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Avoid draughts, heat from
radiators or other sources. Care for your Christmas Cactus - keep it cool.
Christmas cactus can adapt to
low light, but more abundant blooms are produced on plants that have been exposed to
high light intensity. Keep your plants in a sunny location indoors. Plants can
be moved outdoors in summer, but care for them in a shady or semi-shady location.
Too much direct sunlight can burn the leaves. When it's time to bring the plants
back inside in the Autumn, slowly adjust the plants to life indoors by gradually
increasing the number of hours they spend indoors each day.
Well-drained soil is a must
in proper care for
Christmas cactus. Use a commercially packaged potting mix for succulent plants
or mix your own by combining two parts plain potting soil with one part clean
sand or vermiculite.
Pruning Christmas cactus after
blooming will encourage the plant to branch out. Remove a few sections of each
stem by pinching them off with your fingers or cutting with a sharp knife. These
sections can be rooted easily in almost any compost.
Christmas cactus will bloom if
given long uninterrupted dark periods. Begin the dark treatments in about
mid-October to have plants in full bloom by the holidays. Christmas cactus will
also bloom if they are subjected to cool temperatures of about 50 to 55F at
night.
The main pest is
mealy bug - a
small white woolly bug that enjoys sucking the sap out of the plant.
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