My first Poinsettia EVER!!! Would love advice!!!

So, I went to Walmart and searched for maybe 45 minutes... Found this BEAUTIFUL Poinsettia.... My husband thought it was fake when I brought it home.... Mainly because you NEVER find one this nice.... I want to keep it for years. But the way to keep it for years it to make sure it SURVIVE CHRISTMAS!!!! I made sure to remove the foil already... Put a drip pan. Etc...... I would loooove step by steps... ANY ADVICE NO MATTER HOW CRITICAL IS WELL ACCEPTED!!! Don't mind the goofy redhead in the pictures. That's just my husband.... :-3

Poinsettias are fairly easy to keep but... to get them to bloom (color up) as nice as when you buy them at the store is another matter. I suppose that is why most go on the compost heap after they drop all their leaves - too much hassle. Anyway, don't worry if they drop leaves after a few weeks in the home - that is fairly normal. Put them under lights or close to a window until warmer weather. Water when dry to the touch (they are succulent so can dry out some). Move outdoors in summer to get as much light as possible (they are native to Mexico so they get lots of sun). Keep watered and fertilize them through the growing months. The tricky part is getting the leaves to start coloring a few weeks before Xmas which requires lighting on a fairly strict schedule from all I've read. When I've kept poinsettias more than a couple of years, the coloring would never match up with Xmas and the leaves would be a lot smaller (not enough fertilizer?) although the plant may be twice as big. We gave up on poinsettias and have four fake ones that are always nice looking and never need light or water but do take up storage space (but then so would real plants).

I say go for it and let us know how it goes from time to time.

Well I am used to committing to a hobby. And I am an odd one so I am calling it my pet plant named "Bob". I used to breed exotics in Tucson, AZ so I know how to focus on taking care of hard to care for anything. Also I figure at least attempting to keep our 1st plant from our 1st Christmas which is also doubling as our 1st Christmas tree alive as long as possible.

I'd like to see "Bob" at the end of next summer. I bet it will be quite large. I saw some plants in Thailand that I could not figure out. They were about six feet tall (maybe a little taller) and then I finally figured it out - Poinsettia! This was in July so they were not colored up at the time. I wonder if I could find a photo of them in my more than 3,000 pictures I took on that trip.

Anyway here is a link to a photo that shows how big they can become. I read that they can get 14 feet tall in their native habitat on another site.

https://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/2012/dec/18/ca_poinsettia_lady_121812_196847/

Poinsettias need a long night/short day to tell them to start coloring up.

On Oct 1 start putting the Poinsettia in the dark (dark closet?) at dinner time, and not taking it out until after breakfast. During the day give it good, bright light.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poinsettia

In the milder parts of the San Francisco Bay Area they are grown outside year round. They become large shrubs.

This message was edited Dec 19, 2014 6:21 AM

I found the photo of that very tall poinsettia in Thailand. It was a lot bigger than I remembered. Wished it had colored up so it was immediately recognizable.

See the surrounding plants in Thailand: It does not frost in this location.

Handsome looking Poinsettia!

It doesn't frost in Mexico either (or most of Mexico) where it originates from.

You could do something like the Atlanta Botanical Garden did last year and build a tree out of poinsettias and dracaenas.

We just pull our fake poinsettias out of the plastic bags and put them at the front door.

Surprisingly my poinsettia has new growth coming in. Has dropped a few leaves. I have only watered it once since getting it because the topsoil is not dry to touch. And the dropping leaves are mainly green. I lost one red leaf. But i have a lot of new budding growth underneath the other leaves. I turn it several times a day since the light it gets isnt all around. Bob seems to be thriving so far. I'm excited it's growing.

Oh and i forgot to mention that Phoenix has similar weather to Mexico. I mean its maybe 70F out and thats as cold as its getting this summer during day. Maybe somtimes we get to 60F.

I bet you are very close to Mexico's weather (at least part of Mexico).

Speaking of Phoenix - I was there a few years ago for a class. My wife flew in on Friday after the class was over and we went to Grand Canyon, Meteor Crater, and Sedona on the weekend. Funny thing was a couple of young guys wanting to put us up in a hotel in Sedona so they could show us some property. We told them we already had a room for the rest of the week and they wanted to know where. When I said Phoenix, they wanted to know why we wanted to stay there - after all it is hot down there. We thought that was pretty funny since Sedona was just as hot if not hotter. (We were there in August 2007).

3 scenes from Sedona, a rainstorm on the way to Grand Canyon, and Meteor Canyon (some better photos on the visitor center and multiple storms raging in the distance though).

Omg meteor crater is awesome i went there as a kid. In a little while I'll try to post some pix of the new growth. I also picked up a $0.45 bucket from a thrift store as a more appealing drip pan/cover for the ugly plastic pot it came in. My husband wanted to use it as a popcorn bucket but i was like NO ITS FOR BOB!

