Thanks for sharing the origin story of what is certainly a very special Christmas cactus. It sure has been part of a lot of holidays during its decades.
As a Christmas cactus gets older, it will develop a woody, harder stem near the base of the plant, which is completely normal. It is one of the signs of aging and is not harmful to the health of your plant. As long as there is newer, green growth emerging from what you described, your plant is doing just fine.
One thing you will want to keep an eye on as it continues to age is the weight of the branches on the older stems near the base. If they get too long and heavy they can cause it to split, opening up a wound that is vulnerable to disease. You should periodically give it a trim, but only remove 1/3 of a stem at a time.
Glad to hear you gave it a new home with fresh growing medium this year, just remember for future reference that the plants flower best when slightly potbound so you want to make sure that you don’t put it in a new container that is too large.
Hi Karen,
Thanks for sharing the origin story of what is certainly a very special Christmas cactus. It sure has been part of a lot of holidays during its decades.
As a Christmas cactus gets older, it will develop a woody, harder stem near the base of the plant, which is completely normal. It is one of the signs of aging and is not harmful to the health of your plant. As long as there is newer, green growth emerging from what you described, your plant is doing just fine.
One thing you will want to keep an eye on as it continues to age is the weight of the branches on the older stems near the base. If they get too long and heavy they can cause it to split, opening up a wound that is vulnerable to disease. You should periodically give it a trim, but only remove 1/3 of a stem at a time.
Glad to hear you gave it a new home with fresh growing medium this year, just remember for future reference that the plants flower best when slightly potbound so you want to make sure that you don’t put it in a new container that is too large.
Hope this helps!