thanks for the information about getting them to blossom. I propagated some leaves from my Mom's Christmas cactus years ago and while the plant thrived, it barely ever blossomed. I'll try to find a cool spot for the plant in the fall evenings and see if that helps!
I really do enjoy your channel. I worked at a big wholesale nursery in Denver, Colorado and I saw what a success they had with all of the plants. It has always been a dream of mine to have one of my own someday and your channel is a major inspiration to me in learning ways that I could make it possible. Thanks for all that you do.
Fraser Valley represent!!!! I’m just starting off saving this Christmas cactus and experience some root rot recently but using its stems to replant. I’m more of a true cactus guy and never have cactus issues. Im not the greatest tropical forest plant guy besides banana trees and fig trees. So thank you for posting this. Its a year old video but it feels like growing this Christmas plant is taking a year.
Thank you for answering so many questions I had. I like the way that you do comparison with rooting hormone, and I'm going to do the same. Most importantly, thank you for answering the question on when and how they flower.
Thanks for this! This makes good sense to get reblooming. I’ve heard to withhold water but that must be an old wives tale. Thanks for the info as always!
@@FraserValleyRoseFarm indeed, I think overwatering will also limit the time of the bloom of the flower. I relate it to the dry wet cycle of the plant in which I notice flowers are more vibrant, and at full bloom, when a plant uses up all of the available water given to it before being re-watered.
Hi Jason, l have a couple of Christmas cactus plants and when I take cuttings, I let them set for a few hours to let the cut end dry. Then I stick them in the potting mix. Thanks for your hard work and info in your videos.
I love propagating these. I have the best success when I take a segment with several clades, but I’ve rooted single too. These days I’m experimenting with pollinating the flowers - I have 5 colours xD.
Hi! From my understanding and experience, hours of light have a bigger effect than temperature to determine flowering or vegetative growth season, even though both can probably determine it. My flat is very warm because of the building's central heating (never seen it below 21ºC), and the first year I lived here I thought it was too warm, because my Christmas cactus was not flowering. The thing is that I had it below my dinner table lamp, and the second I put it into a darker place it started forming buds in a couple of days. Researching a bit I read that the blooming season is triggered by having 8 or less hours of light per day, but probably it needs less darkness if it's colder. Also in my experience, cuttings are super easy to do in the spring, when sometimes you even have roots spontaneously growing in the air. When I've tried to propagate it during the flowering season, it worked, but nothing happened until the spring (which makes sense I guess, since in the winter only flowers and doesn't grow). Thanks for your channel and all the great info you give!
great job Jason!!! im trying the water starting method as the soil starting method has not worked for me. they rot, and ive even let them set a week before soil placing with only a slight improvement. ive seen people have luck with the water rooting so im trying it on an old red one that dropped some segments a couple weeks ago. yes i completely agree with putting holiday cacti outside. i bring mine in when the temps hit 40F. I did that for the first time in 2021 and they exploded with blooms!!! My gold cultivar is an early blooming variety and had its first fully open bloom on Halloween day! the others are mid season bloomers and i have a christmas catus that is an old vintage cultivar that still has a few blooms. the gold has rebloomed and just finished its second blooming. my old red will bloom about Valentines day. holiday cactus are great for softening the punch winter gives us. I have all my roses ordered and just waiting for Mother Nature to give us Spring...always good to see your youtubes...
I like to set my cuttings in a cup of water and Hormex as soon as I cut them. Even letting them soak in for just 15 or 30 seconds seems to really make a difference.
The easy way for the hobbyist just to make a few multiples: Break off a piece that is several sections (3-4). Place in loose potting soil, water & voila! It will grow a new plant. There is are nodes that will root between each of the sections. No rooting hormone required. 😁 I have a very large plant that is about 20 years old, but it was started from a mother plant that an elderly lady told me was about 60 years old. She had it since she was 15! It was monstrous, and she had a helper bring it outside (in zone 6) in the summer. Will never forget her! PS mine gets morning sun for a few hours from a south window.
succulents tend to root better if you allow them to dry off at the end prior to placing them into the potting soil, I am not sure if these are the same
Thanks. I've done it both ways with succulents (sedum, echeveria) and I won't argue, but I've had good results even without the drying stage - so it saves me a later handling step. They're so easy in general that I haven't found it worth the time.
