Christmas Cactus Clippings Get A More Permanent Residence

My little Christmas cactus was not doing so well in its new environment at the office, which is virtually no natural light and poor artificial light.  Its blooms withered away almost immediately and sometimes the buds just fell off without blooming.  And of course there was some crazy leaf drop action going on, which is always dreadful to witness.

I decided to take the "droppings" and attempt to regenerate them via propagation.  They seem like pretty standard succulents that will sprout new roots after prolonged submersion, so I took a plastic cup from a lunch item and let the leaves soak under the light at work.  Finally, I decided to take them home because that minimal artificial light was just not cutting it.  Below you can see the leaves have barely sprouted any roots despite being saturated for probably at least 2 weeks at the point the photos were taken (mid December).

The fact that some of them did show signs of new root growth encouraged me to continue the experiment.  Sure enough, under much improved lighting conditions, roots formed on all of the droppings and finally it became time to plant them!

I was going to use this leftover soil pictured below, but after I took the photo I decided to just mix up a new fresh batch.  I believe it was somewhere in the 3 or 4 parts peat, 1 part vermiculite, 1 part perlite range.

As is my new custom, I like to put plastic sleeves inside fancy pots for ease of repotting and for an extra layer of "water reservoiring."

Below you can see that I have lined the plastic sleeve with some river stones.  If the plastic sleeve is not the exact size of the fancy pot (I would prefer the sleeve be a little shorter than the pot's cavity), then I will line the bottom of the fancy pot with the stone and just fill the sleeve with soil.  It's easier that way because you don't have roots and soil intermixed in the stones when you go to use them in a repot scenario.

I am trying to keep this pot well-watered as the droppings are going from being (in some cases) completely submerged to a dehydrated chilly windowsill.  Hopefully there will be signs of new growth in the coming months - I'm certainly not expecting any buds or blooms this spring.