The bright red and green festive colors of the holiday season remind us to bring out the poinsettia plants for that extra touch of cheer. Every year, millions of people purchase these colorful plants as ornaments to add color and warmth to homes, offices, and places of business everywhere. Poinsettias are a unique plant that requires a bit of care, but can be successfully grown indoors at home.
Poinsettia plants, also known as the Christmas star, are a shrub plant that originated in Mexico, where it is called the Mexican flame leaf. The familiar holiday plants decorating our homes every year are a modified version grown especially for the season. What distinguishes the poinsettia from other household plants is that they are winter-flowering and display vibrant red colored bracts.
As with all houseplants under your care, there are six major areas of importance for proper care. These are watering, fertilizing, light, temperature, soil, and location. Neglecting any one of these will most certianly cause problems when growing your poinsettia at home.
• Watering: After the holiday period, your poinsettias should be watered to saturation when the leaves begin to droop. Afterwards, they should be allowed to nearly dry out before watering again. You should not allow your plant to completely dry out, so a good time to re-water a holiday plant is April. You might want to mark your calendar as a reminder to do so.
• Fertilizing: During the holiday season, poinsettias do not require any fertilizer. However, if you choose to add fertilizer, use a liquid fertilizer with high levels of nitrogen, and alternate with a high phosphate fertilizer. You should always use care when applying fertilizer of any kind. When growing a re-potted plant, you should apply liquid fertilizer monthly until autumn arrives.
• Light: Poinsettias are best when grown in filtered sunlight or under a bright filtered light. Poinsettias are very sensitive to light exposure and will begin to flower if exposed to light during the night. Commercial growers control lighting in such a manner that the flowering buds and flaming red bracts are fully bloomed and ready for market just in time for the holidays.
• Temperature: These plants are grown under hot or warm conditions, 60 - 68 degrees F at night, increasing to 80 - 85 degrees during the day time hours.
• Soil: The preferred soil for caring for your poinsettia plants is a garden loam to which peat or well-rotted manure has been added. If you are transplanting your potted plants, you should use a mixture of peat moss, sand or perlite for the soil.
• Location: Poinsettias should be placed in a location where they have plenty of fresh air; however, they should always be kept away from a draft. They can be placed outside once the temperature reaches summertime levels, or simply placed in a window box.
Although poinsettias are usually discarded at the end of the holiday season, some people will keep their plants a while longer. Poinsettias will survive for one to two months after the holiday season without any further care. If you are going to attempt growing your own plant for the next holiday season, you can choose either to take tip cuttings or to simply wait for the old stem to grow new leaves.
The potting soil from the old plant should be replaced with fresh soil mixture in a pot of the same size. A bigger pot will result in excessive leaf growth without the flowers and bracts you are accustomed to. Keep the plant indoors, watering and fertilizing the plant as above. Tip cuttings are first set in water and then transferred to a soil-based potting soil mixture. After a month or so, the plants should have taken root and will be ready to transfer to a larger pot with fresh soil consisting of equal parts of sterilized soil, peat moss, sand or perlite. Dry, well rotted manure can be added if available, otherwise fertilize as above.
Having your Poinsettias bloom right on time for the holidays can be a challenge. They require no more than ten hours of light each day, with total darkness for fourteen hours. This light and dark routine must be strictly observed for a period of eight weeks. Any disruption, even the smallest exposure to light during the dark period, will cause the bloom early.
One final thing to consider is that commercially grown plants are chemically treated to dwarf their size. You shouldn't be surprised if your home grown plants turn out larger than you expect. Remember that poinsettias are a shrub plant and will always try to return to their natural state unless kept under carefully controlled conditions.