I find that you need to let the young plants dry out completely between waterings, otherwise they rot. Also, they don’t mind being pot-bound. There’s a couple of different varieties. I like the “spikey” ones like you have because the flowers are fancier.
I like taking a few more leaves then that and I've had success that way. What I normally do: Wait for new growth sprouts to start appearing, and take a cutting one leaf below the first leaf "junction" so the plant forms a "V" shape with one leaf on the bottom and two or more on top. Then I plop into soil. I have about an 80% sucess rate, but success is mostly down to watering, I find. Water too little and it'll dry out, water too much and it'll rot. Oh, and don't take cuttings while it's flowering! I've never used rooting hormone on them, I don't find it really does anything on these guys.
Hello! If I wanted to buy from you (specifically roses) how would I go about doing that if I live in the US? Is that possible? And that leads me to my next question which is, if roses can make seed, why don’t more farms and nurseries sell rose seed? I haven’t found much online and the seeds I have found just seem sketchy. Surely there is a good reason? Big fan of the channel! Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge, man!
Thanks Leo. We're only selling within Canada (mostly local) for now. Seeds of hybrids don't breed true to the qualities of the parents - they're highly variable, and many are not as garden-worthy as the parent. Most people would prefer to get the predictable quality of a vegetative clone.
Hi I just wanted to point out that botanically speaking those aren’t leaf cuttings at all since the sections are actually flattened shoots modified to do photosynthesis called phylloclades, so it’s not surprising that this works 🤓
You bet. I was trying to tip that off by putting "leaf" in quotes in the title and then adding the text at 0:21 I'll try to give some examples of true leaf cuttings sometime soon.
My wife loved Christmas cactus. Ours was just about to bloom when I accidently watered it too much and it literally fell to pieces. I have been trying to save it since last year. Is there any thing special I can do? It's real important I save it. My wife loved that plant and she died last month so any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Sorry for your loss. I'd definitely pull a healthy "leaf" or two and try rooting them separately so that if the main plant succumbs you have some offspring to carry on with
I’m surprised you called that a Christmas cactus when it’s a Thanksgiving cactus. I know I know people get them mixed up, but the cactuses with pointy tips on their leaves are Thanksgiving cactuses. Christmas cactuses have rounded tips and the Easter cactus has scalloped bracts. Nevertheless they all propagate the same way. I find it better to let them callous over for a day or so before placing them in dirt. I grow all 3. 😀
I always refer to the varieties as crab cactus (pointy section tips, bloom in Fall); fishtail cactus (the ones w. elongated gentle curvature, bloom mid Spring) and finally, the many scalloped, teardrop tipped ones I do call Christmas Cactus. We all have our own customs to identify our own plants don't we? Wonder why most grocery stores here in NE sell mostly crab cactus?
Thanks Marie. I should have given the proper common name another look - my older relatives always all sorts of Schlumbergera (and probably the Easter cactus Rhipsalidopsis) around their houses, and I never heard them called anything but the general term Christmas cactus. The hazards of drifting common names!
Yes, quite a lot like you'd do succulents like sedum or echeveria. Here's a vid where I do some of those in open trays without much moisture: ua-cam.com/video/dszhtsQNMl4/v-deo.html
thanks for the information about getting them to blossom. I propagated some leaves from my Mom's Christmas cactus years ago and while the plant thrived, it barely ever blossomed. I'll try to find a cool spot for the plant in the fall evenings and see if that helps!
I really do enjoy your channel. I worked at a big wholesale nursery in Denver, Colorado and I saw what a success they had with all of the plants. It has always been a dream of mine to have one of my own someday and your channel is a major inspiration to me in learning ways that I could make it possible. Thanks for all that you do.
Thanks so much - and it's always a pleasure to hear from like-minded growers
Fraser Valley represent!!!! I’m just starting off saving this Christmas cactus and experience some root rot recently but using its stems to replant. I’m more of a true cactus guy and never have cactus issues. Im not the greatest tropical forest plant guy besides banana trees and fig trees. So thank you for posting this. Its a year old video but it feels like growing this Christmas plant is taking a year.
Cactus is an excellent introduction into cuttings because all of the processes are there and very rewarding because of the high success rate.🤙
Thank you for answering so many questions I had. I like the way that you do comparison with rooting hormone, and I'm going to do the same. Most importantly, thank you for answering the question on when and how they flower.
