Haven't posted a topic about our beautiful zygo cactuses, yet, but have just started an experiment that can't wait for that to happen. Our zygoes flowered like crazy last autumn (April, May) but one, which outdid itself, did not seem to be really healthy. I fully expected it to die after the flowering was finished. It didn't. In fact it appeared to recover, somewhat, with its leaves becoming plump again. Thought it may have been using all its resources for the flowers.

When the others started popping out new leaves everywhere, the asickly one didn't. The others had shiny green leaves & it had dull pale green ones. As the months went by they were starting to get shrivelled. After ignoring it for several months, I finally decided to do something, so I removed it from its pot. Could not believe how many large plants had grown from just one small plant in 2-3yrs. There were five large plants & one small one. But ur worst fears were confirmed. The roots were rotten. Decided to try & save the plants by slicing off the rotten bits to healthy tissue. It didn't go very far up the stems, fortunately. Just above the roots. The poor plant hadn't had much nutrition for months by the looks of it.

Let the stem ends dry out for a few days.

See how thick these zygo stems are.

After the ends were dried, they were dipped into rooting hormone powder & repotted. Have become quite a fan of this rooting hormone powder. Never used to bother with it but have had some really good results from using it. Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, hopefully, it will work its magic with the poor zygo cactuses, or schlumbergera truncata. 8)

Here they are in their pot.

The small pot on the right has the small plant with no roots & two other plants that do have roots & were grown from broken off leaves just stuck into the soil ages ago. It is obvious, from the pic, just how shrivelled the plants have become. Am just hoping the leaves will start to get nice & plump fairly soon. It has survived its poor condition for several months now so I'm hoping it will recover. Fingers crossed.

Some of the plants didn't take root but most did. Even the really withered up ones have rooted. Was going to trim them but there were flower buds on them!!!! Do not know how they will go flowering. The ones that aren't withered & seem to be growing well also have buds. This is a huge surprise & a wonderful sign.

Have removed the ones that didn't take root & hope that this will give the other plants more room to grow.

So glad you have managed to save most of them Joy!

Thanks Dawn. Am not expecting too much from these poor plants for this flowering season though. They did flower like crazy last year & were shrivelling up for many, many months before I took some action. Slack. We will get a good display from the other zygoes, though, thank goodness.

Yes their come back will be slow, if it is anything like the ones I have had go like that on me. But it's great that you at least have another one to look forward to.

We certainly do. There are two containers which have two different plants, each with different shades of colour, as well as a small pot with one small plant with buds. Not sure what its colour will be so it will be a wonderful surprise when it flowers. Think it may be a "White Fantasy" zygo.

I have been on the lookout for a red one for ages now. I did see one for sale a while back but, I couldn't buy it we were in someone elses car and couldn't get it back. But I will find one eventually. The red ones flower here nearer Christmas whereas the pink ones around Easter time.. hence our little names "Easter cactus" and "Christmas cactus"

The ones here seem to all flower around this time of the year. Haven't seen any flowering at Christmas, though. One of mine is the "Strawberry Fantasy" & was a beautiful red last year. The previous year it was more of a deep pink. Still beautiful, though.

Have just realised I haven't featured our zygoes yet. Must start a new topic.

Well, the "Strawberry Fantasy" has finally started to grow some buds. They are really tiny & way behind the "White Fantasy" which is flourishing. The pot on the front patio with the fluoro pink flower "Sterling" & more "White Fantasy", is also budding very well. Have noticed that the "White Fantasy" tends to take over so might split these up a month or so after the flowering has finished.

The one I did forget was the zygo which had been hiding in a large container that was taken over by a self-sown maidenhair fern. We have had this zygo for 22 years. Most of the zygo plants in the container, eventually, died so we were surprised to see a small zygo plant still there which reappeared after I savagely pruned the maidenhair fern. (It never recovered from that. ) Anyhow it has opened up a flower. Our very first zygo for this season. It is a very pale pink but this year it is even paler than usual.

Yesterday.

Here is the large "White Fantasy" zygo which is on the back patio. It also has the "Strawberry Fantasy" zygo in the container. They get the morning sun which seems to be too much for them as they have gone pale green & are no longer the glossy green of the ones on the front patio. They only get some late afternoon sun during the summer.

Here is the zygo flower which opened fully today. It is in a hard to get at position so the pic is not that good.

Of the zygoes that had brown rot, some have not taken root so have been removed from the container. :( Of the others, some are still withered but seem to have grown roots & the rest look much better. They have buds, as have some of the withered up ones. Which surprises me no end.

The first flower of the "White Fantasy" zygoes which were affected with brown rot. It is much more pink than the other "White Fantasy" zygoes.

The second.

One of the stems, which is recovering well, has plenty of buds.

More flowers & buds. Even the still withered up stems have buds. It will be interesting to see if they open. Doubt it though.

Here is this zygo now after several months of seclusion,. hiding under some other plants on the back patio. It was protected from the summer sun & heat where it was. The really withered stems died completely, even those which flowered last year.

When I removed it from its hiding place I was very pleased to see the rest of the stems looking so good. It is now residing on the front patio.

So, all in all, this might be considered something of a success.

View from the side.

The recovered-from-brown-rot zygo has flower buds!!! It is covered with them!!

That's wonderful ! and a great success story, as when they go limp from something, I get very nervous as most times mine have never recovered from anything!