By the way even if my poinsettias doesn't turn red again it will grow still? I finally looked at the giant pic that was posted. I don't mind if i fail to rebloom it as long as it keeps living.

poisonedsettia...If you have time, take a look at my post in the indoor gardening and houseplant forum. It's under "Re-Reding a Poinsettia". Getting your poinsettia to color up next year doesn't have to be so complicated and the result (for me) was amazing.

This message was edited Dec 23, 2014 7:47 PM

As long as you give it what it needs - light, warmth, water, and a little fertilizer then it will grow and grow until you either prune it hard, scrap it, or give it away. It should bloom if you don't disrupt its light cycle as the time gets near (winter) or at least from what I've learned. Glad to hear you found it a new drip pan (sounds like a real bargain for 45 cents too).

The first time we went to The Grand Canyon we went on by Meteor Crater thinking it was probably not worth our time or money (we were driving all the way from Atlanta to Grand Canyon to Yellowstone to Bismarck, ND to visit my sister and her family and back home with many side trips along the way). I doubt I would go back to Meteor Crater, Carlsbad Caverns, or Painted Desert but they were all worth an extra side trip at the time. I definitely would do Grand Canyon again.

I will def look up your post on re-reding. In the off chance I cannot find it are you able to post a link to it with or without clickability.

Try this link. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1382860/#

Mine stayed outdoors from June until November when it got too cool. I fed it Miracle Grow Bloom Booster once a week and re-potted it twice because it kept getting bigger and bigger. At least once, the cat jumped in it and broke a big piece of it off and it just sprouted back out and kept going. When the temps started to drop here, I moved it into the greenhouse so it wouldn't get too cold. The only light it had was the natural daylight and dark.

I got it last Christmas as a gift. It was in a six inch pot and was about 12 inches tall. By the time I brought it home from my office in June, it looked pretty pitiful. I repotted it and put it out on the deck in part shade and started feeding it and it took off. Repotted it a second time around September because it outgrew it's pot again. It started putting out tiny red leaves in early November. The pictures are roughly in order from November to just a few days ago.

I'm going to have to repot it again this spring. It's huge.

I've always thrown them away after the holidays in the past. Not anymore!!

Wow that's truly amazing! Seems like Bob may have a chance of sticking around. Btw guys I'm not looney toons. I had a betta fish named Bob a few years ago the same color as the poinsettias and he lived forever and i thought it'd be a fitting tribute.

I was wondering if my poinsettias soil isn't drying out very quickly does that mean it could get root rot? I've watered it only once since having it. And the topsoil doesn't feel dry at all.

Here's some updated quick pix of "Bob". In it's new "dripper" I had mentioned in a previous post. I pretty much move it from one side of the room to the other and rotate it a couple times a day to make sure all sides get proper amounts of light that it can. Its topsoil has yet to feel dry to touch... I am concerned it could get root rot or otherwise sick???

Ok finally topsoil was dry. Got a nice decent drink. So now on we go.

As long as the water can drain out, it'll probably be fine. Mine drinks a lot of water but it's big. They are heavy feeders so get some Miracle Grow (the blue powder that you mix with water) and start feeding it in the spring. Just follow the directions on the box. I used the "Bloom Booster" all summer.

Here's a link for you to read up on them.

http://www.floridata.com/ref/E/euph_pul.cfm

Not the easiest In my opinion. Hate draughts and a dry atmosphere, fairly good light is essential.
Often the damage has already been done before you buy the plant if the store has kept them in unsuitable conditions they lose all their leaves soon after you get them home!
Took me years to find a nice place near an east facing windowsill, that seems to suit them well.

I agree with you daisychandler, even though I picked up a free one this weekend at a nursery since they were going to throw the leftovers in the dumpster (hence free). It's already dropped many leaves as expected. Could've picked up more but my wife said one is more than we really have room for anyway and she doesn't like the pink or yellow ones.

Well Bob took a fall thanks to my friends kitten.... I came home to find it on the floor with a branch broken off... So i put some jobes pellets in... Cuz it started getting damage on certain petals and losing a lot of leaves suddenly. It has lost very few leaves until its fall... As you will see. Tell me your opinions as to what you can see... If you don't mind.

I think Bob is still in the running for growing and doing fine. New buds can grow where the branch broke so it won't look lop-sided.
It would be nice to figure out the reason for the leaf drop.
Can you describe the leaves as they drop?
Discolored? Soft? Crispy?

The leaves were soft. All of them were.

Oh and they had darkened. Were very soft. Now that ive fertilized it no more of that issue. And i have new red leaves even.

They're really pretty tough critters. Mine has been broken several times and it always comes out. You can even root the broken cutting if you want. I don't know what causes the leaf drop. It may be a natural process because they all seem to do it from time to time.

Well I realized it was very root bound. So I turned its stars and stripes drip pot into its new pot and repotted it with miracle gro soil. And a few jobes fertilizer balls. It has lots of green shoots from the Jobes fertilzers. So doing well.