If I cover it with black garbage bag , from what time till what time is best to leave the garbage bag on the poinsettia plant? Hmmm, the black garbage back worries me. No air and high heat is not good for your poinsettia. I set my pot on a bench in the shed in front of a window and place a brown paper sack over it for darkness and remove it the next day.
Works like a charm. Ask at your grocery store, the box is what they pack cartons of eggs in. Perfect size to go over the plant! The cardboard breathes, and the plant wont overheat. I commend folks who place a box over their poinsettias every night to force the leaves to turn red. I know I could never keep it up for weeks!
This is why I persuaded my husband to build a special box that I could hang grow lights from and cover the top of the box so that it is in complete darkness when the light is off.
This my first year using this method and I set the timer so that the light would be on for 9 hours and was careful to only check on the plants when the light was on. And I have success! I am so excited! Next year I will pay put the box, in a warmer area and fertilize more frequently and will hopefully have better results!
Kerry, Thanks for sharing this tip with us. This is a popular question and it sounds like you have come up with a very workable solution worth sharing with others looking for ways to get their poinsettias to rebloom. My plant is in week four of 14 hours of darkness and only one small leaf is beginning to turn red. But I plan to keep going until the end if December.
I had success last year with the same plant which was smaller but thought l would see more color by now. Joe does the temperature matter while the plant is in darkness? A little suggestion from Cathy in ct. I will try it as soon as I pick up an extra timer. Hi Joe — really useful, clear advice, thanks! I remember doing experiments with plant leaves along these lines in school — not sure if it would work in this case though. Hey Alex. Thanks for the nice words. Maybe if you use that easy-to-remove painters tape.
Just let mother nature handle it as the days get shorter it automatically triggers blooming as long as you do not have strong artificial light on at night. It is dark here at night, no street lights as in country. So I will continue leaving it in front of the windows as its the only time I have ever had a poinsetta live let alone change color. I just keep it where it is and watered normally and gave it fertilizer in late August. Love the article — learn something new everyday!
Pick a slightly bigger pot, tease out the roots to break up any circular pattern, and freshen up the soil. Hope that answers your question. Sorry to hear that Betty. If the branches are broken, then I would simply focus on keeping it alive and not putting it in the closet at night to force red leaves. Just forego that this season and keep it in a protected environment where it is not exposed to frost of freezing temps. Once it warms up where you live, prune back the broken leaves in early spring and let nature take its course.
Then try again with the leaf turning process next fall. This article is mega useful as I was wondering how on earth I was going to turn my poinsettia red again. I had a tiny one last Christmas in the office and eventually all the leaves dropped off. Bought a new pot and brought it back into the office where it sits on a windowsill, and it has gone bananas! My question is — can I leave it in the dark for 48 hours over the weekend? Any advice? I could take it home of course.
Good luck Amy. I too started my attempts at turning a poinsettia in an office setting. I manage to keep my poinsettia alive since December. No direct sunlight. I was afraid it would died! Is it too late to do any of this to be ready to turn green by Christmas?
Or should I just leave it as is? I cost you 10 days already! Good luck Tracy. And by the way, if you do nothing, let us know what happens. But it should respond well if you follow the above. Water and medium shade and keep out of direct afternoon sun are key until it recovers over a week to 10 days at least. Thanks for the info on turning the leaves red again. I planted my December poinsettia in a large pot and it has grown and done well this year.
The pot is outside so i was thinking of a black trash bag. And, do you think I need to tie the bottom of the bag? Secondly, what happens if I leave the bag on for more than 14 hours, say 15 or 16 hours?
Thank you! Hi Karen. The biggest problem I see with the black plastic is that it can cook your plant. Although poinsettias like it warm, being wrapped in plastic outdoors, even in cool climates can kill your plant.
Any light leaks can break the cycle and your efforts to turn leaves red can fail. Perhaps a reader will offer suggestions on how to make this happen. Thanks Joe, great advice re the cardboard! I put the plant in a dark closest that is not used with a black plastic bag.
I broke the process once by not putting it in on time. So getting into a schedule is important. The plant has grown over the summer on the porch and I am ready to start the process again.
Thanks Joe! I thought the red would start showing in about 4 weeks, not 3 days! Paul, your poinsettia needs total darkness cycles. Keeping an office plant at the office over the weekend in hopes of it turning red again can be a challenge.
While you might be successful, the only way to really give your plant the best chance of turning red again is to bring it home with you. Assuming this is not practical, do all you can during the week and lets see how this turns out. Ive had a happy Poinsettia since last Christmas. We just moved it to a larger pot with new dirt, and its very happy and growing new green leaves. However alot of the Red leaves are falling off.
