Should You Prune Your Christmas Cactus? - Flower Patch Farmhouse

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How to Prune Christmas Cactus for a bushier and healthier plant. And/or keep it a manageable size! Video included. Easy and you get to create new plants with your pruning to give as gifts. #christmascactus #houseplants #indoorgarden #winterflowers #pruning #propagation #Schlumbergera, christmas cactus in bloom

Prune your Christmas Cactus. Pruning is easy and keeps them healthy, bushy, and in check. Got a Christmas or Thanksgiving Cactus that is outgrowing its space? Prune it!

This is the step by step on how to prune Christmas Cactus. This information also applies to your Thanksgiving Cactus, if you want to know the difference you can read up on that in this post Christmas Cactus or Thanksgiving Cactus, how can you tell? Many also call them Zygo Cactus.

Confused yet?

In this post, I will use the term Christmas cactus but I will be displaying pruning on a Thanksgiving Cactus. Most plants in stores and garden centers are Thanksgiving Cactus but sold as Christmas Cactus, so we will just fly with that.

Note: You can find out here how to tell difference between a Thanksgiving Cactus and a Christmas Cactus!

What you will learn

  • Why you may want to Prune your zygo cactus
  • Best time to prune
  • How to prune
  • What you can do with the pieces you pruned off
  • Links to best Christmas care tips and tricks
  • Video of step by step process to prune

Be sure to watch the full video as I prune one of my plants and what I do with the pieces that get pruned off. The video is at the end of this post and will be so helpful.

Why Prune Christmas Cactus?

You may want to reduce the size of your plant if it is becoming too large. Or one side is growing faster than the other and you want it more symmetrical.

If you are pruning to reduce the plant’s size then you can prune back by a third each year. This will also create a bushier plant with more places for blooms to develop.

This cactus below is my example. I have most of my cactus in smaller-sized pots that fit on my window sills, making it easy to keep many colors. I have 5 different colors at present.

It is getting a bit tall for this pot. This is because the pot is plastic thus a lighter weight and the plant is becoming top-heavy with all the healthy new growth. This makes the plant want to tip over.

(I now try to only pot up my Christmas/Thanksgiving cactus in Terra Cotta Pots for a few reasons, click here for why I love Terra Cotta pots)

When to Prune Christmas Cactus

So as not to lose blooms the best time to prune your Christmas cactus is right after it is done blooming. This varies by plant. Most all of mine have stopped blooming but one. It has tiny buds on it again, this is the first week of March and it has been blooming since November. The buds are so tiny that if I have not looked close I would’ve missed them.

You can prune on up through late Spring and not lose next year’s flowers.

How to Prune

Grasp the segment you wish to prune down and use your thumbnail to separate it at the juncture. Some say to just twist the segment but mine are pretty hearty and tough and need my thumbnail to create a clean snap.

What Next?

Now that you have all these pieces trimmed off your Christmas Cactus what to do with them. You can chuck them into your compost pile or you can Root them for more plants.

Here is an entire post on how I root my Christmas Cactus cuttings.

Root your Prunings!

You can easily root your Christmas and Thanksgiving Cactus prunings. Quick and easy way to get more!

Some do this directly in soil but I have found this method is easier and more successful. Some claim that you need at least 4 leaves on the segment you wish to root but I have found that not absolutely correct. I have rooted ones that only have 2 leaf segments.

(Recently I watched a video of how a commercial grower roots them and they use just 1 segment)

Enjoy the video!

Pam of Flower Patch holding blooming zygo cactus with play button

For an entire post on caring for your Cactus for a healthy plant and tons of blooms, you can read that here.

Happy Gardening!

Tips & Tricks for Growing Zygo Cactus

  • Read how to grow beautiful Zygo Cactus and easily promote blooming!
Get all the details here!

Printable checklist.

Materials

  • Christmas or Thankgiving Cactus plant that has grown too large.

Tools

  • No added tools are needed

Instructions

  1. Prune Cactus plants just after blooming (it can be done any time of year but pruning right after they bloom ensures the parent plant will bloom well next season)
  2. You can prune 1/3 of the plant back annually if you wish to keep the size of the Zygocactus in check. Pruning is not necessary, Zygocactus plants can live and grow well without pruning
  3. Grasp Zygocactus segment at a juncture and twist. If the segment does not come free then use a thumbnail to encourage it.
  4. Compost or root pruned off sections

Notes

Visit How to Root ZygoCactus cuttings to create more plants. They make great gifts!

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19 Comments

  1. There are many variables. They could still have been getting too long of daylight, or they didn’t get the low temps they needed. Go through all my posts on growing Christmas Cactus and maybe you can glean what may have done wrong or what you may need to do differently.

  2. During the summer months had my christmas catcus out on my deck brought them in September but they never bloom why.

  3. I appreciate your work here. Thanks a lot for sharing!

  4. Changes in environment and temperature can cause the buds to fall off. They actually prefer cooler temps so it moving it to a warmer room may have been the cause of the bud drop. Thank you so much.

  5. Hi I live in the UK and tried Christmas Cactus for the first times this year, I had very small buds that just dropped off, I have moved it from the kitchen to the bathroom to see if the warmer heat helps any advice please. By the way I might be in the UK but I love your site and oh that dreamy property.

  6. I have my great, great, great grandmother’s Christmas cactus. It is over 120 years old, or older. It is huge and some of it is on the floor. Do I need to stick to the 30% rule when pruning?

  7. Yes, it is probably mostly roots right now. Make sure to propagate come cuttings before re-potting in case it dies, at least you will have some plants from it to keep.

  8. My Thanksgiving cactus is very old. At least 40 yrs from my grandmother. It needs reporting. The roots are showing on top of soil. Is this because it is old?

  9. Yes, you can reduce its size by 30% easily with no harm to the plant.

  10. My cactus are huge. Is it ok to prune down to a smaller size?

  11. I truly enjoyed your regarding Christmas cactus repotting. The. Post was easy to follow and your short video quite helpful. Thank you for your good work.

  12. I have included some tips on that in this post.https://www.flowerpatchfarmhouse.com/christmas-cactus-or-thanksgiving-cactus/ I am working on a printable checklist with these tips and will be including it in my resource library soon.

  13. Hi can you tell us what to do to get our Christmas cactus’ to bloom? I got mine last year when they were in bloom, but they have not bloomed again this year. Is there any specific nutrient that they need? Etc. I look forward to hearing from you. Danielle K

  14. Hi Anna! Welcome to my website. Many of my cactus are needing another prune this year, they have just grown tremendously. But I have plenty of friends who need some to brighten their homes in Winter, so I will start the cuttings and gift the new plants to them.

  15. Thank you so much Very informative.I hope to use this information to look after my lot.Greetings from Aberdeen in Scotland!

  16. Asking around is how I get more and more colors.

  17. Thank you for the simple instructions! Now I’m on the look out for anyone with different colors that needs help pruning 🙂 RT

  18. You are so welcome. There is a lot of misinformation out there, or I have found it does not work so I just share what has worked for me.

  19. We bought a Christmas cactus for the first time this past Christmas, so I appreciate learning about taking care of it. Thank you!

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