Feb 08 2010
Poinsettia – Red Flowers Enliven Bleak Cold Days
Poinsettias are not to be denied their important place among the colorful decorations during the holiday season. Their flaming red leaves which surround the small, rather inconspicuous club-shaped flowers, have won popular applause, and have created an important market for the Christmas poinsettia. When properly handled, this plant continues to display its cheery color during the cold, bleak days of January.
If you receive a poinsettia as a Christmas gift, place it in a warm, sunny window where the temperature remains fairly constant and does not drop below 60 degrees at night, preferably a few degrees higher. Cool temperatures at night, drafts and sudden chills, are not enjoyed by the poinsettia and will frequently cause the plant to drop its leaves.
If the surface of the soil is dry, water thoroughly but do not allow water to stand in saucer. Do not water again until the soil becomes dry. In late winter or early spring when the leaves begin to fall off, set the plant in partial darkness and about once a week give it just enough water to prevent the soil from drying out.
In May after danger of frost is over, cut the stems back to within about four inches of the soil, reset in a little larger pot and plant pot and all in a sunny spot in the flower border. Lift the pot occasionally during the summer. If this is not done, a large root may grow through the hole in the bottom of the pot into the soil beneath, and the severing of this root will cause all of the leaves to drop when the plant is taken up in September.
If the poinsettia has made a nice healthy growth during the summer, lift the pot in early fall before the approach of cool nights, and set in a warm, sunny window where the temperature remains close to 70 degrees. Feed the plant with a house plant fertilizer, following the recommendations of the manufacturer. If all this procedure is not too much work and worry, it is possible to have a nice holiday plant.
Most folks prefer to let the florist do the job. Commercial growers do not attempt to grow and offer old plants a second year, but use the old plants for the production of new stems which are taken as cuttings usually in July or August. These cuttings, properly handled, produce the Christmas poinsettias.
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