From what im reading in this article, this is OK? I just need to move this to somewhere darker in about August so they will turn Red again? We live in the Pac NW and only have about 5 hrs of dark right now, so moving it to somewhere darker in a few months will do the trick? Loss of the older leaves is fine as long as new leaves are growing and the plant looks happy.
As for turning new leaves red again, following the guide in the article should do the trick. But if this is your only option you should def. Odd question… I live in Michigan.
Can these plans be transplanted outside or is it too cold for them? You can transplant them out temporarily from late spring through early fall. But these are tropical plants and cannot survive cold temps Steve. Until then, keep in next to a sunny window and check soil moisture every few days and water lightly.
I got a huge poinsettia from my neighbor, the question I have is if I kept it in the house all year would it continue to grow? I have it on my computer desk under fluorescent lights. I am not too great at pruning, the hours I work prevent me from doing the light dark routine. She had it in the house all the time! Hi Martha. You can keep it as a houseplant if you provide it sufficient light. While an overhead florescent light should work, a sunny, south-facing widow would be ideal if you plan to have it live indoors all year.
Lastly, I advise that you remove the plant from its original container and transplant it to one a bit larger. Good luck! Hi my name is brittany and i have a poinseta i got him December he is now 3 years old i had to repot him 3 different times in the last 3 years he has a tree root and early he died completely but i brought him back from the dead now hes 3 years old and still growing and living i never gave up on him. You need a good head start. We have been light monitoring our poinsettia, from last year about, for five weeks we should have started sooner, but we are newbies to reblooming, and are none-the-less very excited for the success we are seeing.
We have nice color forming on the new leaves. We are now getting our second — and in some cases, third sets — of colored leaves. At what point do we stop providing 14 hours of total darkness? Hi Alise. Congratulations on your success. On average about six weeks is right.
If you are looking for a bit more red at that point, try going a little longer with the darkness. Is that possible?
I cannot explain the why behind it, but like with most things with plants and gardening, there are ALWAYS exceptions to the rule. Somehow I managed to keep my transplanted poinsettias alive for their second year. Living in Florida is too late to trim these? I am very new to plants in general. I bought a poinsettia last december. You have discovered one of the fundamental basics of growing a Bonsai tree! I am based in north lincolnshire in uk.
I have a red poinsettia , which I bought in December Not only has it still got red flowers , the leaves have also not dropped.
I have repotted it and new shoots are growing all over. Is it too late to cut back to 6 ins to encourage a much fuller plant or just wait til July and just pinch out the new shoots.
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. You can bring the plant outdoors between May and September and feed it fertilizer over the summer. The challenge is to make the poinsettia bracts turn red again for the second Christmas in a row! These colored leaves only appear during days with the shortest daylight hours.
To make them turn red, you need to restrain exposure to light. As early as September, place it in a room that is exclusively lit up by natural light, and check that it stays in complete darkness for 14 hours on a 24 hour day. Do this for eight weeks! Another solution is to stash your plant in a closet every day from 6 pm till 8 am the next morning… or cover it with a carton box for that span of time.
Once the eight weeks are over, treat your poinsettia normally again. And it will flower again — hopefully! In September, give it only natural light. Best if room is rather on the cool side. In November, bring it out to your living room and let it feel normal room temperatures. Comparatively, days will feel longer to the plant and it will bloom again! Hello, The Poinsettias are at work and no one is there over the weekend. Should I leave them in the dark room over the weekend am trying to get red leaves for Xmas Thank you!
Hi Liz! My four poinsettia l bought this past mid Dec still has all the pinky red leaves on it today April I had planted it in full sun here in central Fl, but dug them up March1 to transplant to north side of house where they are loving it.
Its botanical name is Euphorbia pulocherrima, which makes it a member of the Euphorbia family. Poinsettias are named for Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first U. Ambassador to Mexico. He brought the initial cuttings to the United States and introduced them to plant enthusiasts here.
The plant is native to Mexico where it can grow from 2 to 13 feet tall and is considered a shrub or small tree. The most common colors for the bracts that we call flowers are red, orange, pink, pale green, cream, white and marbled. Your poinsettia should be moved outdoors during summer, so it is important to keep it in good condition now.
Often, blooms will last for months after January. The first important part is to remove the colored foil covering the outside of the pot. It traps water if it has no holes and plants can be marinating in several inches of water, rotting the roots. I love decorating with poisentias during Xmas holidays. Thanks for sharing this information,and God bless you. I am so excited for you! I bet your poinsettia will love the Botswana heat.
Good luck!! I have a 2 year old Poinsettia which now has pale green leaves…but still quite healthy I have never fed it but water it about once week. I had no idea how to get the red leaves back but have now read your advice! Excited to try! 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.
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