When all the branches of your miniature Christmas cactus have been painted and are dry, take a sharp pin or your tweezers and gently tease the flower petals apart, bending them backwards towards the main stem. Do not tease the buds!. With the flowers fluffed out to shape it is time to assemble your cactus.
Prepare the Pot or Planting Site - Holiday cactus are fairly pendulous, with hanging branches. You can place them in pots, hanging baskets or the crotches of trees or branches. The cactus are easiest to shape and place if you fit a small block of floral arrangement foam for dried flowers into your chosen pot, hanging basket or other location. You can apply a bit of pva glue to the 'soil' side of the foam, and apply fine dried sterilized potting soil, or railroad scatter to the surface to resemble soil. Set the pot with its foam filling aside to dry.
Plant the Cactus - Examine your cactus branches and set aside the ones with the best flowers to place on the top of the plant. Take a branch of your cactus near the base with your tweezers and insert it into the floral arrangement foam in your pot, near the center of the pot. Plant two other branches in a rough Y shape also in the center of the plant. With the branches securely anchored, use your tweezers to round the branches over roughly 1/2 inch from the surface of the pot and pull them over to droop down the sides of the pot. (see photo above). Add in the rest of your branches, inserting them between the previous branches in the center of the pot. Arrange your best flowers so they are at the front of the pot on the top layer of the plant.
There are a huge range of colorful varieties of holiday cactus you can experiment with. Fill a scale greenhouse or a summer lathe house with a specialized collection. Please share photos of your best efforts with other readers by submitting them to the galleries on the miniatures site. Submit Photos
