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Ponnsettia

Hi most poinsettias are discarded just after xmas which is a shame i think it's because most people don't provide basic care:( They like a bright window sill with temps of 16c to 22c suiting them nicely under 15c they will suffer. One thing they do hate is over watering, best to plunge the pot in water leave for a few mins then drain before placing back on window sill. now is a good time to repot, after adding some fresh compost just keep it slightly shaded whilst the plant adjusts . general house plant fertiliser is fine , give roughly 6-8 weeks apart. They can be cut back if getting too large if you do this just keep them shaded for a while to let the plant recover, just be careful of the white sap that will be present, you don't want to get it in your eyes :arghh: some people think that the red tops of the plant are the flowers but they are infact called bracts the actual flowers are the tiny yellow / green ones in the centre of the bracts. good luck with your's :)
 
Not trying to suggest this is a good way to look after it but my 90 year old nan has hers in a pot filled with a few inches of water. She does the same with all her plants and they thrive. She keeps Christmas cactus, cyclamen, amaryllis, a couple of palms and her ponnsettia which is now years old. I don't know why it works for her, she always says it's because she doesn't have gas (meaning to cook or heat with, not her she is 90,after all).
 
Cheers!
Thanks all....my Christine is reluctant to dispatch it to the bin!
It's doing quite well it's losing some leaves lower down the stems!
Will have a look on that link!
Thanks again!
hoggie :thumbup:
 
Might be worth knowing, it's a "short day flowerer" - meaning you need to somehow create long nights, for some time, to initiate flowering. This can be done by covering the plant or placing it in another room. Important is to know, that even the tiniest bit of light, during dark, will potentially destroy initiation of flowers (I too couldn't dismiss the plants, when I was a kid - and successfully grew them on and into re-flowering for Christmas :D ).
- There are quite precise directions for this (on www, I'm sure), because it is of quite big commercial intetest.
 
Hi all,
It's doing quite well it's losing some leaves lower down the stems!
They will grow into a big, sparsely branched shrub, commercially they treat them with a growth regulator to shorten the internodes, and as Mick says they are a "short day" plant and whitefly love them.

I had one for a couple of years, but it was a horrible scraggy thing, and eventually I discarded it.

cheers Darrel
 
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