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How to Propagate Christmas Cactus + 2 Secrets To Big, Blooming Plants

Many houseplant lovers enjoy propagating and sharing their plants. But Christmas cactus, in particular, are often part of a family legacy, with cuttings handed down from a family member’s plant for generations.

These cuttings are often much more meaningful than your average propagated plant.

Potting soil, rubbing alcohol, a pot, small scissor and cotton balls and Christmas cactus cuttings ready to be propagated.

My largest Schlumbergera, a Thanksgiving cactus, started as a cutting given to me by my grandmother-in-law nearly twenty-two years ago.

Now, my daughter has her own, started from a segment taken from my plant. Her small thanksgiving cactus is a living reminder of her great-grandmother, who has been gone for some time.

A large Thanksgiving cactus in bloom.

Christmas cacti (Schlumbergera bridgessii) are one of the easiest houseplants to propagate, and not just the Christmas variety, but all members of the Schlumbergera family – Thanksgiving cactus and Easter cactus as well. These particular plants are collectively known as holiday cacti, each named for the holiday they bloom closest to.

If you have no idea which kind you have, you’ll want to check out our full Christmas Cactus Guide

Read More: Christmas Cactus Care & How to Identify Each Variety

Part of their popularity as family gifts stems from how easy they are to propagate.

Whether you’re starting a plant as a living heirloom or just grabbing a cutting from a friend, I’ve got a few secrets up my sleeve that will ensure you end up with large, beautiful plants instead of a spindly twig sticking up out of the dirt.

Related Reading: 13 Common Christmas Cactus Problems & How to Fix Them

A Thanksgiving cactus, an Easter cactus and a Christmas cactus, all Schlumbergera.

Let’s get our hands dirty and propagate some Christmas cactus!

Sanitize Your Tools

Scissors sterilized with a cotton ball prior to taking Christmas cactus cuttings.

Whenever you’re taking a cutting from an established plant, it’s important to use clean and sterilized scissors. It only takes a few seconds to swipe your scissor blades with an alcohol-soaked cotton ball. This little extra step ensures you won’t transmit any disease-causing microbes to your plant.

Select Your Segment

Selecting a Christmas cactus stem for propagation.

When choosing a section to propagate, you want to pick a y-shaped piece with at least three leaf segments. The larger the piece, the more sections you will have to stick in the dirt.

Cut the piece from the cactus where two leaf segments meet. This area is where the root nodes are. If you cut your section here, the part left behind can continue to grow.

Close up Christmas cactus cutting with the nodes circled in yellow.

Now cut your main cutting into smaller segments, making sure each one has at least three segments to it.

Callous

These cuttings will need to callous over for a couple of days. Let them sit somewhere dry, out of direct sunlight. The open cuts on the plant are highly susceptible to rot until they callous over, which is why you can’t immediately poke them in the soil.

Christmas Cactus Propagation Secret #1

Start with a Full-Size Pot

A 6" ceramic pot is the perfect size to propagate Christmas cactus.

It’s not always advisable to start plants in a large-sized pot. The general rule is to start small and let them grow into their pot before potting up. However, I’ve found it’s a little different with Christmas cactus.

If you’ve ever tried to repot a Christmas cactus, then you know how delicate their segments are. You usually end up with a bunch of broken segments, no matter how careful you are. Christmas cacti do not like to be repotted and prefer to be a bit rootbound when they’re fully grown.

When starting a Christmas cactus cutting, start with a 6”-8” pot. This sized pot is the perfect size for a fully established Schlumbergera. You’ll be amazed at how quickly they grow and fill out if you start it in its permanent home.

And you won’t end up breaking off tender segments repotting it as it grows

Add Soil to Your Pot

Technically, Schlumbergera are succulents, not cactus so good drainage is important as they are susceptible to root rot. Premixed potting mixes specifically for succulents are great, but you can use any well-draining potting mix.

Blue ceramic pot filled with soil and moistened.

Fill your pot to within an inch of the top with soil and pre-moisten it. You want it to be quite damp but not soaking wet.

Christmas Cactus Propagation Secret #2

Plant Several Cuttings Together

Several Christmas cuttings planted close together to ensure successful propagation.

