Our 7 1/2 year old big day blooming Queen of the Night / cereus bloomed for the first time ever last summer, finally ! It was already on notice, bloom or else...and so it did perform. This after placing it into a South facing spot all winter, pumping it full with flowering fertilizer, and letting it become rootbound. The gorgeous blooms are its saving grace. It has not been repotted for over 4 years; it is rather ornery when it comes to handling it, and getting too heavy for us for carrying outdoors in spring and back inside again in fall. Also, this disorderly prickly thing is soon outgrowing the only available sunny South facing spot where it overwinters ( or else it won't bloom), squeezed in between a desk and a plant stand.

How can we repot and prune this plant WITHOUT risking loosing its flowering capacity coming summer ? We want to put it into a lighter plastic pot, and possibly downsize it, or at least prune it here and there. And not get scratched...

But here is my dilemma : I read that the cereus form flower buds on older leaves. So I can trim away the little pencil sized off shoots, fine. But do I have to leave the 3 foot long one piece leaves intact ? And what about the sections where one or even two leaves grow out of a bottom leaf? On the picture I can see that there are blossoms on the end sections, yet the bottom section is the older part which did not bloom ? What to do ?