Poinsettia care Keep you plant healthy

Thousands of poinsettia plants are sold every year at Christmas but not many make it to a second Christmas. How to make sure you’re poinsettia survives and thrives and lives a full and healthy life. 

Poinsettias plants should be kept in a well-lit room away from draughts. If placed on a window ledge it should be brought into the room in the evening. when the curtains or blinds are closed to prevent it from getting a draught or suffering from damping off due to condensation on the windows forming a microclimate between the curtains/blinds and the window.

General Poinsettia care notes

The Poinsettia should not be placed near gas central heating boilers or electric heaters as the air in these areas is too dry. If this is not possible or your general have a living area with dry air it is important to place the plant on a saucer filled with gravel or pea shingle keeping the saucer damp to create a humid atmosphere around the plant. In addition, you can occasionally spray your poinsettias with a fine mist of water.

If the plant is left to go slightly dryer than usual, then it can be placed in a sink with about 25mm of water so that the roots can soak up the water over a couple of hours so the whole root ball becomes damp. If water from the top then the water may run right through the pot, as the pot is full of a mass of roots.

Once the poinsettia starts to lose colour

Once the red bracts start to lose colour the poinsettia can be cut back by up to half of its total height. If you cut back into bare stems it will start to reshoot from dormant shoots in the stems. The plant should be turned on a daily basis so it doesn’t grow or lean towards the light and become leggy. At this stage, it’s worth starting to feed with a house plant food such as Baby Bio plant feed.

Repotting

If your poinsettia is over two years old once it has finished flowering it will need the following treatment to keep it flourishing. Firstly it needs repotting in a plant pot one or two sizes bigger ideally using a clay pot. ( clay pots are better at creating humidity around the plant )

With regards to repotting, we recommend a soil-based compost called John Innes compost number 2 compost.

When repotting it’s a good idea to check for vine weevil which can be a problem with poinsettias.

Summer light requirements

The Poinsettia in summer needs a good source of light after pruning to encourage new growth. Your Poinsettia can be placed outside during the summer months or in the greenhouse or conservatory, it will need to be moved back into your house in early September.

Producing new red bracts

The red bracts naturally form as a result of shortening days which happens naturally. However to insure the ed bracts are formed for the traditional Christmas period it needs to be placed in a dark cupboard or covered with a black bag for about 8hrs per day for about 4-5 weeks to encourage the bracts to turn red.

More notes on poinsettia care Click Here