Hi Guys 😀 

Its always so much fun to grow seeds from your very own plants, and at this time of year during the Winter months your Schlumbergera cacti that are more commonly known as the Holiday Cacti, Christmas or Thanksgiving Cactus may be all blooming lovely.

When your Schlumbergera cacti are all blooming lovely this is the perfect time to have fun pollinating the flowers to see if you can get seeds. Pollinating the flowers is very easy to do and in this Blog I include a few videos that I have made for my Cacti & Succulent You Tube channel called Desert Plants of Avalon where I show you on video exactly how you can pollinate the flowers for seed.

All you need is a Schlumbergera cactus that is in flower, preferably with at least two flowers on as from my own experience I have always find it more successful to cross pollinate the flowers on either the same plant or if you have two different flowering Schlumbergera at the same time, for example a red flowering one and a pink flowering one you can cross the flowers between both of them. 

I have had great success pollinating Schlumbergera flowers and have had seed on most occasions when I have pollinated the flowers, however I have found that a lot of my more recent Schlumbergera purchases have failed to produce fruit and seeds for me. I have heard that some of the newer hybrids on the markets today are harder to pollinate for seed but I don’t have enough evidence for that just yet. Let me know if you guys have had success with pollinating the flowers on the newer Schlumbergera hybrids available today 😀 

So How do pollinate the flowers for seed ? 

All you need to do is use a clean tiny brush for example a tiny paint brush, lip brush or a q tip cotton bud, and load the pollen from the flower and then dab the pollen from the flower onto the stigma of the flower, this is best if you only have the one flower but if you have more than one flower its best to take the pollen from the the one flower and dab it very gently onto the stigma of the other flower or flowers. 

The Stigma is the part of the flower that hangs out almost like a tongue haha, and here is a photo of one of my Schlumbergera’s my Schlumbergera ‘Golden Charm’ in flower with the stigma that is bright pink sticking out. this should hopefully show you what the stigma looks like 😀 

Here is a step by step video that I have made for my Cacti & Succulent You Tube Channel called Desert Plants of Avalon on How to pollinate Schlumbergera Christmas and Thanksgiving Cactus flowers :

If you want to cross pollinate two different flowering Schlumbergera cacti for example a white one crossed with a red or pink or orange then you simply dab the pollen from the one flower/s from the one Cactus onto the other stigma on the other Cactus flower.

Here is a video below that I have made for my You Tube channel called Desert Plants of Avalon on How to Cross pollinate Schlumbergera cactus flowers :  

How do you know when your pollination has been a success ? 

Within a few days the flowers will naturally start to wilt if they have not been pollinated and the flowers will dry up and fall off, but if its been a success then the very base of where the flower emerges from the end of the leaf segment will start to swell up and turn a darker green colour ( see photo below ) 

It can take many weeks, months and even as long as a year for the fruit to be fully ready for harvesting, and you will know when the fruits are ready to harvest for seeds because the fruit pod will go very soft and often a dark red colour just like a juicy small berry. 

Here is a video that I have made for my Cacti & Succulent You Tube channel called Desert Plants of Avalon on How to tell when your Schlumbergera flowers have been pollinated :

Here is a video that I have made for my Cacti & Succulent You Tube channel called Desert Plants of Avalon on How to Harvest the fruit from Schlumbergera to get seeds:

Once you have harvest the seeds then its time to sow them, this is the fun part and although very time consuming to grow these plants from seeds compared to cuttings its so much fun and very rewarding to do 😀 

There are many different methods on growing cacti from seed, but personally I like to grow my seeds in pots that are then placed into ‘baggies’ this keeps the seeds and young seedlings moist at all times without having to worry about the soil drying up. After about 3-6 months depending on their size I then remove them from the clear bags and treat them as young seedlings always making sure the soil is moist but not soggy.

Spring is always the best time to sow seeds including all cacti seeds, but if you have grow lights and additional warmth then you can get sowing them at any time of the year.

Here is a video that I have made for my Cacti & Succulent You Tube Channel called Desert Plants of Avalon on How to Grow Cacti from Seed and this includes all types of cactus plants including Schlumbergera : 

Good luck with pollinating your Schlumbergera cactus flowers and let me know in the comments below if you have had success with pollinating the flowers and growing these beautiful cacti from seed. 

Here is a video below that I have made for my Cacti & Succulent You Tube Channel called Desert Plants of Avalon on the update on my Schlumbergera Christmas Cactus seedlings that I have grown from seed in June 2018.

Sending you all lots of love and plant power from across the Emerald Isle and Happy Sowing and Growing Guys 😀