How Long Does a Christmas Cactus Live? 5 Tips for a Long-lived Plant

Around the holidays, few plants outshine the Christmas cactus. Cacti are often beautiful bloomers with large, flashy flowers, but this one really takes it to another level. A strong, healthy specimen is truly a glorious thing to behold when it’s in bloom.

Christmas cacti and all schlumbergeras are long-lived plants, and like most succulents, they are low-maintenance. With a bit of know-how, it might surprise you how long these plants will last. Don’t throw yours away after the holidays, because it will be even more beautiful next winter. 

If you are new to cultivating Schlumbergeras or are wondering how long yours can last, you’re in for a real treat. Let’s discuss how long these succulents can live and how to help them last as long as possible.

The Long Answer

When it comes to lifespan, schlumbergeras are known to live up to and beyond 100 years in some cases. They are wonderful plants that make excellent heirlooms to hand down from one gardener to another. If you give them what they need, they will continue to grow and bloom, becoming massive over time. 

It’s easy to care for these, but to keep one alive for a lifetime is a special feat. To maximize its potential, it’s important to understand a bit about your Christmas cactus. Once you know how they live in their native environment, it will be easy to understand their unique needs. 

Schlumbergeras are true cacti, but unlike most, they are native to tropical rainforests. If you treat them like a North American cactus, they won’t live long at all. These are epiphytic or lithophytic, meaning that they grow on trees or rocks rather than in the ground. 

They grow in cool rainforests, under the canopy, typically attaching themselves to tree branches. They are more like orchids in their care needs than other succulents. There are some important care needs that these Brazilian beauties need if you want them to live their best and longest lives. 

How to Maximize Your Plant’s Lifespan

Here are some important factors in cultivating a thriving Schlumbergera that will outlast a majority of houseplants.

Provide the Right Environment

When you bring your plant home, it’s important to find the right location to meet their needs. Once you’ve got this factor under control, the rest is pretty straightforward. I find they are the happiest outdoors in a mostly shaded spot, but it depends on your climate zone. 

These are tropical, so they prefer consistent temperatures in a mild range. This makes them good houseplants. The tricky thing is that they require a fair amount of humidity, between 50% and 60%.

In a humid climate, that’s not difficult to do. Here in Florida, the humidity in my home rarely drops below 50%. If you live in a drier place, you’ll want to keep it indoors and supplement the humidity in the space. You can do this in a few different ways.

Find a space with the right kind of exposure to maximize blooming. Schlumbergeras need plenty of bright but indirect light to thrive. Too much sun will affect the leaves, and too little will affect blooming. 

These plants are sensitive to light, and a decrease in daylight hours causes them to set buds. They need about 13 hours of darkness daily for several weeks to initiate this process. If that isn’t happening inside your house, you can cover them lightly to increase the time they spend in the dark.

Pot Them Correctly

Considering their epiphytic nature, Christmas cacti need excellent drainage for root health. In nature, they have exposed roots that get a lot of air circulation. They like moisture, but they can’t sit in soggy soil, or their roots will rot. 

Use a loose, well-draining potting mix and add pest moss and coarse sand or perlite to increase drainage. Drainage is again an important factor when it comes to the container. If you want to use a decorative pot, keep the cactus in a nursery pot with drainage holes and take it out of the decorative pot to water it. 

They also prefer to be pot-bound, so don’t worry about re-potting this one on a regular basis. You may only need to size up your container about once every three years and only go up by an inch or two. 

Water Them Correctly

Watering goes hand in hand with that need for well-draining soil. These tropical beauties are rainforest dwellers, where there is no shortage of moisture. However, with their roots exposed, they dry quickly, which prevents them from rotting. This is not so simple in a container with a potting mix.

Water your schlumbergera about once per week, allowing the soil to just barely dry in between. You’ll need to water less when it is dormant, which occurs right after it flowers. If you water too often, it will let you know by wilting and dropping leaves. 

Fertilize the Right Way

Time your fertilizing routine to match the plant’s growing season. Beginning in late spring, fertilize once per month. Use a balanced formula and dilute it to half-strength. Do this until August, when the plant will begin to set buds. 

After the flowers fall, your plant will go dormant and remain that way for several months. During these months, until you notice it starts to produce new leaves, stop fertilizing, and water sparingly. Watering or fertilizing too much during dormancy will cause root damage. 

Minimize Stress

During blooming, Schlumbergeras are sensitive to stressors and shifts in the environment. For the rest of the year, the most important stressor to reduce is too much sun exposure. If you notice the leaves turning purple, it’s getting too much sun. Some people like this effect, but it does mean that the plant is under stress.