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The poinsettia, usually called christmas plant, federal star or Poinsettia and scientific name Euphorbia pulcherrima, It is a beautiful plant that in many countries is common to grow or acquire for the Christmas holidays.
However, what not many people know is that it does not have to be treated as an annual plant, and is that the poinsettia can survive without problems if we give it proper care. If yours is dry or limp and you wonder how to retrieve a poinsettia or if it is still pretty but you have bad experiences from other seasons and you want to know how to keep the poinsettia from one year to the next, join us in this Green Ecologist article. Don't let your Christmas plants end up in the trash after the holidays: save them and learn to make them bigger and prettier every season!
How to recover a faded poinsettia
After the holidays, poinsettias tend to start to fade. The most common is that between the end of January and February they lose the flowers, bracts and a good part or all of their leaves, giving the feeling that the plant is dying, although this is not the case. The Christmas plant naturally goes through this process every year, re-sprouting and blooming between spring and summer if its conditions are right. If your plant seems dull after January, it is most commonly just preparing to restart your annual cycle.
It can also happen that your Christmas plant is dull because some of its needs are not being met. If you see that its leaves are flabby or soft and that its stems seem droopy, it may be either a bad location or excess water. In these cases, follow these indications:
- In the case of a bad location, it will be necessary to move the pot with the poinsettia to a place with abundant natural light but always of indirect incidence, and in an area protected from currents of wind. The poinsettia does not tolerate the constant passage of air, which dries and weakens it.
- If it's about overwateringit will suffice with reduce and space the risks until the soil in the pot dries up, and then prune rotten parts. It is vital that the poinsettia container has drainage holes and a light, well-draining substrate, as excess moisture rots its roots easily. Do not water the plant until the top layer of the substrate has dried, and do so in small amounts.
Here you can read about Watering the poinsettia: how often and how to do it.
How to recover a dried poinsettia
If your poinsettia is very dry, it is most likely one of the two most common causes: too much sun or location near a heater.
- In the first case, we are not really talking about a excess sun, but rather that the light falls on our plant too directly: the Christmas plant likes to receive a lot of light, but always filtered or indirectly. Use one fine curtain to cover that window next to the one it is, or simply remove the plant to a somewhat more remote point.
- Similar is the case with heat sources: since poinsettia tend to be grown indoors and in winter, it is common to mistakenly locate them near heat sources, such as radiators and other heaters. Although it is true that the plant prefers mild temperatures, heat sources of this type are really harmful, because they dry it out and can easily kill it in prolonged exposures. Move your poinsettia to a remote location of these devices and be sure to give frequent waterings (always without flooding). You can also help the plant by spraying a little water on its green leaves, always avoiding wetting the red bracts. If all goes well and the new location is good, your plant will quickly recover.
How to make the poinsettia bloom again
While saving a Christmas plant is easy, getting it back to bloom the following year is a bit more challenging. One of the most important poinsettia care in this regard is pruning, although not the only one.
- To begin with, when your poinsettia loses bracts, flowers, and leaves between mid-to-late winter, you should perform a aggressive pruning, leaving only 1 out of 3 stems, with a few knots each. It is very important that the pruning shears are well sharpened and disinfected and that you make the cuts diagonally so that they do not accumulate dirt, as well as covering the wounds with healing paste. You can make the paste yourself by mixing melted candle wax with antifungal powder, and pour it over the pruned area so that it solidifies and seals on it. In this other guide you will learn about Pruning the poinsettia: when and how to do it.
- Also, if you want your plant to flower again it is vital to let it go through its period of vegetative rest. When autumn arrives, be sure to move the plant to a cool area (always above 0ºC) and ensure that it has between 12 and 14 hours of total darkness a day. This can be achieved either by covering it with a thin but opaque cloth, or by resorting to tricks such as putting it in a closet.
- Do not neglect the compost in the warm months with compost or worm castings, as well as the risks, which at that time must be frequent but slight and more spaced in the cold months.
If you follow all these steps, your poinsettia will be bigger and prettier every year and it will bloom. So much so, that it is very likely that you will have to transplant it every year or every two seasons. Here we tell you how to transplant the poinsettia.
After learning all this about how to recover a withered or dry poinsettia and keep it all year long so that it reaches the next Christmas, year after year, and is green, red and with flowers again, perhaps you should delve deeper into some of your usual care. Therefore, here we leave you this guide to the Care of the poinsettia and the video below.
If you want to read more articles similar to How to recover a poinsettia, we recommend that you enter our category of Cultivation and care of plants.
