Besides the Christmas tree, the Poinsettia plant is the most popular holiday plant of the season. It perfectly decorates your home with its red and green color during the holidays, but did you know you could keep your poinsettias alive and thriving year-round?
It’s not an easy task, and is almost like taking care of a pet. Both need constant love and attention. So we’re offering some tips on how to keep your poinsettias looking gorgeous after Christmas.
- Don’t let the soil dry out. Continue to water your poinsettia like you would any other plant.
- Slowly decrease its water intake around the month of April. This is a very critical step in which it might die due to it not being able to accept this new drying phase. Move to a colder place where the temperature never goes over 60 degrees and out of sunlight. Keep it indoors if you live in dry and hot areas of the country.
- Sometime in May, repot the poinsettia in a bigger container. Cut all the stems down to about four inches. After, give it a good watering to wake it up. At this point, you will want to give it some sun while still remaining indoors. You will notice some rebirth after continuing to water on a regular basis through the summer. Apply fertilizer a few times a month throughout the summer as well.
- To get poinsettias to re-bloom, limit its exposure to sunlight or this will affect the blooming process. Flower buds should be seen by November if all goes well.
Following these steps won’t guarantee your poinsettia will thrive all year, but it can keep them healthy and alive for many months after the traditional holidays come to an end. For more information on poinsettia plants, visit Milberger’s Nursery today.
9 Comments
Thanks for this!
Thanks for this information. I will try all this out..
We’ve kept one alive for five years, and it’s the size of a healthy hedge– and keeps growing. And yes, it does seem to respond to regular feeding, watering, and loving care.
My poinsettia been in the house for 15 months now. It has lovely arching branches and perfect green leaves, though it did not bloom this last
Christmas. I like it the way it is, so I didn’t try to get it to bloom. I was afraid i’d ruin it! Thanks for all of your information and caring for plants,
My pointsettia is is about 3 years old now. Believe it or not— it’s sprouting flowers now. Poor thing suffered leaf drop lately too. I’d like to repot it. It’s the first time. How long should I wait to do it? Thanks for your help.
It is probably stressed out due to being root-bound which is why it is blooming. You can repot it now safely or cut back some of the roots.
I bought an 8″ poinsettia one year & placed it in a den fireplace for Christmas decor. Ultimately I would forget to care for it and would finally remember to water it usually once a month! Amazingly it continued to grow & stayed red year round. After 2 yrs it was huge & encompassed the entire open fireplace area! It was absolutely beautiful & full. I held a Christmas party that year & everyone was fascinated with it. I did not realize until later in the evening people took snips off my plant and it died within days. I have never understood how this plant survived & remained red year round with so little attention nor have I been able to have one live longer than a few weeks after purchase since.
Poinsettias will only continuously bloom if the plant is stressed out. In your case, it was due to insufficient watering. It seems as if when your guests took cuttings off of your plant stressed it out even more and was not able to survive through it. Mostly, these poinsettias aren’t meant to last after one season so getting two years out of it sounds like a win in my book.
There seems to be conflicting advice about water care on the net?
Which is best?
My plant is kept moist yet it lost half its leaves over Xmas??
Advice please??