For indoor plants, I’m starting to catch on to achieving that delicate balance between overwatering and underwatering, while paying close attention to the plant’s environment (light, air, etc.).
Could your Christmas cactus cuttings be from a Thanksgiving cactus? (And does it matter?)
The term Christmas cactus is more of a North American plant name because of the time of year when the plant blooms indoors. The plant belongs to the Schlumbergera family, of which there are about six to nine species. They’re epiphytic plants native to the rainforests of Brazil, and typically bloom around May.
In the last few years, there have been a lot of articles explaining the difference between a Thanksgiving cactus and a Christmas cactus. And it all has to do with bloom time and leaf shape (it’s easier to refer to them as leaves, though they’re actually flat stems).
There has been so much hybridization over the years, the lines about varieties have become a bit blurred. The Thanksgiving cactus is Schlumbergera truncata, also known as a crab cactus, because of the claw-like, serrated edge of the leaves. It blooms around U.S. Thanksgiving in November. The Christmas cactus, Schlumbergera x buckleyi, has more rounded, scalloped leaves and blooms in December. It is an 1800s-era cross between S. truncate and S. russelliana.
I think it’s worth noting that since Thanksgiving arrives much earlier in Canada (early October), both Thanksgiving and Christmas cacti seem to get the Christmas stamp. I recently purchased one and the plant tag clearly says Christmas cactus, but it looks like a Thanksgiving cactus (sometimes they have both in the description).
A cool environment and shorter days stimulate flower buds, so greenhouses can also manipulate bloom time for retail sales. Thanksgiving cactus blooms can be delayed. Confused yet? Whatever you purchase, it’s likely to be some type of Schlumbergera hybrid. And the plant care requirements are pretty much the same all around.
Taking Christmas cactus cuttings
After your plant has finished flowering, around the end of the year, you can prune it before the new growth begins around springtime. You can trim off up to two thirds of your plant. Don’t worry about trimming too much off unless you feel it’s overgrown. The stem nodes of a Christmas cactus look like interlocking pieces. Simply take a sharp pair of pruning snips and carefully trim between the stem nodes. You can also twist and bend the nodes until a piece breaks off. I use the snips to avoid damaging the plant.
Post-flowering time is also when you can add fertilizing your original plant to your houseplant fertilizing schedule. Christmas cacti don’t need a lot of fertilizer, but it can help stimulate the plant’s new growth throughout the year, and encourage the following year’s blooms. You can use a liquid organic fertilizer when watering, or add an organic granular fertilizer to the top of the soil in the plant container.
Once you’ve taken your plant cuttings, leave them out on a piece of newspaper in indirect light for a few days to get them ready for propagation. This will allow the cut ends made from the snips to heal, forming a callus. You don’t want your cuttings to rot. You’re now ready to plant.
How to plant Christmas cactus cuttings
Grab a small, four- or five-inch pot. I like to use terracotta pots because they have holes in the very bottom. Christmas and Thanksgiving cacti roots don’t like to be wet. Make sure whatever pot you choose has a hole in the bottom and a dish to catch the water. Fill your pot with indoor potting soil formulated for cacti. This potting mix will help the pot to drain well after each watering. Also, never allow your Christmas cactus plants to sit in water.
Push each healed plant cutting gently into the soil, so that the lower quarter or third of a leaf pad is buried (about half an inch or just over one centimetre). Depending on the size of your pot, you can probably manage to plant about three or four cuttings. It usually takes a couple of weeks for the cutting to develop new roots.
You can also try rooting Christmas cactus in water. Simply use a glass and fill so the water level accommodates the bottom of the lowest leaf pad is sitting in water. The great thing about this method is you can see when the roots have grown and know when your stem cutting is ready to be replanted. Once the roots have developed on your cutting, you can plant your cutting in soil mix, using the instructions described above.
Caring for your new plants
Be careful not to overwater new cuttings growing in soil. You may even want to use a mister to moisten the top layer of soil until the plants have become established. Then you can set up a regular watering schedule. Be sure the soil dries out between each watering. Check about once a week.
Christmas and Thanksgiving cacti do well in east- or west-facing windows, but with indirect sunlight. Direct sun can bleach the stems.
Your little seedlings should start to put on growth throughout the summer, and will hopefully flower for you in November or December. Blooming is stimulated by the lower light from the shorter days of fall.
When you see those telltale buds, it’s a good idea to leave the plant be, so the conditions remain exactly the same. Sometimes moving a Christmas cactus to another area of the house can disrupt the blooms, causing those promising little buds to shrivel up and fall off.
