Care for your Christmas cactus like this and it will easily bloom twice a year

After the Christmas cactus blooms, the flowers are delicate and graceful, bright and showy. The stem segments of the Christmas cactus are fairly long and hang down, so it is often made into a hanging basket display. The Christmas cactus blooms right around Christmas and New Year's Day, making it very suitable for placing on a windowsill or at the entrance hall. It is one of the main indoor potted flowers of winter and spring.

The Christmas cactus is a fairly easy-to-grow flowering plant. Generally, a single leaf segment can propagate a whole large pot. However, many friends just cannot seem to grow their Christmas cactus well. Other people's Christmas cacti have already bloomed, while their own still shows no sign of activity.

When a Christmas cactus is not grown well, it is mostly because of overwatering. Frequent watering easily leads to root rot, and then blooming becomes even harder.

If you want your Christmas cactus to bloom on schedule, you need to pay attention to these points:

Watering: The leaves of the Christmas cactus can store water, so it does not need much water normally. However, each time you water, you must water thoroughly. Generally, just water after the potting soil has dried out. When temperatures are high, we can spray water on the leaves or the ground around the plant to increase air humidity.

Light: The Christmas cactus must be kept in an indoor environment with sufficient light. If light is insufficient, it easily has difficulty forming flower buds. Generally, around September and October each year, the Christmas cactus is best given 13-14 hours of shaded conditions. If you cannot guarantee this, you can use a cardboard box to cover it and ensure complete darkness.

Pruning: If you want the Christmas cactus to bloom more, proper pruning is a must. If four or five new shoots grow from one segment, they need to be cut off promptly, and keeping just one or two is enough.

Each year in late autumn when the weather turns cool, you need to apply some phosphorus and potassium fertilizer to the Christmas cactus. This can encourage bud formation and store enough nutrients for the Christmas cactus to bloom. After the Christmas cactus flowers fade, clear away those spent flowers, and also cut the three or four stem segments below the flower shorter. This helps with ventilation and a second round of blooming.