▷ Christmas flower poinsettia: instructions for its long flowering

The poinsettia can be called the indulgent queen of Christmas. And I won’t argue. To be honest, I have a bitter experience when this beauty did not even last until the holidays at my house. But today I already know what to do to keep the poinsettia beautiful for as long as possible, and how to take care of it so that it blooms next year too.

Find out how to choose a poinsettia with high potential for long blooms, how to care for it and the most common reasons for failure. Everything is much clearer in this video:

What exactly is a poinsettia?

Poinsettia – the most beautiful horsetail (lat. Euphorbia pulcherrima). It is a perennial, but outdoors it has no chance of surviving our Lithuanian winters. So, in our climate, poinsettia can grow and bloom only in a warm, bright room, with careful care. I’ll talk to you about maintenance soon.

Poinsettias are available in different colors. We will talk more about colors and the principles of their combination in the seminar “Color matching in the garden“. This is an affordable but comprehensive remote workshop that will help you understand what to resist when choosing a color palette for your garden. The same principles can be applied to houseplants.

How to choose the best poinsettia in the store

1. Don’t buy what’s on sale at the entrance. The poinsettia does not like drafts and can react sensitively to the cold. Therefore, when buying in a supermarket, pay attention to where these plants are stored. Make sure it is not somewhere near the entrance, near a door that is opened often. Knowing this, I would now definitely take my most beautiful poinsettia from the shelf in the far corner of the shopping center, or better yet, from a small, cozy flower shop.

2. Look at the poinsettia buds. Another thing to take into account when choosing a poinsettia is its deceptive nature. You’re probably thinking that those bright red leaves are real poinsettia flowers? It turns out that’s not quite the case. Its true flower is that bud in the center, and the red leaves are the petals.

When choosing poinsettias, pay attention to the center itself, its true flower. author of the photo L. Lubertaitė.

If you see that those flowers in the center have already opened, then know that flowering is coming to an end, so you will not have beauty for a long time. Look for a poinsettia with unopened buds in the center, as it can stay beautiful for up to three months.

3. Does the plant look healthy anyway? Before adding it to your cart, check whether the poinsettia is well branched and well cared for. It is important that the leaves are not yellowed, encrusted or spotted. Make sure there aren’t too many of them around.

Choose the one with deep green leaves and unwithered branches.

Poinsettia immediately after purchase

I wouldn’t recommend taking it out of the store just like that. Buy poinsettias where they can package them. And if there is no such possibility, you can prevent the events yourself by throwing a larger bag to cover the plant from all sides. And knowing all its delicacy, I went straight home with the poinsettia – no “I’m going to another store for a while.” I recommend keeping it in the car or outside for as little time as possible.

Well, once you have chosen, purchased, taken home and brought in, you need to unpack it carefully so that no branches break. And it’s quite easy to do due to the fragility of the plant.

By the way, the poinsettia when harvested releases a milky sap, which is poisonous. This information is important for anyone with small children or pets. There is no shame in the reserve – think about where the most suitable place for this plant is located in your home.

How to keep a poinsettia beautiful for a long time

So, what you need to know in order for the poinsettia to decorate the house for as long as possible:

1. Find it the right placewhere it is quite warm and bright.

And try to make the Christmas star:

Away from the radiator;
In a bright place;
But away from direct sunlight.

2. It is necessary to water often, because the land must be constantly moistened But be careful, because the border here is slippery: if there is too much water, it will start to drop leaves and show other signs of displeasure. Check the humidity by sticking your finger into the soil (nothing is designed better or more precisely) – whether the soil is dry or completely wet, you will definitely feel it.

Use only settled water for irrigation and it should be warm or at least room temperature, never cold.

3. A poinsettia lacks fertilizer to ensure complete happiness and comfort. We fertilize flowers that bloom indoors intensively in summer, during their peak, and we do it much less often in winter. But poinsettias have their peak time in the winter, so we can help them and give them that extra energy.

If you are not a great fertilizer expert and have doubts about the dosage of fertilizers, I advise you to try premixed fertilizers for blooming flowers, you can buy them by clicking here OR by clicking hereor just look in the shops. I love how easy they are to use because you don’t need to dilute or mix anything. I simply water it once every 1-2 weeks not with water, but with the liquid from the fertilizer bottle, an

The poinsettia will receive minerals and other substances necessary for longer flowering. And if there’s any fertilizer left over, you can use it later on any flowers that bloom in your home.

Poinsettia in trouble? Reasons

What signals does the poinsettia send to communicate its needs:

If you see that the color of the leaves and petals of the poinsettia has lost its saturation, faded, this indicates that you have watered the plant too much;
If everything is fine with the leaves of the flower, but the petals have become pale or have white spots, this may indicate that it is too hot. In this case, move it to another place, as far away as possible from radiators or heated floors;
If the leaves fall, it may indicate that you have watered too much or that you have poured cold water.

To save the poinsettia for next year

It would be naive to expect a poinsettia to bloom forever. After flowering, the moment of rest will come: the poinsettia will drop its leaves and beautiful “rings”. Well, it would be a shame to throw it away when a lot of effort has already been made. The good news is that you can keep it in bloom for next Christmas. The bad news is that it will take even more effort: it’s not for nothing that I said at the beginning that it’s the queen’s cuddles. So here’s what’s in store for you if you stick with it:

For the rest of the winter, after the holidays, we water little and rarely;
In spring we transplant into peat, because it is loose and retains humidity perfectly;
We fertilize intensively (around March);
We prune in the spring so that it has a nice shape later;
The sunlight, watering and fertilizing regime remains the same as mentioned above.

But even this is not enough for a happy ending! If you take care of it with love and according to all instructions, but do not know certain nuances, most likely next Christmas you will have a plant that looks more like a green bush than a beautiful flower with bright flowers. So what to do?

A month or two before the desired result, it is necessary to maintain a certain darkness regime. He must be allowed to remain in blind darkness for fifteen hours a day. I heard that if you only have a few charms, people cover them with cardboard boxes. You can invent more things, as they say, there are no limits to original ideas here. The easiest way, I think, is to take the poinsettia into a windowless room or garage for the specified time. This light and dark regime will encourage the color of the plant to turn bright red.

I would say that it takes a lot of persistence to preserve the poinsettia until next Christmas, but I believe that your great effort would add even more value and beauty to this plant.

I wish you success!

The first version of this article was created in 2020 in collaboration with “Baltic agro” and subsequently updated with a new video report..