Thanks for this! This makes good sense to get reblooming. I’ve heard to withhold water but that must be an old wives tale.
Thanks for the info as always!
I think that's part of it too - the cold nights signal their seasonal "rest period" and I think they recommend reducing water during those times.
@@FraserValleyRoseFarm indeed, I think overwatering will also limit the time of the bloom of the flower. I relate it to the dry wet cycle of the plant in which I notice flowers are more vibrant, and at full bloom, when a plant uses up all of the available water given to it before being re-watered.
I've heard the same but only once from a worthy old wife. Seems to work to stimulate growth as much as keeping rot at bay.
@@FraserValleyRoseFarm Good point, when you put it all together like that, it makes more sense 👍
Hi Jason, l have a couple of Christmas cactus plants and when I take cuttings, I let them set for a few hours to let the cut end dry. Then I stick them in the potting mix. Thanks for your hard work and info in your videos.
I love propagating these. I have the best success when I take a segment with several clades, but I’ve rooted single too. These days I’m experimenting with pollinating the flowers - I have 5 colours xD.
Nice. I just re-potted a Thanksgiving cactus from the 60s. A few pieces fell of and now i now what to do with em.
Perfect.
I have a 15 year old Christmas cactus that is part of the family and I have been wanting to propagate it, so this is a timely video!
See my comment above. If you just want a few babies...
Hi! From my understanding and experience, hours of light have a bigger effect than temperature to determine flowering or vegetative growth season, even though both can probably determine it. My flat is very warm because of the building's central heating (never seen it below 21ºC), and the first year I lived here I thought it was too warm, because my Christmas cactus was not flowering. The thing is that I had it below my dinner table lamp, and the second I put it into a darker place it started forming buds in a couple of days. Researching a bit I read that the blooming season is triggered by having 8 or less hours of light per day, but probably it needs less darkness if it's colder. Also in my experience, cuttings are super easy to do in the spring, when sometimes you even have roots spontaneously growing in the air. When I've tried to propagate it during the flowering season, it worked, but nothing happened until the spring (which makes sense I guess, since in the winter only flowers and doesn't grow).
Thanks for your channel and all the great info you give!
Thank you! I was wondering why it wasn’t blooming anymore flowers. 😅
Really enjoy your concise and informative videos! Thanks for the high value info!
Thanks Alicia!
I did my propagating in a small glass of tap water and wow! The root hairs are 2 inches long and ready to go in the soil.
great job Jason!!! im trying the water starting method as the soil starting method has not worked for me. they rot, and ive even let them set a week before soil placing with only a slight improvement. ive seen people have luck with the water rooting so im trying it on an old red one that dropped some segments a couple weeks ago. yes i completely agree with putting holiday cacti outside. i bring mine in when the temps hit 40F. I did that for the first time in 2021 and they exploded with blooms!!! My gold cultivar is an early blooming variety and had its first fully open bloom on Halloween day! the others are mid season bloomers and i have a christmas catus that is an old vintage cultivar that still has a few blooms. the gold has rebloomed and just finished its second blooming. my old red will bloom about Valentines day. holiday cactus are great for softening the punch winter gives us. I have all my roses ordered and just waiting for Mother Nature to give us Spring...always good to see your youtubes...
How do you get your second bloom? I always get a good show once a year but never twice
@@JennyNobody some cultivars are more prone to rebloom, and plenty of bright light up to a couple of hours of sunshine.
I like to set my cuttings in a cup of water and Hormex as soon as I cut them. Even letting them soak in for just 15 or 30 seconds seems to really make a difference.
The easy way for the hobbyist just to make a few multiples: Break off a piece that is several sections (3-4). Place in loose potting soil, water & voila! It will grow a new plant. There is are nodes that will root between each of the sections. No rooting hormone required. 😁 I have a very large plant that is about 20 years old, but it was started from a mother plant that an elderly lady told me was about 60 years old. She had it since she was 15! It was monstrous, and she had a helper bring it outside (in zone 6) in the summer. Will never forget her! PS mine gets morning sun for a few hours from a south window.
I’ve propagated Christmas Cactus for many years. I just put pieces in the same soil as the plant and they’re really easy.
succulents tend to root better if you allow them to dry off at the end prior to placing them into the potting soil, I am not sure if these are the same
Thanks. I've done it both ways with succulents (sedum, echeveria) and I won't argue, but I've had good results even without the drying stage - so it saves me a later handling step. They're so easy in general that I haven't found it worth the time.
