Keeping Poinsettias for Next Christmas
When we buy Poinsettias, we treat them like annual plants that last for but one season to bloom and then die. But Poinsettias are shrubs and therefore perennial; you could keep yours for years if you want to. All it takes is taking some care of them and a whiff of gardening knowledge. This blog article will tell you what to do after Easter and how to make your Poinsettia bloom for Christmas. How to keep the Poinsettia alive to last until Easter is told here
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In general, Poinsettias like it light and sunny. Poinsettias can be kept indoors year round. If you have placed the pot on a windowsill for winter, it is sensible to remove it from there during summer. Heat tends to accumulate behind windowpanes when full sunshine blasts through them into a room. Keeping it there would dehydrate it; it would virtually get cooked.
A Poinsettia would be just as happy to spend the summer in the garden or on a balcony. It may be kept outside as long as the coldest night temperature is guaranteed to be over 10 °C. It will thrive in partial shade as well as in full sunlight. If you keep it in full sunlight, though, you need to make sure that you keep it adequately watered. Before moving it into the sun, let it get acclimatized to unfiltered sunlight by keeping it in a shadowy place for a week. If you expose it to natural sunlight after months spent inside, it would get sun burnt.
While blazing sun outside is no problem for the plant itself, it can be one for a potted plant. If you leave a potted Poinsettia exposed to midday sun, the earth in the pot will dry out quickly because the pot is rapidly overheating. The result is wilting leaves and a dehydrated stem. On the other side of the spectrum you must make sure that rainwater may flow away from the pot. Don’t keep the pot in a coaster or place it in a puddle as Poinsettias don’t like to have their roots in standing water. Waterlogged roots rot and make the leaves fall off.
Like any other plant you plan to enjoy for more than a few weeks, you’ll have to re-pot it to make it grow. The best soil for the plants is potting soil and sand mixed at a ratio of two to one. You can also use commercially sold cactus soil. The peat fiber mix you buy the plant in will deteriorate over a few months becoming unable to store water. You have to replant if you intend to keep it healthy; when changing pots, try to shake away as much as possible of the old soil.
Watering the plant while it is outside does not change from what you do inside. Check the soil if it is moist. When the top layer of soil is dry, it is time to water. Try not to let the content of the pot go bone dry at the same time. Pot plants need plant food from time to time, but only in their growing season. While you may forgo that while it is inside, it does need its supplements during summer. Liquid plant food should be added to the water once monthly between April and September.
