In article , "Volfie"
wrote:

"David Ross" wrote
The original message in this thread was about an overgrown plant
that the owner wanted to cut back. Replacing it with newly rooted
cuttings will result in a more vigorous plant.

I understood the original post and your reply but I still don't understand
the reasoning of taking cuttings and tossing the original. My plant blooms
4-5 months out of the year. That seems to be pretty darn vigorous to me.
Are you telling me cuttings would do better than that?

But, again, why not simply divide an overgrown plant or cut it back? Why
must the whole cycle begin from scratch? But, hey, I love the size and the
natural spreading droop that old plants have so maybe it's just me...

Giselle

An old, big christmas cactus is a wonderful thing, it can bulk up its
center & almost become bonsai-tree-like, & as long as the tips are pruned,
it blooms fabulously & couldn't do better. The only conceivable reason I
can think of to toss the parent would be if someone didn't want a bulked
up big plant that needed a much bigger pot, as eventually the roots do
outgrow a smaller pot.

I wonder if the advice isn't misdirected from the recommended care of
orchid cacti, which bloom all along their scalloped edges, but only once
at each dent. After a few years, an old plant dominated by old leaves will
have hardly any place left that hasn't already used up its one-time-only
flower spots, & the most common method of restore the blooms is to start
from scratch with a couple of cuttings & get a completely new plant, even
though pruning out old leaves will encourage the parent plant to produce
just as many new leaflike stems for new flowers.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com