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BY MARC HESS
Nothing welcomes the holidays like poinsettias, a tropical winter blooming plant that has become the center piece for our holiday celebrations. What did it was the blazing red color of the large bracts that drape over the rich green leaves. The poinsettia flowers are small, green or yellow, and grow inconspicuously in the center of each leaf bunch. Oddly enough the larger the plant the smaller the flowers. While red is the traditional color, hybridizers have expanded the range of colors so that you can now find poinsettias that are pastel yellow, variegated white and pink as well as vibrant bi-colors.
DECORATING WITH POINSETTIAS
Poinsettias make a holiday gift because they work so well in every holiday decorating opportunity. With a shiny decorative wrap around the pot, a large ribbon, or a holiday themed planter, a live poinsettia plant will assure your welcome to any holiday event. They bring cheer to every occasion; the dinner party, the office, the church group and even the dorm room.
- For a dramatic center piece simply leave three plants in their pots with their decorative wrap and group them together inside a larger container. Snip pieces of evergreen foliage from your Christmas tree or wreaths and place them inside the container so they spill over the sides.
- For a more decorative effect you can drop a few Christmas ornaments of various sizes into a transparent container—either glass or wired—and place a four-inch poinsettia in the center. Use the ornaments to disguised the pot and let the colorful bracts burst from the opening at the top.
- You can use a similar idea to create smaller poinsettia place settings by filling the bottom third of a small jar with decorative glass beads or rocks. Fill the jar with water and place one or two bracts in the center of the jar. Attach a clipped safety pin or paperclip to the back side of a name card and slide the other prong into the center of the poinsettia bract for a lovely place setting.
- If you are a craftier person you can clean out several wine bottles and bind them together with wire, twine or supple grapevine. Using a funnel, fill each bottle to the base of the neck with water. Cut the poinsettias bracts with long stems (seven to eight inches), be sure to trim away the green leaves, and place the stems in the wine bottles.
- Add some whimsy to your holiday with a rain boot poinsettia arrangement. Find some rubber rain boots and fill them with soil up to about six inches from the top of the boots. Gently loosen the root ball of the poinsettias and plant them in the boot. Add more soil if needed and water the plants lightly every couple of days. These rainboot poinsettias will add some flair to your entryway.
CARING FOR YOUR POINSETTIAS
You can expect the poinsettia plant that you get for the holiday season to stay attractive for three to four months with proper care. But these finicky short-day plants require some specific care to retain their Christmas color.
- When selecting your poinsettia at the nursery look for bushy plants with full open bracts that extend over the lower green leaves. You’ll need to select plants that are removed from the sleeves that they are shipped in. Also take a look at the green leaves under the bracts. If there are any insects— primarily white flies- you may find them underneath the lower leaves.
- Never let your poinsettia dry out to the point of wilt. Water your plant well when the surface soil is dry to the touch—usually once a week. Then place a few ice cubes in the container every day to maintain the moisture. Be careful not to overwater.
- You can expect wonderful color from your poinsettia if they are placed where they can catch at least six hours of good light from a window but not direct sunlight. Do not allow the plant to touch the glass.
- Poinsettia are semitropical and don’t like the cold or rapid changes in temperatures. Do not display your poinsettia in a spot where cold air will contact the plant. Even for the brief time when you are carrying your plant home from the nursery protect it from air that is below freezing. Do not leave your poinsettias in entrance areas or any other location that is less than 40° and do not display them in a spot where cold air will contact the plant when a door is open.
- Poinsettias don’t like hot dry air, either. Keep them away from hot air registers or a west-facing window where warm air may accumulate in the afternoon. Dry air will reduce the attractiveness of your poinsettia.
- Fertilizing poinsettia plants is never a good idea when they are still in bloom.
These poinsettia care guidelines will sustain your poinsettia bloom for three or four months. You can move your poinsettias out from their ideal growing locations to meet the decorating needs of your family gatherings or when you have guests. When your party is over and your visitors have left you can move your plant back to a better location. And don’t worry about that old wives tale that poinsettias are more poisonous than other plants. They’re not.
When the holiday season is well behind you, the Christmas decorations are back in storage and you are well into the New Year and planning your spring flower beds the bracts will lose their color and fall from the plant. It is difficult to get poinsettias to rebloom indoors. Fortunately, in South Texas, poinsettias can be planted directly outdoors in the spring after the danger of frost has past. If properly cared for outdoors your poinsettias will make beautiful plant for your next holiday season.
TRANSPLANTING YOUR POINSETTIA OUTDOORS
In South Texas, you can re-plant your poinsettia outdoors in a sheltered location and if you protect it from the cold it will reward you with reblooms for many years. When the plant in your house declines in the spring, cut the stems back to six or eight inches and place it in a container, five-gallons or larger. A sheltered location in morning sun is ideal. Be sure to water it through the summer and protect it from the cold every winter.
In the summer when you see new growth, begin feeding every two weeks or so with a balanced organic fertilized. Pinch back the stems as they grow to encourage branching until September.
Poinsettias bloom in response to shorter days. For about eight to ten weeks prior to the desired bloom time put your poinsettia in complete darkness for twelve to fifteen hours each day. In this period your poinsettia would like to have at least six hours of sunlight. Water and feed it as usual. When you see the tiny flowers budding in the center of each leaf bunch, your poinsettia is ready for its holiday debut. Continue watering but stop feeding until spring. This is your poinsettias time to shine.
//SA
