I only water when nearly dry and I keep it on a coffee table about 6 ft from an east facing patio door. Advice please Thank you. Hi Carol. That alone will produce a thicker, fuller plant. If you feel the need to cut it back, do it now. The plant needs time to reproduce new growth. Ideally spring is the best time to do this but when it has adequate exposure to sunlight.
If you do as I suggest, then pruning out new shoots in July would be ok, but keep in mind the red leaves you are after are just that, leaves. Still very healthy. Pinched back in July. Just waiting to put in the dark. I have now placed pot on a bed of pebbles which has a small amount of water, not touching the bottom of the pot I hasten to add. This hopefully will give the humidity you say the plant should have at this time. A couple of years ago I was doing a Christmas job in a grocery store floral shop and, while unpacking 50 or so boxes 8 plants per box , I found one red one with white splotches.
My kind of a plant! If I remember to. I tried putting some used coffee grounds on it and then realized — chocolate flavored coffee grounds make your house smell like chocolate for a week.
The plant liked it, though. Thanks to everyone for such interesting information! Hi Joe. Thanks for your advice, the update. Thanks Chris. After New Year, I put them in a big bay window to die, as I am not good with plants, nor did I care to have such a responsibility. That was 4 years ago. They keep their blooms nearly all year long. They both fill up the window that is their year round home, which baffles me. The window is pretty cold in the winter and they virtually bake in it in the summer.
I now baby them. Since our winter is so cold this year, I just relocated them temporarily, away from the window, as their leaves were curling a bit. I have never pruned them, but reading all this advice, maybe I should.
My question, if I keep repotting them, will they just get bigger? Wow Denise. Sounds like you have the perfect house plants. Regarding your question, allowing your plants to have more room to spread their roots will likely cause them to grow larger.
Eventually the roots become so tightly encircled that they lose their ability to take up water and nutrients and the plant eventually begins to decline. Bumping up the container size slightly and loosening the roots when you do, will keep your plant healthier and fresh. Hi, can you please tell me the best way to get my golden poinsettia tree back to life. Hi Chris. It could be a number of things. Losing leaves could be because of too much water or not enough.
Also, the plant might be pot bound. Pull it out of the container and check the roots. Are they tightly wound in a circular pattern?
To correct the problem, you would need to break up the root pattern and repot in a slightly larger container. Be sure to give it plenty of water if you repot it. Another possibility is that it is getting too much dry heat from the location in the house.
Is it too close to a heat vent? And it still needs light. Good luck Chris. Let us know what happens. My pointsettia was dying and one day i had a cup of cold coffee in my hand was passing my plant and pour it in a day or two later it was back pretty and green did the coffee have some thing to do with it living it is so pretty now. I have been going through all the comments and have learned a lot.
Will more leaves continue to turn red. Although it is a little late, I still thing ill give it a go and see how it works.
Thank you for the advice!! Hi, I was wondering if the leaves turn dark green or light green before turning red. Some of the new leaves are turning red only half of the leaf , some times it seems the leaves are very light green so if we keep it in the box for a day they get a very nice dark green.
Not sure if this is better or worse. May the light green is better and its not getting enough light? I have 10 poinsettias planted in front of my house.
I did not prune them throughout the year because I did not anticipate leaving them in all year, but by September, the plants were huge about 3 feet wide and 3 feet tall. At this point, there are a lot of red leaves and the new leaves coming in are red.
Do you think it will be ok if I stop covering them? I am beginning to get worried for the plant as the bags are starting to cause the leaves on the plant to grow impacted. Should I stop and give my plants time to readjust and expand their leaves?
Or should I continue covering them for 3 more weeks? Hi Brian. If it were me, I would conduct an experiment at this point. Continue to cover at least one and not the day to day changes between it and the uncovered plants. I would love it if you did this and reported back on your findings. I would especially pay close attention to the uncovered plants for the first signs of reversion or loss of redness back to green.
I live in Upcountry Maui and the Poinsettias always seem to thrive here. Once the leaves have turned red most of them is it OK to leave in normal light again? My experience is that once the leaves have turned red, you can put them out in full light.
I just wanted to say I was so impressed by all the answers. I have never been to a website where there were so many thorough answers!!! Thank you!! When you say the plant needs a humid environment during the day, can I put it on a window sill in a centrally heated room. Will spraying the soil give it sufficient humidity? Jenny, rather than spray the foliage, i would place the container in a saucer of stones and water. As long as moisture remains in the saucer, you should be fine.
I have never been able to get a poinsettia to live past Jan-Feb until last year. Here it is 10 months later and my poinsettia is healthy green and vibrant.
I re-potted it in spring and fertilized it once. Anyway, I am going to try to get it to bloom red for this Christmas. I will keep you apprised of the outcome.
