How to Cut Back a Christmas Cactus
The Christmas cactus, Zygocactus truncates, is a tropical, cascading cactus. The cactus is a popular, indoor cactus, often given as a holiday gift, largely due to the fact that it blooms in the winter in cheerful red, purple or white flowers. The Christmas cactus is a fairly hardy cactus, but without a quick pruning once each season, it will not flower the following winter. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Wait for the blooming period to end and the flowers to drop off of the cactus. If you want, you can pluck dead flowers off with your fingers once the cactus is no longer flowering.
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Thin out the cactus by very slightly pinching off a few leaves from each stem throughout the cactus with your fingers. Make sure you're wearing garden gloves because the leaves can be a little prickly.
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Cut back three or four entire stems down to the soil with pruning shears or a sharp kitchen knife. The combination of thinning out a few leaves and cutting back a few stems will encourage the cactus to branch out and bloom again the following season.
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Tips & Warnings
You can save the stems that you remove to start new Christmas cacti. Simply root the stems in a mixture of cactus soil and moist vermiculite. Store the cacti you are propagating in a partly sunny, dry environment and water lightly each time the starting mixture dries out.
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