How to Care for Your Poinsettias
Place the plant in an area where it will receive as much indirect light as possible and do not place it in a draft. Should your poinsettia be wrapped in foil, punch a hole in the bottom to provide good drainage and place pot in a saucer.
An easy way to water poinsettias is to set it in the sink, soak it, and at the same time, remove yellowed foliage off the bottom of the plant. Check your poinsettia every other day to every third day, depending on light.
Another way to water is placing ice cubes on the soil daily to maintain even moisture through the season. The amount of ice cubes depends on the pot size. For small 4 inch- 2-3 cubes daily. For 6 inch use 3-5 cubes and for larger pots use a few more. Double check the moisture occasionally with your finger or moisture meter.
Bonus Tidbit! Gill’s Connection To Today’s Poinsettia
Native to Mexico, the poinsettia can be traced as far back as the 14th century. The name poinsettia is credited to Joel Roberts Poinsett, a United States ambassador to Mexico in the 1820’s who brought the plant back to the US. In the 1950’s, Dr. Robert Stewart, a geneticist for the Agricultural Research Service Florist and Nursery Crops Laboratory in Beltsville, MD., started researching poinsettias to improve their quality. New colors like pink, white, and spotted variations are attributed to Dr. Stewart’s work, James Gill’s uncle!
9 Comments on “All About Poinsettias!”
This was a very helpful message, and I really liked the interesting historical background of the poinsettia. Thank you.
You folks are the best for type of item. Thank you for teaching us…
as always, gill’s has got the up to date info of the season.
How much water does a Christmas Cactus need.
!Thanks so much for the helpful tips and the history.. That is something to really be proud of. James surely inherited some of his interest and his love of plants from his uncle. You all are my “go to” for plant questions. I ca always trust your answers.
Nelda, when the Christmas cactus is in the bud initiation stage particularly, it needs to be kept a little on the dry side. And you never want to keep it soggy wet so always be sure that after watering any moisture left in the saucer is dumped out.
poinsettias are very pretty and I like them and I need a lot of information on them so I can make a big book on them an then sell the book to people who want to learn about them as much as I do so if you would just send me all the information on poinsettias that would be grate I have so much I want to right about them but I don’t know a lot about poinsettias so that is why I am on this page today and I have so much more I want to say in a little amount of time so if would just send me all that you can about poinsettias that would be very grate so I could finally right my poinsettia book well thank you and send all the information on poinsettias when you get this or when you can send the information thank for understanding well that is all I had to say about poinsettias for today or at least for right now and I will come on this page everyday looking for new information and I hope I get what I asked for in this comment cause if I don’t I will be very disappointed in this page thank you
Linda, what we wrote is what we know. A real poinsettia expert would be a breeder who works on poinsettias all year and nothing else, like Paul Ecke Poinsettia Ranch
https://www.thespruce.com/inside-the-paul-ecke-poinsettia-ranch-4069946
ok thank u for all the information you know I will research a little more on other pages to thank you