Thank you for all of your wonderful work and advice. Hi, I have a three year old poinsettia that has never been trimmed, puned, or pinched. It has become very leggy and woody, with leaves only at the top. Is it safe to cut it back to about half its current size, leaving only a few stems with leaves?
It is fine to cut back some of the stems Jamie. New growth should result from just below your cuts. Cutting or pruning is a great way to stimulate new growth and invigorate your plant. You may also want to assess where you plant is located. Very leggy plants tell me it needs more light. Nutrients are depleted a little more with every watering.
Eventually nothing is left to feed the plant until you add it back with fertilizer. My four year old poinsettia blooms all summer, brightening up the deck in Maine with small but very intensely red bracts. It winters in the cool guest room with generally only natural light. The leaves are getting very ratty and now when it loses leaves none grow back. What must I do to grow leaves without interrupting the bloom?
David, it may be time for potting up your plant. Remove it from its existing pot and check the roots. I also think you need to cut the plant back a bit to rejuvenate it. Pruning stimulates new growth.
This plant might just need a makeover above and below ground. You an also fertilize with a a diluted mix of liquid fertilizer about half strength until you plant has settled in for a few weeks. Also, if you transplant and cut back, keep it out of all day direct sun for a couple weeks.
But make sure it has enough sun too. I have a poinsettia I bought last November. It is now May and it has stayed red and healthy the whole time.
Is this normal? Mine was the same way but now the red leaves have finally all fallen off. Pretty green leaves now. Based in Dublin ireland, we have 4 poinsettias since Christmas that still have their white bracts in place. They are inside in a very bright room out of direct sunlight.
They have new growth shoots approx 4 inches high shooting above the white bracts. I water them only when quite dry. What would be your advise in terms of pruning while the bracts are still present and should I pop them outside for the summer Dublin temps are 12 to 20degrees centigrade. The plants are approx 18 inches high. Is it unusual for the white bracts to be still in place — only one or two of the leaves have dropped to date.
Hi Brendan. Your plants seem quite happy indoors. Your temps are on the cool side but not too cool I think. I would place them outdoors in a container or in ground and keep an eye on them. I would wait a bit either way and let the plants acclimate to their new environment first.
Hi, I have a poinsettia that is really two separate plants in the same pot. One red and the other white. I have had them for about three or four years now. I put them outside in the spring and forget about them until fall.
Now however I have two to three ft plants with almost a barky type stem and few leaves. Most of the leaves are green with the exception of the topmost few which are smaller and red or white repectivly.
Should I cut the whole thing back to four to six inches and start over or just let it go the way it is? Also if I plant such a large plant in the ground, will it make it throught the winters or will it die? I live in eastern Tennessee. Thanks for any help or advice you can give. Thanks, John. Pruning it is up to you John.
It will do well either way. But it is not cold-hardy for Tennessee. Then you can plant outside or keep in a pot and bring it back in next fall. Celebrate the fact that your plant is growing tremendously. The leaves turning red has everything to do with providing the right about of light and darkness as referenced in my article and the various comments and replies in this post.
Just keep it happy as you have been doing and try again next year. Otherwise, you can try removing them by hand. I am in Jamaica and have two poinsettias I bought last year.
Found your suggestions and tried to follow this them year. I started in October with putting a big black thrash bag over my plants for 12 hours and giving them sun during the days. Unfortunately I had to be away for conferences and meetings 4 times and so the treatment was not consistent.
However last Saturday I returned after 3 days and both plants have a few red leaves!!! I am so happy.
Do I continue with the no light treatment for more red? Yay Paulette! I would love to see the comparison if you kept only one covered going forward to continue the experiment vs. It is the perfect opportunity to observe the direct impact your efforts will have by going forward with just the one. It will make such a great comparison and learning opportunity. Please report back whatever you do. It will be fun to hear more about this. Thanks for checking in Paulette. They were doing fine,; but all of a sudden many of the leaves are turning brown on the edges and curling up.
I have not been watering them until i felt that the soil was dry. Any thoughts? Thanks for any tips.. The brown margins on the leaves are from dryness of soil or fertilizer burn.
Adding too much and the result is fertilizer burn. However, if you added the fertilizer after the browning curled leaves, it was that the soil was too dry. Once springs comes, you should see recovery, especially once it warms up enough to put it back outside. I bought a few poinsettias five days ago.
I knew nothing about them other than that they were pretty and cheap. After five days! Is there any way to halt or slow the process or is it now too late for this season? Let me look into this and see if I can offer any more information on this today. Let us know what happens as well over time.
Would be interesting to know. I got this plant from my mom, It is real healthy and is all green. If it lives thru this Christmas ,I will try doing what you are saying for next Christmas. Thank You. Ive researched and failed.. I made a cover that fits in the cracks in the doors of a cabinet we are only using for this plant and here we are with dark , very dark in fact , green leaves and only a hint of red speckles in the stems..
