Sign up for our daily newsletter to get gardening tips and advice.
Growing Christmas Cactus Plants: Watering, Light, Propagation, and More!
ADVERTISEMENT
Hi, the leaves on my Christmas Cactus are turning red, do you know why this is and can it be rectified?
Thank you x
Hi Mary,
There are a few reasons why your Christmas cactus leaves have turned red. Excessive light, typically when it receives too much direct sunlight, can turn the leaves of a Christmas cactus a reddish color. It does best when placed in a location that receives bright, indirect light.
Other reasons for red leaves are a lack of water, magnesium deficiency, or your plant is too root bound. Christmas cactus like to be root bound, but should be repotted every 3 or 4 years. A sign that it needs to be repotted is if roots grow out of the drainage holes at the bottom of your container.
I have had Christmas Cacti for the better part of 33 years (one of the plants was thought to have “died” and was given to me when I said I’d like to take it - I was able to “coax” it back to life and have had it ever since, so who knows how old it actually is?) Regardless, I have always seemed to have had luck with these plants, watering about once every 3 weeks as well as rotating the pots a quarter of a turn. Just recently, a friend saw me do this and she said they should NEVER be rotated. I wonder now, what is the “proper” way? Even though I’ve managed to keep my plants alive for quite some time, have I been doing it all wrong?
Thank you for this great article. I may finally have some success with the new plant that I recently purchased. My plant already has a few blooms that have given all the beauty they can and I think they need to be removed. When and how is the best way to do this? Subject: Dead-heading Christmas Cactus blooms?
Deadheading all the spent blooms by pinching off the flowers. This also encourages the plant to continue blooming.
I gave my neighbor a clipping off my Christmas cactus and it us blooming beautiful with little white spikes coming from each flower mine never has so wondering what is causing it as it is beautiful
Hi Judy,
What a nice gift for your neighbor! Christmas cactus are a wonderful addition to the holiday season. From what you have explained, it sounds like you are describing the filaments that extend from the base of the plant’s blooms. At the end of these filaments are the anthers and are one way to determine if you have a Christmas cactus or Thanksgiving cactus. Christmas cactus anthers are purplish, while Thanksgiving are yellow. If your Christmas cactus is not producing filaments, it may be due to an underlying issue. You can refer to our Growing section above to see if there is anything that you may need to adjust to maximize the bloom of your plant.
When the flowers start wilting, should I pick them off or let them fall off by themselves.
When is a good time to repot the Christmas plant.
Hi Jean,
Late winter or early spring is the best time to repot a Christmas cactus. You want to wait until the blooming period has ended and the flowers have wilted. You never want to repot when the plant is actively blooming. One thing to know is that Christmas cactus like to be pot bound and should only be repotted every 3 or 4 years when roots begin to grow through its pot’s drainage holes or flower production has diminished from the previous year.