If you want a nice bushy Christmas cactus, it all starts right here.

Sure, you can poke a cutting in the middle of your pot, and it will grow, and eventually, new branches will begin to form. However, planting several cuttings at once, close together, ensures that the cactus will fill out the pot faster.

And, if you check out all those Thanksgiving cactus that hit the stores during the holidays, you will notice most of them were started with two to three cuttings placed in the center of the pot as well, ensuring a nice bushy plant goes to market.

Plant each segment so that the soil covers ½” above the node; this is where the new roots will develop.

I am slipping the Christmas cactus cuttings into the moistened soil.

Place your pot somewhere that will receive bright indirect sunlight. Your cuttings may look a little wilted for a few days, and that’s just fine. Don’t be tempted to water it thinking it’s wilting because it’s drying out. Wait until the top of the soil is dry before watering your new cuttings again. Then continue watering in this way as the roots are established.

After about a month, you should notice new growth on your newly established plant. New segments are often red around the edges as they grow.

Before you know it, you’ll have a full and lush Christmas cactus with tiny buds, ready to share with friends and family.

A single, pink Christmas cactus bud.

Can You Propagate Christmas Cactus In Water?

Yes, you can propagate a Christmas cactus using the water propagation method. For many plant lovers, half the fun of propagation is watching the roots develop underwater.

For Schlumbergera, the best and fastest method of propagation is directly in the soil.

While roots may develop faster in water, you still need to plant them once they develop, and as we’ve already discussed, Christmas cacti are delicate and break easily. The less handling they receive, the better.

It’s also important to be sure you let the cutting callous over well if you’re using water; otherwise, the cutting will rot and die.

A Christmas cactus cutting propagating in a jar of water.

But for you water propagation lovers, place the end of your segments (with at least three leaf segments attached) in a small container of water. Make sure the bottom node is submerged. (The space where one segment ends and the next begins.) Put your jar someplace where it will get bright indirect sunlight.

Within 4-6 weeks, you should have roots, and your tiny Schlumbergera will be ready to plant.

And that’s that; pretty easy, right?

Don’t forget to check out our total Christmas Cactus Care Guide as well.

And if you’re looking for even more great houseplants, you’ll want to check out these articles:

How To Propagate Spider Plants – With and Without Spiderettes

6 Signs Your Houseplants Need To Be Repotted & How To Do It

12 Houseplant Mistakes Almost Everyone Makes


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Tracey Besemer

Hey there, my name is Tracey. I’m the editor-in-chief here at Rural Sprout.

Many of our readers already know me from our popular Sunday newsletters. (You are signed up for our newsletters, right?) Each Sunday, I send a friendly missive from my neck of the woods in Pennsylvania. It’s a bit like sitting on the front porch with a friend, discussing our gardens over a cup of tea.

Originally from upstate NY, I’m now an honorary Pennsylvanian, having lived here for the past 18 years.

I grew up spending weekends on my dad’s off-the-grid homestead, where I spent much of my childhood roaming the woods and getting my hands dirty.

I learned how to do things most little kids haven’t done in over a century.

Whether it was pressing apples in the fall for homemade cider, trudging through the early spring snows of upstate NY to tap trees for maple syrup, or canning everything that grew in the garden in the summer - there were always new adventures with each season.

As an adult, I continue to draw on the skills I learned as a kid. I love my Wi-Fi and knowing pizza is only a phone call away. And I’m okay with never revisiting the adventure that is using an outhouse in the middle of January.

These days, I tend to be almost a homesteader.

I take an eclectic approach to homesteading, utilizing modern convenience where I want and choosing the rustic ways of my childhood as they suit me.

I’m a firm believer in self-sufficiency, no matter where you live, and the power and pride that comes from doing something for yourself.

I’ve always had a garden, even when the only space available was the roof of my apartment building. I’ve been knitting since age seven, and I spin and dye my own wool as well. If you can ferment it, it’s probably in my pantry or on my kitchen counter. And I can’t go more than a few days without a trip into the woods looking for mushrooms, edible plants, or the sound of the wind in the trees.

You can follow my personal (crazy) homesteading adventures on Almost a Homesteader and Instagram as @aahomesteader.

Peace, love, and dirt under your nails,

Tracey
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