Christmas Cactus

My Christmas cactus is doing strange things. The tips are drying up and falling off.
The plant looks healthy but many, many ends have dried and fallen off. Why?

It looks like you have a smaller pot inside the larger one. The small pot the cactus is in looks too small to me and it's very possible your plant is root bound. Also, from what I can see the soil looks hard and dry so I'd give it some fresh soil if you re-pot it. Clip off all those dead ends as well and give the plant a little time and it should begin to put on new growth. If the leaves are dusty, put it in the shower and gently wash off all the dust. One final thought--is the plant in a well heated room? My Christmas cactus plants prefer to be in cooler locations so if yours is in a heated room where the air may be too dry and warm for it, you might consider moving it to a cooler room. Hope this helps.

I will take your advice and repot as soon as I can get outside.This may be the problem as I agree it
may be rootbound. The plants(I have two) love being outside for the summer. (Zone 4) I place them in the shade
They grow so well outside, I do not bring them inside until danger of frost. The room they are kept in
is cool, but perhaps too dry. Thank you for your advice, I will use it.

My Christmas cactus plants love being outside for the summer too. I have red, pink and white ones and already have them outside for the summer. They do grow so well outside and seem much happier. It's easier to keep the dust cleaned off them out there too. My front porch is FULL of houseplants all summer--makes it a beautiful place to sit. We watch all our hummers and song birds at their respective feeders and the butterflies visiting all the flowers.

Naturelover, are your Christmas cactus in the shade, part shade or full sun? I have been afraid to put mine outside in the summer because it gets so hot here. Do yours mind the hot weather?

Hi Ladypearl,
Sorry, I haven't been online for a couple of days so didn't see your post. I have a porch that faces south so, of course, in the summer the sun is overhead and it's fully shaded. I hang all of my Christmas cactus plants right at the front edge so they get bright light but not full sun. I've seen this type of cactus get sunburned from too much sun exposure. They will tolerate temps down to 40 F but I don't put them out until it's pretty warm (mine are out now) because I don't want to shock them. If it dips down to 40 after they've been out for a while it doesn't hurt them at all.

Okay, thank you NL. I'll try putting mine out in the shady part of the porch.