When the holidays are over and you pack away the decorations,
don’t pitch the
poinsettia plant. If you’re up for a challenge, this year’s
poinsettia could become a part
of your holiday decorations next year.
Ron
Oetting has several
poinsettia plants in his greenhouse left over from past
holidays. Oetting is a research
entomologist with the University of
Georgia
Environmental Sciences.
Each year he is surrounded by a new crop of poinsettias he
studies to solve insect
problems growers face each year.
"I have new plants each year for research, but I also
have a group of plants that
I save from year to year," Oetting said. "You can save
them from year to year at
home, too. But it’s a challenge. You just have to understand how
a poinsettia works."
Once the Christmas presents have all been opened and holiday
decorations are packed
away, treat your poinsettia like any other houseplant. "You
don’t want to overwater
or underwater a poinsettia plant," Oetting said.
During the spring and summer, a poinsettia is a green foliage
plant. "When the
weather turns warm, repot your poinsettia," he said.
"You also need to decide
whether you want your plant to be a bush or a tree."
If you fancy trees, he said, cut off all the plant’s side
shoots and leave a single
runner that will grow upward. If a bush is more to your liking,
pinch off the shoots to
make the plant branch more.
"Where you keep your poinsettia between New Year’s and
September doesn’t make a
whole lot of difference, as long as it gets light," Oetting
said. "The tricky
part comes after September."
"To flower, the plant needs the same amount of darkness
Mother Nature
provides," he said. "Somehow, you’ve got to keep that
plant in the dark after
the sun goes down, and it has to stay in the dark until the sun
comes up. If there is any
flash of light, you can forget it."
Once the plant begins turning the bright red color it is
known for, there is no turning
back. "Once it starts turning, it’s gonna go," Oetting
said. "It’s already
set physiologically."
Oetting has seen this process work and fail.
"We saved some poinsettias in one greenhouse from the
previous year, and they were
right on track," he said. "But the poinsettias in the
greenhouse next door were
doing poorly. We figured out why when we noticed the streetlight
just outside the
greenhouse door."
Oetting doesn’t recommend trying to save your poinsettia
plant unless you are up for a
challenge and don’t mind failure. "It’s too easy to break
the period of
darkness," he said. "It’s also a whole lot easier and
cheaper to buy a new one
each fall."
One unique characteristic of poinsettias is that its red
"flowers" aren’t
actually flowers at all. The true flower of the plant is the
small yellow flower in the
center of the red color. The spectacular red flower-like
arrangements are the plant’s
bracts or leaves.
A tropical plant from Central America, the poinsettia is also
known as the Christmas
Star or the Mexican Flameleaf. It’s named for its discoverer,
J.R. Poinsett, the first
U.S. ambassador to Mexico.