As I mentioned in the intro, I find houseplants can be finicky. I’m paying much closer attention these days to where I place my plants in my home. The House Plant Journal website is a great resource for figuring out light levels and other houseplant issues. The owner Darryl Cheng has also written a book about the subject called The New Plant Parent.
Great advice. I have a Christmas cactus that is at least 60-years old. It continues to thrive despite many moves and a variety of growing conditions.
That’s amazing, Allan!
I don’t have any windows that have sunlight coming in. What can I do to have mine Christmas Cactus grow.
I have a screened in patio here in south Texas
Hi Janelle, Your screened patio may be the perfect spot. I am leaving a couple of Texas-based articles here that provide growing conditions and temperature info, so you can determine the perfect growing location for your plant. https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/newsletters/hortupdate/hortupdate_archives/2005/nov05/ChrCact.html#:~:text=Christmas%20Cactus%20will%20thrive%20in,is%20considered%20optimum%20for%20growth.
https://www.centraltexasgardener.org/resource/christmas-cactus/
Try grow lights. I’ve gotten excellent results with LED lights on my variegated Christmas cactus.
Hello – great post! I’m wondering if you can help me with a question I’ve been unable to find the answer to so far…A couple of months ago I planted 3 segments of a Christmas cactus into soil (the segments only had one leaf each on them). They have now rooted quite well and the roots are about 1-2 inches long. When should I transplant them to a bigger pot, and when I transplant them do I group them together again or is it 1 segment per pot? Also even though the segments have rooted they have not started producing additional leaves..is this normal? Many thanks!
Hi Moira, when you transplant, add one segment per pot. It usually only takes a few weeks for new growth to appear from the tips of the leaves. It’s usually pinkish or red.
Hi! I have a question..my Christmas cactus bloomed between Thanksgiving and Christmas, which is normal, but a few weeks ago it started blooming again and it’s never done that before. Is it normal for it to bloom again so quickly and this time of year?
Hi Christina, Lucky you! I’ve had a Thanksgiving cactus bloom at a random time of year, too. It is obviously happy where it’s located!
Hi….I’m planning to put 4 cuttings from my Christmas cactus into a 10” pot this spring….I’m buying the soil because I’m afraid I might not make the right mix….is that too many in the pot?….also I use 1 teaspoon of epsom salt to one gallon of water….I heard that makes better flowers….is that right?….thanks
Four in a 10″ pot should be okay. The plants don’t need a lot of fertilizer, but I would suggest a liquid organic fertilizer or organic granular fertilizer.
I have quite a few Thanksgiving Cactuses – red, yellow, deep pink, and white; they all have the typical crab like stems. Today I purchased a very spikey plant that I think is a Thanksgiving Cactus, I’ve just never seen one so spikey.
Hi. From my understanding there are 3 cactus that are all very similar and get confused with each other. The most common is the Thanksgiving cactus and that is the spikey cactus you mentioned. Most of the time they sell Thanksgiving cactus labeled as a Christmas cactus. A very rare and hard to find cactus is the Christmas cactus. I have never been able to find a Christmas cactus in a store or greenhouse. I’ve only found a few online and they can be pricey. The 3rd one is the Easter cactus and u can usually find it around Easter at Lowes or Home Depot.
Hi. I have 4 different colored Thanksgiving cactus and in spring I would love to take a cutting of each and put in one pot.
I would love to have a pot of mixed cactus. Would this be ideal or should I only put 2 together?
I want to do the same thing! I was wondering how big the pot had to be to do a multicolor one!
A friend gave me a Christmas cactus cutting last winter – Christmas of 2020. It’s grown a lot since and seems happy enough with new leaf buds forming fairly regularly but didn’t bud this winter just gone. Is that normal? Im desperate to watch it flower!
Hi Danica, There could be a few reasons it hasn’t bloomed, for example if it’s too dry or if it hasn’t been exposed to lower light levels in the late fall.
My Christmas cactus is REALLY overgrown. Don’t know what to do with it. Any ideas?
Hi Marie, Wait until it has flowered this year and then prune it back before new growth begins around springtime. You can trim off up to two thirds of your plant.
Great information I need for my Christmas Cactus. I do plan to repot my plant just need to know the right soil to repot?
There is indoor potting soil you can purchase that is formulated for growing cacti.
Look for Espoma brand potting mix. I’ve had excellent results using it.