How to Care for Your Holiday Poinsettia Year Round

Houses around the holidays are often filled with familiar foliage that brings life and warmth to an otherwise wintery landscape. Holly, ivy, mistletoe, and, of course, the tinseled tree are brought in from the cold to adorn homes with a little nature.

Another fond favorite around this time is the glorious poinsettia. With its bright red leaves atop a bush of dark green, the poinsettia offers the most classic holiday colors and stands strong amongst holly boughs and ivy wreaths.

Poinsettias start to show up in supermarkets and nurseries around the beginning of November and are enjoyed throughout December. Come January, though, the decorations come down, and much like autumn chrysanthemums, this seasonal pot plant gets tossed out with the unwanted gifts and wrapping paper.

However, it doesn’t need to be this way. If you have a little time and will, you can keep your poinsettia year-round and have it ready to fulfill its holiday destiny next December.

A Little Poinsettia History

Source: Curious Perro/YouTube

Poinsettias (Euphorbia pulcherrima) get their common name from the first US ambassador to Mexico, Joel Roberts Poinsett, who introduced this gorgeous plant to those north of the border in 1828.

If you were to head down to Mexico or Guatemala, you would see these common pot plants growing wild as shrubs that reach up to 10 feet tall.

Enjoying the heat of the subtropics, the poinsettia is completely intolerant of the cold and will only grow as an indoor plant in the temperate climates of the USA and UK. They are grown commercially in hothouses and are usually sold as annuals to be discarded after the holiday season.

Poinsettia Flowers Aren’t Red!

Source: LollyKnit/Flickr

We can all be forgiven for describing the poinsettia as the holiday plant with red flowers. However, the red bits? They aren’t flowers. They are a modified leaf called a bract. The poinsettia does have little green and yellow flowers, but they are nothing to write home about.

As well, the poinsettia doesn’t produce exclusively red ‘flowers’ or bracts. It can be found in white, pink, and even variegated in color.

The ‘Trouble’ with Poinsettias

As mentioned before, poinsettias are heat-loving plants that simply will not tolerate the cold. However, if you live in USDA growing zones 10-12, you will likely be able to grow poinsettias outdoors year-round. Whether indoors or out, poinsettias need a constant temperature of 55°F or higher for survival.

Though they are perennial plants, keeping one alive year-round as an indoor plant, though doable, requires some tender love. As well, the desired yuletide red ‘flowers’ that we demand have been carefully manipulated into ‘blooming’ just at the right time by commercial growers.

It’s because of these finicky idiosyncracies that folks tend to just buy a new potted plant each season.

Growing Poinsettias Outdoors

If you do live in a warm enough climate, you can plant a poinsettia outside. Remember that they can grow to around ten feet in height, so pick an appropriate spot in your yard.

They will need to have a very sunny spot that is sheltered from direct wind. Your plant will need well-draining soil to avoid root rot. Acid soil is also preferred.

To stop your poinsettia from getting leggy, regular pruning can help. This act, though it keeps your plant bushier, may also result in smaller, less showy ‘flowers’.

Keeping Your Holiday Poinsettia Alive Year Round

Source: Epic Gardening/YouTube

You will need to fake a sub-tropical climate for your indoor poinsettia as they need warmth and light. They don’t like fluctuating temperatures and need to stay at about 65°F-75°F. You can achieve this by keeping your plant by a sunny window away from draughts for at least six-seven hours a day.

Just like with any plant, remove any yellowing or dead leaves and keep the soil moist. You can mist the leaves daily to help with that tropical climate vibe.

Forcing Your Poinsettia to ‘Bloom’ for the Holidays

This is where people might feel like giving up. Getting your plant to bear those bright red leaves at the right time is certainly a labor of love but pretty satisfying, too.

Your plant is going to need about 12 hours of complete darkness a day for about 8 weeks. The darkness hours can be done overnight, and the eight weeks can start around late September to early October.

This needs to be uninterrupted darkness, meaning that light is intermittently turned on and off throughout the evening is not going to cut it. You will need to put your plant in a dark cupboard or even a closed box for these dark hours.

Once you start to see the plant forming buds and the bracts turning red, you can liberate your poinsettia and return to its ‘normal’ care routine.

Do this, and you might be able to enjoy your holiday poinsettia year after year.

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