"A. Turner" wrote:

Hi Fellow Gardeners:

I have 2 Xmas Cactus plants inside my home that are growing wild!
They bloom beautifully, but are really overgrown for the size of the
pot. Very difficult to manage/water them.

What is the safest way to trim these plants? Where should the cut be
positioned? Anything I need to watch out for?

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Instead of trimming them, take cuttings. Cut right at a joint,
taking cuttings that contain at least two segments. You should
take 3-4 cuttings from each plant.

Dip the cut end into rooting hormone powder. Let the cuttings
air-dry for about three days in the shade.

Pot the cuttings in a mix of 3 parts clean sand to 2 parts peat
moss. (In a 4-inch pot, you can put two cuttings.) Keep the mix
moist but not soggy. (If the pots are in saucers, there should be
no standing water in the saucer for more than a few minutes.) Keep
the pots out of direct sun but in strong indirect light.

If you do this now, check for roots after the parent plants bloom
(in about 4-6 months). If you get rooted cuttings, discard the
parent plant, replacing it with one or two rooted cuttings.

For potting, use the same mix as for rooting the cuttings but add a
small amount of bonemeal and a little compost. See my
http://www.rossde.com/garden/garden_potting_mix.html; however,
with newly rooted cuttings, do not add other nutrients until after
new growth appears.

--

David E. Ross
http://www.rossde.com/

I use Mozilla as my Web browser because I want a browser that
complies with Web standards. See http://www.mozilla.org/.

Hi Fellow Gardeners:

I have 2 Xmas Cactus plants inside my home that are growing wild!
They bloom beautifully, but are really overgrown for the size of the
pot. Very difficult to manage/water them.

What is the safest way to trim these plants? Where should the cut be
positioned? Anything I need to watch out for?

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Adam

"A. Turner" wrote:

Hi Fellow Gardeners:

I have 2 Xmas Cactus plants inside my home that are growing wild!
They bloom beautifully, but are really overgrown for the size of the
pot. Very difficult to manage/water them.

What is the safest way to trim these plants? Where should the cut be
positioned? Anything I need to watch out for?

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Instead of trimming them, take cuttings. Cut right at a joint,
taking cuttings that contain at least two segments. You should
take 3-4 cuttings from each plant.

Dip the cut end into rooting hormone powder. Let the cuttings
air-dry for about three days in the shade.

Pot the cuttings in a mix of 3 parts clean sand to 2 parts peat
moss. (In a 4-inch pot, you can put two cuttings.) Keep the mix
moist but not soggy. (If the pots are in saucers, there should be
no standing water in the saucer for more than a few minutes.) Keep
the pots out of direct sun but in strong indirect light.

If you do this now, check for roots after the parent plants bloom
(in about 4-6 months). If you get rooted cuttings, discard the
parent plant, replacing it with one or two rooted cuttings.

For potting, use the same mix as for rooting the cuttings but add a
small amount of bonemeal and a little compost. See my
http://www.rossde.com/garden/garden_potting_mix.html; however,
with newly rooted cuttings, do not add other nutrients until after
new growth appears.

--

David E. Ross
http://www.rossde.com/

I use Mozilla as my Web browser because I want a browser that
complies with Web standards. See http://www.mozilla.org/.

In article ,
(A. Turner) wrote:

Hi Fellow Gardeners:

I have 2 Xmas Cactus plants inside my home that are growing wild!
They bloom beautifully, but are really overgrown for the size of the
pot. Very difficult to manage/water them.

What is the safest way to trim these plants? Where should the cut be
positioned? Anything I need to watch out for?

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Adam

They can be separated between any pair of leaves (really leaf-like
branches called "phylloclades") to keep it to a preferable size & to
insure lots of blooms its next flowering season. Ideally one to three
phylloclades are scissored off at the joints shortly after it finishes
flowering, but more can be cut off if its really getting too big, & doing
it later in the year won't hurt it though you will be removing wee starts
of buds by doing it in summer so it will not be quite so full of blooms
that year. The removed phylloclades are exceedingly easy to root, too, so
pot up the clippings & before long they'll be growing fast too, ready to
give to friends or to kids in the family if they've shown even slight
interest in plants.

Pruning causes the tips of the branches to fork, resulting in more places
for buds & flowers. Pruning also stimulates root growth, so eventually you
will have to move it to a bigger pot, though they can stand being
rootbound for quite a long time.

If they've been blooming great for a few years already, I presume you know
about chilling them for a couple of weeks late in autumn. If they're in a
drafty window or unheated plant room or porch, they'll be naturally
chilled enough (a "chill" meaning only about 50 degrees F., though they
can tolerate lower) but in a well heated & well insulated house they may
not experience sufficient chill for them to detect seasons, which they
need to do in order to finish preparing their buds.

-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

In article ,
(A. Turner) wrote:

Hi Fellow Gardeners:

I have 2 Xmas Cactus plants inside my home that are growing wild!
They bloom beautifully, but are really overgrown for the size of the
pot. Very difficult to manage/water them.

What is the safest way to trim these plants? Where should the cut be
positioned? Anything I need to watch out for?

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Adam

They can be separated between any pair of leaves (really leaf-like
branches called "phylloclades") to keep it to a preferable size & to
insure lots of blooms its next flowering season. Ideally one to three
phylloclades are scissored off at the joints shortly after it finishes
flowering, but more can be cut off if its really getting too big, & doing
it later in the year won't hurt it though you will be removing wee starts
of buds by doing it in summer so it will not be quite so full of blooms
that year. The removed phylloclades are exceedingly easy to root, too, so
pot up the clippings & before long they'll be growing fast too, ready to
give to friends or to kids in the family if they've shown even slight
interest in plants.

