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I inherited my mothers Christmas Cacti when she passed in April 2005. In November it was full of beautiful blooms for the first time ever!!! My heart was filled with joy!!! Now however all of a sudden 1/2 of it just fell off. The crown (the area just up out of soil) looks to me like it may be rotting. I CANNOT let this happen. Please help me by sharing with me what you would do. It is in an 8" painted clay pot and the 1/2 that is left has 2 stems of folage that are approx 15" long. It does appear to have some new (light green) leaves coming on. The folage looks healthy but to me the crown doesn't although I am not sure what it should look like. I'm not sure whether to repot, I don't even know if I can clip and restart, I just don't know what to do but I can't let this beautiful sentiment die. Please help.
This isn't really the right forum to get help on this--if you subscribe to the website then you have access to a forum called Orchid Cacti where you'll find lots of experts on this. My guess is that you overwatered it, I would try repotting it in some drier soil and see if that helps, but sometimes if there's too much rot then that won't help. I think you can also start a new plant by breaking off one of the leaves and rooting that, but since I don't grow these I don't know the right way to do that.
