Every year at Christmas I order one and every year I toss it..
Anyone having luck with them after the Holiday and to rebloom the next year?
I can get them to about February and thats it!
Oh, and everyone, Merry Christmas!
Poinsettas - anyone?
I've never tried keeping one over, but supposedly the trick for getting them to rebloom is to make sure that they have enough hours of darkness as we get toward the holidays. But if yours are only making it to February then I think you've probably got some bigger issues to fix first! I would check your watering--that's one of the more common causes of death for plants. After that, make sure it's not right in the path of a heating vent or a really cold draft from a door that's opened all the time or a leaky window. Otherwise--can you give a little more info on the conditions you've kept them in and what the symptoms have been when they started to go downhill? They shouldn't be that hard to keep alive, it's getting them to bloom again the following year that can be a bit tricky.
Well, as soon as it arrives, which is usually Christmas day or so, I will post if and monitor it and see what we can do. My house has in the past not been to plant friendly, but this year I have a bunch of plants in the house and it seems the shear volume has given it some base for humidity.. So we shall see. I can say that dryness has been one issue for sure. As for watering.. hmmm.. could be my water as it is very hard.
Well, if someone else is doing them, post them! Lets see what yours are doing!
I have saved them and had them bloom the next Christmas. I cut them back a few inches after blooms fade, them cut back harder and repot/pot up in spring, around May. It lives outside on my porch thru summer in bright light but no direct sun.
On October 1, put it away in an unused area of the house where it will get daytime natural light but complete darkness, no artificial light at all, after sunset. I use an unused bedroom near a NE facing window, and keep the door closed so no light from the hall hits it at night.
My pitfall: That really is an unused room, I never go in there. Then I forget that the poinsettia is there. Already this year I have totally forgotten it and it dried out badly- not once, but twice. It fainted, many leaves turned yellow, then dropped. In fact, I'd had forgotten it again until I saw this post. Last I checked, about a week ago, just a few tiny new bracts at the top were showing the slightest hint of red. I don't know if I'm going to be successful this year.
Karen
Another point that I didn't mention. Different cultivars do have different characteristics- early or late blooming, dark or light leaf color, etc. If you google "poinsettia cultivars" you can find more info.
One Christmas I had one that maintained it's pretty red color well into spring. I wish I had saved that plant, or knew it's name.
Around here there, buying them at most places, they don't even give a cultivar name, just seel them as poinsettia.
Karen
Well, thats another reason I end up tossing them... too expensive to build a spare room! LOL!
I kept two poinsettias for 11 years. Finally "killed" them on purpose. :) The pots were getting too big to move around (meaning I was getting too old to move them). The base of the plants were about 2 inches in diameter and the last few years I had to tie some of the branches to hold them up. Even big, old poinsettias are delicate.
Well, so does anyone have any photos of theirs! May as well enjoy the pix! Mine still is not home yet.
Won't bother you with a picture of mine, lol. It's got the bright red bracts, but I never changed out it's soil and it dried out too many times to have full-size leaves, just little mutant leaves.
Yano, I saw one at a GH the other day that had the wildest "mutant" leaves I ever saw on a poinsettia.. they were very curly!
I should have took a pix of it, but I was not thinking!
I bought a new one of those curly ones this year. It's dark red, actually more of a burgundy, very pretty.
Karen
Well.... wheres the pix!! LOL!
Poinsettias are so Christmassy! All the best of gardening in 2010!
Caroline zone 3 Calgary
This message was edited Dec 24, 2009 7:44 AM
LOVELY! Have a great Christmas too!
Too lazy to take a pic now, but I found one on the web
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/houseplt/msg1119251029376.html
Karen
Well, I finally was able to bring ours home today!
Its so lovely and as ever I will diligently nurse the thing until I kill it! Which probably will be about February knowing my luck! WhaaaH!
Very pretty!
Just a suggestion - if my plant was any example, they put them in reallllllly light soil (of course, they're probably considered by those who aren't plant-aholics to be disposable plants). You will probably have a better chance with changing it out, keeping in mind that being a euphorbia, it's still gonna need really good drainage.
Its in a really light soil... I dont think I will have to transplant it...just the fertilizer, daylight thingee is gonna be an issue.
I hate to toss them away....I usually go until they drop...
This one is really pretty and pretty good size! Good 2 feet plus.
You won't have to worry about the length of daylight until you want it to bloom again - until then, they'll take all they can get.
Yeah, they've come out with really neat cultivars - different colors, shapes of bloom and hugemoungous.
That curly leafed on I saw was really unusual. I think Paul Ecke was its breeder.
So ok, then when about are we talking that I should do something for it on daylight., Right now it is on my shelf on an east windo getting about all the light I can that is natural...which is still not much unless I go with florescents. Days are short.. 630am to about 33o pm gradually getting longer.
I had mine on a shelf in my kitchen and it colored up this (dark and dreary) winter, all by itself. If you want it to maintain it's color, to my understanding, it's not so much the amount of sun as how long it lasts - like, from 7am to 5 pm only, no later. If you have other sources of light in your kitchen it could also add to the daylight hours.
If I were you, I'd enjoy what you currently have, keep it well watered and happy, and not worry about the coloration until next fall or winter. At some point you'll probably have a green plant, but even that way they're quite attractive.
I don't buy these anymore. I found a very realistic looking fake one. We just whip that sucker out every year.
LOL!!!
Been there done that too! LOL! Been known to forget about the ones on the front porch until spring.. I think it drives the neighbs nuts! But then some aint got far to go! LOL!
I vote on about Marfch 17 we all pull out the fakes and put them on the places all the neighbs can see them and pretend they are real!
Yano they are natives to Mexico! But what I can understand how they bloom down theere naturally!
We try to fake them out and try to raise them like pups and to no avail..
