Ultimate Guide on How to Grow Zygocactus at Home

How do you feel when you attend an occasion where the place is decorated with beautiful zygocactus flowers?

Do you want your home to look the same?

I’m sure your answer is yes. In this article, you will learn about zygocactus flowers and how to plant and take care of them.

To begin, do you know what zygocactus is?

zygocactus

Zygocactus is a minor Brazilian cactus genus. It has flat, fleshy branched joints that show red, white, and pink flowers and juicy red fruits. These beautiful plants are used during Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, and other holidays.

Does this sound good? Great read on!

Difference Between Zygocactus And Schlumbergera

Zygocactus and schlumbergera are two different interchangeable scientific words. Zygocactus is an outdated scientific name for plants within the schlumbergera genus.

Schlumbergera is a small genus of cacti that has 6 to 9 species found in south-eastern Brazil. It is named after Frederic Schlumberger, a collector of cacti who lived in France.

In Brazil, schlumbergera flowers in May, and it was named flo-de-Maio (Mayflower). Other names of schlumbergera are; Thanksgiving cactus, Christmas cactus, Easter cactus, holiday cactus, and crab cactus.

These plants grow in habitats that are shady with high humidity, like trees or rocks. They grow up to 3 feet long with several tiers of petals. Moreover, their appearance is quite different from other desert genera. They have stems that look like leaf-like pads joined one to another. Also, their beautiful flowers grow from the areoles at the joints and tips of the stems.

Although zygocactus is used to describe both Christmas and Thanksgiving cactus, they are two different species. They have other appearances and blooming habits. Let’s have a look at the differences;

1. Christmas cacti are also called Schlumbergera x buckleyi, and thanksgiving cacti are also called schlumbergera truncate.
2. Christmas cacti have stems that hang pendulously over the edge of their pot, while those of thanksgiving are more arching and graceful.
3. Christmas cacti have gently scalloped and rounded segments, while the thanksgiving segments have pointed margins that make them called “crab cactus.”
4. Another simple way of differentiating between thanksgiving and Christmas cacti is their flowers. Apart from that, each cactus blooms around the time it’s named after. For example, Christmas cacti bloom around Christmas, and they produce different types of anthers. Christmas cacti have brownish-purple anthers, while thanksgiving cacti produce yellow anthers. By the way, know that each blooming lasts for several days.

How To Grow Zygocactus

Zygocactus/Schlumbergera is a beautiful plant. Since zygocactus is a jungle species, it needs protection from high humidity when growing them indoors, which is the best option. However, growing them is easy. First, know what you need:

• The cactus plant
• Container
• Quality soil mix
• Fertilizer
• Water
• Watering can

With all the requirements with you, follow the procedure below and learn how to grow these species.

1. The first step in growing the zygocactus is; cut a y shaped leaf segment from a healthy plant and leave it to develop aerial roots. If you doubt whether you are doing the correct thing, you can buy a segment with already developed aerial roots. However, it is good to learn the first method because it is easy and cheap.
2. As you wait for the segment to develop roots, take your container with proper drainage and mix quality soil and fertilizer.
3. Take your segment leaf and plant it well, approximately a quarter of its length, in the soil and keep on watering it. After some time, the segment leaf will grow. If you want to plant other zygocactus flowers, cut the leaves from them, follow the above procedure, and transplant many more into more pots and hanging baskets.

How Do You Care For zygocactus?

After planting, you don’t stop there. You need to care for your plant well. Do you know how to do so? Keep on reading to learn.

Choose The Right Site

Zygocactus needs indirect light. Remember I said that the plant needs to be protected from heat and direct light. The reason is that; excess heat and light burn the leaves and stunt their growth. To avoid this, keep the plant in a temperature room of 18 to 20 degrees Celsius or 65 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit.

Water Your Plants

Moistening zygocactus is very important. This process can be tricky but easy when you follow all the guidelines. During its active growth in both summer and spring, always keep the soil moist. Constantly water your plants once you see the soils’ top inch is completely dry.

Moreover, during watering, never let your plant sit on water because the root will start to rot. Keep this in your mind; less water is better than too much water. The best alternative is to put a water tray with pebbles next to the plant to provide humidity for the plant when the water evaporates.

Use Fertilizer

Use fertilizer to maintain the excellent condition of actively growing plants and to get great blooming. Start fertilization immediately when you see new growth has started appearing on your plant.

Use low-nitrogen fertilizer and dissolve it with water. Water your plants until the soil becomes moist.

Fertilize your plants approximately 2–4 times a year. However, you don’t need to fertilize them when the buds are about to appear.

Care For Your Plants’ Buds

It is discouraging to see your plants’ buds falling off the plant after it has developed. Don’t be heartbroken after working hard to see it grow well. The falling is caused by lack of humidity, insufficient light, and overwatering the plant. If this occurs, watch out for what you are doing wrong and correct it. For example, if you are over-watering the plants, reduce.

Also, to encourage more bud production in the fall, pinch back the tip of each stem, especially during early summer.

How To Bloom Zygocactus

Christmas cactus is planted in March, and they bloom from November to late January. Once they flower, there is no doubt that they are the best ideal for the holiday season. I’m sure you would desire to have the best, well bloomed, nice-looking, and healthy Christmas cactus.

Luckily, there are steps that you can follow to get your desired cactus flower. Apart from watering your plants properly, lower the temperature to encourage flower blooming. From October, keep your plant in a cool room with temperatures around 50–55 degrees Fahrenheit. Also, don’t expose the plant to freezing temperatures.

During the fall months, keep your zygocactus where it will receive little indirect light during the day and at night. Make sure it gets total darkness of about 12 hours. Moreover, during this time, stop fertilizing and watering the plant. Do this for six weeks consecutively.

After the six weeks are over, raise the room temperatures to about 65 degrees F and give the plant sufficient light, nutrients, and water. Or, in other words, continue like you used to do before the fall months.

Immediately you see the beautiful buds starting to form; now be relieved and happy because your Christmas cactus is ready for the season!

How To Prune Christmas Cactus After Blooming

Christmas cacti can live for decades if well grown and pruned. Pruning will encourage the Christmas cactus to branch out even after the blooms have faded away.

Pruning is such a simple thing to do. All you need to do is remove 2–3 stem sections in each branch on half of the plant. Also, when the branches start to break off because the cacti have become too large, trim it again a little more.

How To Solve Christmas Cactus Problems

As you are handling your Christmas cactus, observe it keenly to detect any problem and solve it immediately it occurs.

If you see the leaf-like pads of your Christmas cactus looking red, know that your plant is getting too much light than required. So, immediately remove it from that area and keep it in a spot with a bit less light.

Once you notice your buds are dropping off the cactus before they open up, be sure of a sudden change. Try to investigate what you’re doing wrong. It can be an overwatering issue, high or shallow temperatures, or excess light. When you notice the problem, work hard on correcting it.

In addition, you may also notice that some parts of the plant have changed and turned slimy and black. If this happens, in most cases, your plant has been affected by either bacterial or fungal infection. Too bad there’s nothing much you can do about this. Just throw away the plant and plant another one.

Moreover, if the plant base looks woody, congratulate yourself. You have managed to care for the plant long enough until it has started to age. That’s awesome!

Parting Shot

Hmm, there you go. I’m sure you are eager to start planting your Christmas cactus for the upcoming holidays! It’s easy to do so after you have read the article. Go ahead and plant one and give it to someone special as a gift during the holidays. I wish you success. Once you learn, please share it so that many can know how to do it like you.