Delicious
Digg
Google
YahooYou really should have started to work on your poinsettia as soon as it finished blooming last year. So depending on when you start, it may be a little late to have last year's poinsettia turn color by this Christmas. However it never hurts to try, and if things don't work out this time, at least you'll know how to do it next year. Here are a couple of facts to keep in mind when discussing poinsettias; what most people call the flowers of a poinsettia are really leaf brackets. The flowers are the tiny yellow things that can be found in the center of the beautifully colored leaf bracket. Poinsettias are not poisonous, but the white liquid they produce can irritate your skin.
In February or March, after your poinsettia has stopped flowering, cut the plant back until it is only 4" to 6" above the soil in your pot. This will encourage new leaves to grow and your plant will become full and bushy once again. Be careful not to get the white sap that will come out of every cut onto your skin.
In the late spring or early summer, repot your poinsettia into a larger container (2"-4" wider and deeper). Keep pinching the new growth and fertilize every two weeks all summer. Poinsettias can be placed outside as long as you don't put them in the direct sun. If you keep them indoors all summer, place them in a room with bright indirect light.
Starting at the beginning of October, poinsettias need to be put into total darkness for at least 12 hours a day because their flowers are "photo periodically" induced. Poinsettias require short days and long nights in order to bloom and for their bracts to turn color. They need total blackness if possible; you don't even want the light from the moon or stars to enter the room where the poinsettias are being kept.
Follow this routine of providing your poinsettias with 12 hours of darkness until the flowers form and the bracts take on good color; this will take from 60-85 days.