Pruning causes the tips of the branches to fork, resulting in more places
for buds & flowers. Pruning also stimulates root growth, so eventually you
will have to move it to a bigger pot, though they can stand being
rootbound for quite a long time.

If they've been blooming great for a few years already, I presume you know
about chilling them for a couple of weeks late in autumn. If they're in a
drafty window or unheated plant room or porch, they'll be naturally
chilled enough (a "chill" meaning only about 50 degrees F., though they
can tolerate lower) but in a well heated & well insulated house they may
not experience sufficient chill for them to detect seasons, which they
need to do in order to finish preparing their buds.

-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

Cut the joints at the nodes.


"A. Turner" wrote in message
om...
Hi Fellow Gardeners:

I have 2 Xmas Cactus plants inside my home that are growing wild!
They bloom beautifully, but are really overgrown for the size of the
pot. Very difficult to manage/water them.

What is the safest way to trim these plants? Where should the cut be
positioned? Anything I need to watch out for?

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Adam

Cut the joints at the nodes.


"A. Turner" wrote in message
om...
Hi Fellow Gardeners:

I have 2 Xmas Cactus plants inside my home that are growing wild!
They bloom beautifully, but are really overgrown for the size of the
pot. Very difficult to manage/water them.

What is the safest way to trim these plants? Where should the cut be
positioned? Anything I need to watch out for?

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Adam

Depending on where you live and when you take the cutting, they can produce roots in a few days. I wouldn't use a rooting hormone for two reasons - 1) it's a waste of money 2) rooting hormones can slow down rooting on plants that root readily without.

Volfie \"WackoURaSmallKnob\" Jackson wrote:

"David Ross" wrote
Instead of trimming them, take cuttings. Cut right at a joint,
taking cuttings that contain at least two segments. You should
take 3-4 cuttings from each plant.
[..]
If you get rooted cuttings, discard the
parent plant
[..]

ARGH!!! WHY??

What's the reasoning behind throwing away the parent plant? I have a Xmas
cactus that started from a cutting my Grandfather gave me in the early 70s.
It's about 3' in diameter right now and it blooms for four or four and a
half months out of the year. I can't imagine throwing away the parent
plant.

Giselle (about every four years I move it to a slightly larger pot and
change the soil, that's it)

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 have several potted plants that originated with gifts (especially
from my mother). Although I cherish the plants, they are cuttings
from cuttings from cuttings . . . I cherish them more because they
grow so nicely. And my mother had been doing the same before she
gave them to me.

--

David E. Ross
http://www.rossde.com/

I use Mozilla as my Web browser because I want a browser that
complies with Web standards. See http://www.mozilla.org/.

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

"paghat" wrote
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 love it huge. It can grow until I have to plant it in kiddie pool, I
don't care.

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.
[..]

Okay, I have never heard of those but I wonder if it's what I saw one time
in a lawyer's office. He had a HUGE plant that had enormous flowers on it
that looked like the Christmas cactus' flowers but were much bigger. And
this plant was on a stand about four feet tall and it almost draped to the
floor. Is that what an Orchid cactus looks like? I always wanted one of
whatever that was but I never got to ask him.

Giselle (who just lost my 35 year old jade tree and almost had a stroke
about it)

In article , "Volfie"
wrote:

"paghat" wrote
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 love it huge. It can grow until I have to plant it in kiddie pool, I
don't care.

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.
[..]

Okay, I have never heard of those but I wonder if it's what I saw one time
in a lawyer's office. He had a HUGE plant that had enormous flowers on it
that looked like the Christmas cactus' flowers but were much bigger. And
this plant was on a stand about four feet tall and it almost draped to the
floor. Is that what an Orchid cactus looks like? I always wanted one of
whatever that was but I never got to ask him.

Sounds like that's what it was. Here's my page on orchid cacti:
http://www.paghat.com/orchidcactus.html
They're super easy to grow in diffuse light.

-paghat

Giselle (who just lost my 35 year old jade tree and almost had a stroke
about it)

--
"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

On 23 Jul 2004 11:15:45 -0700, (A. Turner) wrote:

Hi Fellow Gardeners:

I have 2 Xmas Cactus plants inside my home that are growing wild!
They bloom beautifully, but are really overgrown for the size of the
pot. Very difficult to manage/water them.

What is the safest way to trim these plants? Where should the cut be
positioned? Anything I need to watch out for?

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Adam

I have several varieties of zygocactus. Mine become lop-sided if not
pruned. At the end of the rest period, I cut back the plant perhaps 3
or 4 nodes and make the plant symmetrical. That is a good time to
repot the plant, if needed. I would not trim the plant at this
(actively growing) time. I don't understand how a plant can be
difficult to manage or water (?)

"Volfie" wrote in message
...

"A. Turner" wrote in message
om...
Thank you all for the advice!

I'm intrigued by David's idea of new growth from cuttings. FWIW, the
central/original stems of my 2 Xmas Cacti (pardon the layman term) are
very hardy and woody, so it might not be a bad idea to start a new
growth from tender cuts.

Sent them to me and I'll buy you new ones.

Giselle (I like the old ones)

Ditto...........
Why, oh why, would anybody complain about having a Christmas Cactus so old
it had developed woody stems???!!
Murri ( Very confused & in disbelief. )

"Volfie" wrote in message
...

"A. Turner" wrote in message
om...
Thank you all for the advice!

I'm intrigued by David's idea of new growth from cuttings. FWIW, the
central/original stems of my 2 Xmas Cacti (pardon the layman term) are
very hardy and woody, so it might not be a bad idea to start a new
growth from tender cuts.

Sent them to me and I'll buy you new ones.

Giselle (I like the old ones)

Ditto...........
Why, oh why, would anybody complain about having a Christmas Cactus so old
it had developed woody stems???!!
Murri ( Very confused & in disbelief. )