Seriously I started talking to it to get it to respond but I think I will put it in an unused room and call all you who make it happen.. Well Jeanne, you get a gold star for being such a trooper. It sounds like you did everything right. We nursed it back to health over the year here in central Florida. We have a large card board box over it held up by 3 steel fence post, It take two of us to get the box on along with a few laughs, we get a lot of looks and comments but it is starting to turn red after about 4 weeks, just like you said.
I am laughing imaging you covering it with a huge box! It has been 4 weeks now and no red yet. Not sure if it is getting enough good light in the day time. Would it be ok to just keep trying for a few more months to see if it will Bloom? I so want it to bloom. I have a poinsettia from last Christmas.
This spring I cut it back and it is growing like crazy. About 6 weeks ago ago I started putting it in the dark for 14 hours. There is no red yet. What am I doing wrong? Is it getting plenty of bright light during the day? Those uncovered hours are important. Did you fertilize it? Poinsettias need feedings whenever they are NOT in bloom. The other component is humidity. Hoping mine would thrive for years. Thankful that our climate is tropical. God bless. Glad you found this post helpful!
I have my poinsettia for a long time, this would be my second year of turning it red. Last year I had 2 but only one survived. I got my plants from my sister a few xmas ago, she got them at a 99 cent store. They were withering and ask for them. They never turned red until last year. I tried that process last year but did not put a bowl of water in with it! After 9 weeks I only had one leaf turn red. But it stayed red quite a while! I saved my plant from last year and kept it on my covered deck outside all summer.
Thank you for the tips on getting it to turn red. I hope I can be diligent and have it turn red for Christmas! I am so glad it worked! There is something so rewarding about foster a plant through and seeing it thrive. Let me know how it goes turning red this Christmas.
I just repotted my Pointsetta from last Christmas. Thanks for the tips and wish me luck! Funny you should ask that!
I have been thinking about adding that to the post. This is just the push I need — I am going to add how to propagate a poinsettia now. I am so proud to say that we were able to keep one poinsettia healthy from Christmas to !!!!!
We have about 5 clusters that are still thriving!!! I love this! All of a sudden I understand what is happening with the Red Leaves. My plant is nearly 1m tall and quite lush , but no red leaves. After reading your articles I now know how to fix that.
I was wondering if you can take cuttings of it and have 2or 3 smaller ones. If that is something that can be done, please let me know the procedure. Glad I can help! You can propagate poinsettias from stem cuttings. Your question has me thinking I should write an article about it!
But, here are the basics: Use healthy new stems cut from vigorous plants. The old stems that flowered this year are not the best cuttings to use. To get new stems, cut the old stems back and keep the parent plants warm, consistently moist, and in a bright location. When the new stems are about four inches long, you can take new cuttings. Cutting should be inches and have mature leaves. Treat the base of each cutting with rooting hormone , then place it in a pre-made, moistened hole in clean potting soil.
Put the pots with cuttings in plastic bags to keep the humidity high and place in bright, but not direct sunlight. In around three to four weeks your cuttings should have decent roots and can be put into bigger pots and treated like your other poinsettias. Let me know how it turns out! Thank you for this great info space; have mine which neighbor gave me. She does this every year but first time I kept so long. Did not have info until today but will print more.
Hi Alice- I am going to have to check out that movie. Glad you are going to keep that poinsettia going — and what an awesome neighbor to give you one every year. I bought 2 poinsettias last year and one of them died but the other one lived and none of the leaves, green or red fell off.
In fact there are still a couple of red leaves still on there but they are turning slightly greenish now. It never gets direct light there either. I think you need to start the process of keeping it in a dark, humid environment for 14 hours a day. Then in 4 weeks it should turn red again… a little late for Christmas, but it will add some cheer to winter!
I have never put it in the dark but it grows well and is quite lush. It gets a little direct sunlight each morning, but otherwise has a lot of indirect light. It does have some another plant in with.
The plant has clusters of little white flowers that are commonly seen at Christmas potted with poinsettias in Canada. Good question! I think it must just be part of its natural cycle — it is getting ready to bloom.
The long nights of winter must have prompted it to turn red in preparation for flowering. Thank you for the information since my plant is big and cant carry big object can I cover at night a dark cloth please replay.
I think covering it will work. I was placing my miniature poinsettia in my desk drawer over night at work because my office has lights on overnight. Mrs M. Williams, Stratford-upon-Avon. A An arbutus - the strawberry tree - is a lovely thing to have in your garden. It will take whatever pruning you need to do without any problems. In an ideal world I would wait until you see the first signs of new growth next spring before cutting back, but you can safely do it before then if necessary.
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