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. 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. Click here to watch. Poinsettias are fantastically popular at this time of year but their vibrancy doesn't last that long and they'll soon wilt and die. If you want to experience the joy of seeing those colours again next year we have a challenge for you. Our friends at BBC Gardening believe that it's almost impossible to grow their beautiful colouration again. Re-fertilise your Poinsettia every couple of weeks until the plant loses it's coloured leaves.
Once the colour has faded, keep it in a cool but sunny place and don't water until the soil dries out and the stems begin to shrivel. When May comes around you should trim the stems back to around 10cm. Re-pot if needed. Begin watering whenever the soil begins to dry. Be careful not to water too much until new shoots start to grow.
Once the new shoots reach about 2cm long re-fertilise your Poinsettia. As Poinsettias are native to Mexico it needs careful light control to trick it into blooming again. From September you should cover your plant with a bag or cardboard box from early evening until the next morning so that the plant is in darkness for 14 hours.
Do this every day for about 8 weeks until mid-November and then treat the plant as normal. My poinsettia grew quite a bit this year, too, and is really green and lush, though it sounds like yours may be even larger and lusher!
I hope you have great success with turning your poinsettia red again! I bought my two poinsettias 3days ago here in Botswana It is very hot over here especially during the day, we have bright sunny days. Usually when I buy a plant I carry out a research to learn more about its growth conditions. So today I decided to visit the internet to read about poisenttias and I came across your site. Honestly speaking I am so glad I found almost all the information that I needed regarding the poins plants.
The information is so so comprehensive and vital. So I am going to try the technique of turning it red as you explained and I hope to be successful. 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. 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.
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