How to Make Poinsettias Red Again
Every year more than 35 meg poinsettias are purchased over the holidays.
This number makes up nearly a quarter of all potted plants purchased every year. That's a lot of plants, especially when you consider that most of them will end upwardly getting thrown out.
Come New year's Day, are y'all set up to pitch your poinsettia?
By January, most folks finish upward with a pot full of twigs and a layer of crunchy, faded leaves. These plants are nearly always tending of, but they don't need to be.
Poinsettias are actually quite easy to care for after the holidays, and with a piffling extra try next fall, you can enjoy their crimson leaves every December.
Read on to learn how to keep your poinsettia healthy and putting out new growth for the rest of the year. Plus, I'll show yous how to get that gorgeous red color once again next Christmas.
Related Reading: 22 Things Every Poinsettia Possessor Needs To Know
Poinsettia 'Blooms'
The first thing we demand to talk about is the function of the found that turns red. We often assume these ruby-red leaves are flowers and refer to them equally blooms. The colorful leaves on the plant are actually called bracts and are non the flower.
When it comes to plants, bracts are specialized leaves, different from the rest of a found. They can exist a different shape or color; they can even be larger or smaller than the other leaves. Bracts usually play a part in alluring pollinators to the establish.
If you wait in the heart of a bract cluster on a poinsettia, you'll find the bodily yellowish and red flowers.
And they're tiny!
The brightly colored bracts help to attract pollinators to the petty flowers. Only it'south these showy red leaves that brand poinsettias so popular at Christmas.
Like most flowering plants, poinsettias volition drop their showy foliage later a while. This is completely normal. Past the time the holidays are over, your poinsettia might not take any leaves at all. Information technology'south nigh this time that nigh folks pitch their plants.
Simply wait, if you lot've kept your poinsettia alive this long, you can go on it growing and producing prove-stopping leafage for years to come.
Post-Holiday Poinsettia Care
Your job is pretty easy after the holidays – water sparingly and let the establish get dormant until springtime.
At the end of April, y'all will need to clip back the institute then that it's virtually 6" tall.
This is besides a good time to repot your poinsettia into something nicer than the nursery pot it came in. Use quality, well-draining soil and a pot with a drainage pigsty. Make sure the new pot is no more than 2" bigger than the previous pot.
For the rest of spring and summertime, you volition continue to water your establish regularly, letting it dry out completely between watering. However, you mustn't let the plant get so dry that it begins to wilt.
You should also begin fertilizing the institute in one case a month after you've repotted it. Choose a good all-purpose houseplant fertilizer.
Going forward, caring for a poinsettia is quite similar to some other popular holiday plant – the Christmas cactus.
Originally from Mexico, poinsettias prefer a toasty 60-seventy degrees F to remain happy and healthy. Poinsettia shouldn't exist exposed to temperatures below 50 degrees F; keep this in mind if y'all cull to motion your plants outside in the warmer weather.
And just like their tropical friends, the Christmas cactus, poinsettias do best in bright, indirect sunlight.
Like most houseplants, poinsettias prefer a humid environs. Use a pebble tray or a plant mister to provide extra moisture for them.
In mid to late summertime, you lot should begin to see new growth on your poinsettia. (Now is the perfect time to propagate your poinsettia!)
All of the new growth will be green, don't worry, nosotros'll get it to plow red just in time for Christmas.
Forcing a Poinsettia to Change Color
In their natural habitat, poinsettia bracts alter colour due to the seasonal changes in Cardinal America. However, nosotros tin can recreate this environment at home.
You'll want to begin this process virtually eight weeks before you want the poinsettia to be in color, normally beginning in September.
At this signal, stop fertilizing your plant. If yous've kept the plant outside, exist certain to bring information technology within long earlier temperatures fall beneath 60 at night.
Much like the Christmas cactus bloom cycle, poinsettia bracts volition change color if they experience longer nights with brilliant days.
To mimic this requires a bit of work, but information technology's null too difficult. You'll need to put your poinsettia somewhere completely dark for 14 hours a day. During the other ten hours, it should be kept someplace that receives bright indirect sunlight.
It'southward of import that the constitute be kept in complete darkness for effectually 14 hours.
Fifty-fifty small amounts of light, both natural and bogus, tin prevent the poinsettia from changing colors. A closet, pantry or windowless room is perfect.
If you lot don't take a good spot in your home that'south completely nighttime, you can use two black trash bags (double-bagged) or a large paper-thin box to comprehend the plant. Cover the plants in the early on evening, being careful not to beat out the leaves. Remove the cover in the morning for the recommended x hours of calorie-free.
Slightly cooler temperatures of effectually 60 degrees F volition likewise assist to mimic the constitute'south natural environment.
The poinsettia will demand extra humidity also. A small cool mist humidifier works great, or in a pinch, using a dish of h2o placed close to the plant. If you lot were using a plant mister, don't mist the leaves, or they will develop spots on them.
Y'all'll need to keep upward this routine for effectually four-five weeks; however, once the bracts have changed color, yous can just enjoy your poinsettia every bit you did the previous vacation. Perchance y'all'll even savor information technology more than considering you kept it alive for another year!
Keeping a poinsettia from year to year is a fun wintertime gardening project for green thumbs everywhere. Every year your poinsettia will get a little bit bigger and a little more impressive.
Yes, it requires a scrap of effort, and so this project might non be for anybody, but it's at least worth a try once.
And ane more benefit to keeping your poinsettia alive beyond the holidays, is that you can have cuttings from the new growth in spring and grow a few make new poinsettia plants. Have a expect at Tracey'south guide to propagating poinsettia here – and as well learn why doing so might be illegal.
Want to learn more about other holiday plants?
Poinsettias & Other Holiday Plants That Are Toxic To Pets (& three That Aren't)
12 Christmas Plants For A Festive Indoor Garden
How to Save Your Amaryllis Bulb To Bloom Again Next Year
Christmas Cactus Care: More Blooms, Propagate & Identify Holiday Cacti
Source: https://www.ruralsprout.com/turn-poinsettia-red/
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