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.

...And Other Fall Transitions

My African violet is coming back around!  Here you can see the first bloom has opened up, while several others lie in waiting...

 Here the mama gerber daisy is showing signs of wear.  Maybe it was from the dozen or so times I had let this go underwatered to the point its flowers and leaves would droop down to the window sill.  Maybe it was from putting out so many flowers.  Or maybe these things just don't grow back.  But as you can see, this baby mama is on its last stretch!

My Thanksgiving cactus is gearing up for a display - check out all those buds!  (I recently learned that Christmas cactuses have rounded greenery and bloom around Christmas.  These more common Thanksgiving cactuses have the spiky greenery and bloom around Thanksgiving and Easter.  I'll continue to call this a Christmas cactus, though, since that's how most people call all of them and it has a pleasant alliteration.)

Flooding and Pruning

Today I gave all my plants a nice big hearty flush of water.  I read recently that it is a good idea to flood the pots once a month to help the soil "detox" from chemical build-up.  This is accomplished by completely drenching the soil such that water overflows the pot's humidity tray, coming back to the pot an hour-ish later and doing the same thing.
I made my way around my indoor garden, "detoxing" the soils of some of my oldest plants using this flooding technique.  For the younger plants, I simply just watered the crap out of them.  When I had made my way to my largest Christmas Cactus, which is always last in line for watering, I decided that it was too large for my preference.  Also many of the segments were feeling and looking kind of limp.  So I decided to prune!

I read that you can remove as much as a third of the plant at a time when pruning. I don't think I came close to that, but I tried!  With these plants, all you have to do is twist off the leaves at their segmented connections and the cuttings come off in your hands. You can either compost the clippings or tuck them one-segment-deep into new potting soil to propagate.

A week or two ago, this plant had opened up some new blooms. I didn't realize when I got it that they do typically bloom twice a year.  Essentially they bloom around the time of year when the hours of darkness are most equal to the hours of lightness in a given 24-hour period.

Lastly I read that these plants prefer indirect light, so I removed it from its west-facing window sill to a plant stand adjacent to a north facing window in the same room.

Photos and more details about this plant and its care to come.