These are tropical cacti and epiphytic and require more water than your average cactus.
Never grown succulents before but I'll definitely start with Christmas Cactus when I do start growing them.
I find that you need to let the young plants dry out completely between waterings, otherwise they rot. Also, they don’t mind being pot-bound. There’s a couple of different varieties. I like the “spikey” ones like you have because the flowers are fancier.
Thanks!
That plant looks like a Thanksgiving Catcus (spikey leaves ) versus Christmas Cactus (scalloped leaves) as mentioned in the video
Yes, it is.
I like taking a few more leaves then that and I've had success that way. What I normally do:
Wait for new growth sprouts to start appearing, and take a cutting one leaf below the first leaf "junction" so the plant forms a "V" shape with one leaf on the bottom and two or more on top.
Then I plop into soil. I have about an 80% sucess rate, but success is mostly down to watering, I find. Water too little and it'll dry out, water too much and it'll rot. Oh, and don't take cuttings while it's flowering! I've never used rooting hormone on them, I don't find it really does anything on these guys.
Hello! If I wanted to buy from you (specifically roses) how would I go about doing that if I live in the US? Is that possible? And that leads me to my next question which is, if roses can make seed, why don’t more farms and nurseries sell rose seed? I haven’t found much online and the seeds I have found just seem sketchy. Surely there is a good reason?
Big fan of the channel! Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge, man!
Thanks Leo. We're only selling within Canada (mostly local) for now. Seeds of hybrids don't breed true to the qualities of the parents - they're highly variable, and many are not as garden-worthy as the parent. Most people would prefer to get the predictable quality of a vegetative clone.
Hi I just wanted to point out that botanically speaking those aren’t leaf cuttings at all since the sections are actually flattened shoots modified to do photosynthesis called phylloclades, so it’s not surprising that this works 🤓
You bet. I was trying to tip that off by putting "leaf" in quotes in the title and then adding the text at 0:21 I'll try to give some examples of true leaf cuttings sometime soon.
Thanks!
My wife loved Christmas cactus. Ours was just about to bloom when I accidently watered it too much and it literally fell to pieces. I have been trying to save it since last year. Is there any thing special I can do? It's real important I save it. My wife loved that plant and she died last month so any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Sorry for your loss. I'd definitely pull a healthy "leaf" or two and try rooting them separately so that if the main plant succumbs you have some offspring to carry on with
@@FraserValleyRoseFarm thank very much. I will try that.
Are those patented? I’m just kidding of course, Thank you Jason. ❄️💚🙃
Ahh.. no wonder my dragon fruit cactus leaf rotted, too much water. Thanks!!!
I’m surprised you called that a Christmas cactus when it’s a Thanksgiving cactus. I know I know people get them mixed up, but the cactuses with pointy tips on their leaves are Thanksgiving cactuses. Christmas cactuses have rounded tips and the Easter cactus has scalloped bracts. Nevertheless they all propagate the same way. I find it better to let them callous over for a day or so before placing them in dirt. I grow all 3. 😀
I always refer to the varieties as crab cactus (pointy section tips, bloom in Fall); fishtail cactus (the ones w. elongated gentle curvature, bloom mid Spring) and finally, the many scalloped, teardrop tipped ones I do call Christmas Cactus. We all have our own customs to identify our own plants don't we? Wonder why most grocery stores here in NE sell mostly crab cactus?
I agree!
Pretty sure this is a Thanksgiving, not Christmas cactus…
That is not a Christmas cactus, it is Easter cactus!!
Thanks Marie. I should have given the proper common name another look - my older relatives always all sorts of Schlumbergera (and probably the Easter cactus Rhipsalidopsis) around their houses, and I never heard them called anything but the general term Christmas cactus. The hazards of drifting common names!
It's a Thanksgiving cactus. It's the same propagation technique for all three.
This isn’t a Christmas cactus, it’s a thanksgiving cactus.🤦🏻♀️
Can you do the same with a jade plant?
Yes, quite a lot like you'd do succulents like sedum or echeveria. Here's a vid where I do some of those in open trays without much moisture: ua-cam.com/video/dszhtsQNMl4/v-deo.html