Didn’t your mother tell you to mind your Ps and Qs? Well, we’re going to mind the Christmas Cactus Ps. (I don’t know that there are any Qs.)
As the weather warms and the days lengthen, these plants start to break dormancy, making it the perfect time of year for some specialized care. A little effort now will pay off with lots of flowers over the holidays.
What are the 3 Ps of Spring Christmas Cactus Care?
Springtime means your Christmas cactus is beginning its new growth cycle. As well as having different watering and feeding needs at this time of year, it’s the perfect time to pot up, prune and propagate.
Let’s take a look at what’s changing with your Schlumbergera right now.
After all, now is the time to build the foundation for tons of beautiful blooms throughout the holidays. Far too often, people notice they don’t have buds forming in the fall. At that point, it’s too late, and there isn’t much you can do. However, giving your Christmas cactus a little attention now will put you on the right path for blossoms later this year.
Waking From a Long Winter’s Nap
Holiday cactuses, whether they bloom at Thanksgiving or Christmas, enter a state of dormancy after their blooming period. They’ve just spent a considerable amount of energy producing flowers, so during the deep winter, when days are shortest, the plant shuts down to conserve energy. During this period, it uses far less water and doesn’t need to be fertilized because it’s not growing. It basically hibernates for a few weeks after the holidays.
Don’t you wish you could be a Christmas cactus after the holidays? Me too.
As the days begin to grow longer, the Christmas cactus will break this dormant period and enter its annual growth cycle. A good sign that your Christmas cactus has broken its winter dormant period is tiny new cladodes (leave segments).
You might even see a flower bud or two; we’ll get to those later.
As soon as you see these signs, it’s time to jump into action. This short window in the early spring, before the plant starts growing in earnest, is the optimum time for any big changes. (Those 3 Ps I mentioned.)
Water and Fertilizer
We’ll start with the basics. Now that your plant is up and about after its rest (Well, hello there, sleepy head!), it will need to be watered more often. The plant will also need nutrients to support new growth so you can start fertilizing again, too.
Water
Christmas cactus do not like wet feet. They are prone to both root rot and crown rot. Be sure the plant is in a pot with a drainage hole and well-draining potting soil, preferably something meant for epiphytes. More on that later.
The best way to water Christmas cactuses is to wet the soil thoroughly, let it drain, and then allow the soil to dry out almost completely before you water it again. When using the fingertip test, most plants need to be watered when the soil is dry to your first knuckle. With Schlumbergera, water it when the soil is dry to your second knuckle.
Never let them sit in water. Drain any standing water from the saucer; this is especially important to remember when pots have attached saucers.
Fertilizer
As far as fertilizing goes, choose a balanced houseplant fertilizer. I like Dr. Earth Pure Gold Pump and Grow. I use it every time I water at ¼ strength.
In late summer, I switch to Schultz African Violet Fertilizer. I am obsessed with African violets, so I always have this on hand. On a whim one year, I decided to try this stuff on my Christmas cactus, too – amazing results. So, that’s my routine now.
Water with plain water every 4-6 weeks to rinse salts from the soil.
The 3 Ps of Spring
Pruning
This one is the most important to do early in the spring. You want to do it right before the plant breaks dormancy or immediately after. If you wait until the plant is actively putting out new cladodes, you could disrupt the growth for that year.
While it’s as simple as twisting or cutting off cladodes, there are some reasons why you may want to prune one area over another.
- You might want to prune one side more than the other to create a more balanced plant.
- You may wish to remove segments to encourage double or even triple cladode growth per segment for a bushier plant.
- Pruning can also support a newly repotted plant. I repotted a large, older Christmas cactus and pruned it hard to take the weight off of the main stems and allow it to root and fill the new pot properly.
Take a couple of minutes to read my guide on how to prune Christmas cactus. Read it once, and you’ll easily be able to prune your Christmas cactus with confidence each spring.
Propagating
Of course, if you’re pruning your Christmas cactus, don’t let those cladodes you take off go to waste.
Spring is the perfect time to propagate Schlumbergera. Each cladode is equipped with cells to grow more, so even a simple pruning can provide you with plenty of cladodes and segments to propagate a full Christmas cactus.
It’s much easier than you think; you can learn how to propagate Christmas cactus via soil or water by clicking here. I’ve also included some tips on how to ensure you get large, bushy Christmas cactuses from your cuttings.
By the way, if you prune your Christmas cactus every year and use the cladodes to propagate some plants, you’ll have easy and beautiful Christmas presents ready to go for the holidays.
Potting Up (And repotting)
Unlike most plants, Christmas cactuses can go quite a long time before they need to be repotted. In fact, potting them up too often or moving them into too large a pot is one of the reasons for few or no blossoms during the holidays.
Likewise, potting them up into too big a pot means you won’t get blossoms for a year or two.
The plants prefer to be a bit cramped before they will bloom.
On the other side of that coin, if your holiday cactus won’t bloom and you’ve addressed all the other possible issues, a likely cause could be that the plant is too rootbound and needs to be repotted, either into a larger pot or into the same pot with the roots trimmed.
So, while spring is the best time to repot or pot up, make sure your Christmas cactus actually needs it before you go about doing it. If you’re potting up into a larger pot, only go up by an inch.
Potting up very large Christmas cactuses can be intimidating.
Especially if they haven’t been repotted in a number of years. I highly suggest reading my guide on how to repot Christmas cactuses to make the job easier and less daunting.
Now that we’ve addressed the 3 Ps of springtime Christmas cactus care, there is one other fun thing you can do with your Christmas cactus in the spring.
A Second Bloom?
Remember that random bud I mentioned earlier? You can make more of them. You can get your Christmas cactus to bloom for a second time after the holidays. There won’t be as many blossoms this time around, but it is kind of a neat thing to do.
If you didn’t get many blooms during the holidays, this is a great way to have a do-over.
Going for a second bloom is something fun to do during a year when you don’t need to repot or heavily prune your Christmas cactus. All you need to do is force a false dormancy by replicating environmental factors that trigger the dormant period they naturally go through to set buds.
Recreating shorter days and longer nights is pretty easy, but getting the temperature right is the part that needs a little creativity this time of year. I walk you through how to trick nature into a second blooming period here.
Prepping For a Summer Outside
Another benefit to attending to the 3 Ps each spring is that your Christmas cactus will be ready to go outdoors once the weather warms up enough. Out of all my tips and tricks to get Christmas cactus to bloom, by far, the simplest and most effective is to put your Schlumbergera outdoors for the summer.
Granted, if you’re the type of person who may forget about it and pay less attention to it once it’s outside, this can be a recipe for a dead plant.
But if you make sure your Christmas cactus is watered and fertilized regularly and doesn’t receive too much sun, letting it live outdoors all summer is the best way to ensure it will be loaded with buds in time for the holidays. Here’s everything you need to know about why it works and how to do it successfully.
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