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Caring for My Poinsetta.
A Few Pictures Of My Poinsettia.
My Window Poinsettia
This is a Poinsettia my father gave my wife for Christmas a little over three years ago. It has survived no being watered for several weeks, a cat attack that included being chewed and knocked over, and aphid attack after being left outside for a week. I have not really researched on how to take care of this plant, but I have had many people give me advice on how to care for this plant, but nothing anyone has told me has really worked. But I will share what has worked for me to keep this plant going.
Placement of this plant is in a bay window facing east, it receives the best light in this area of the house almost all day. As mentioned in a hub I read a couple weeks ago, I find myself rotating this plant to keep it from growing sideways. I have noticed that if the plant is not rotated at least once a week the entire plant leans towards the window, more so when it is cloudy out side. Another thing that I have noticed is that as the light is diminished the leaves start getting bigger, something I find undesirable because the larger leaves die faster and get large brown spots that seem to start in the middle. The amount of light does not seem to affect when the poinsettia flowers, it appears that a change in temperature impacts the flowering. Last year this poinsettia did not flower until early June when the air conditioning in our home was turned on, there is a air vent directly below the cart the poinsettia is sitting on. This year this plant flowered in mid February during the time our furnace stopped working. We are not sure how long it was not working, three to five days maybe. But after the second day after we knew the furnace was not working we could see the new red leaves starting to grow.
Watering this plant is easy, I simply wait until the soil is completely dry and then I saturate the soil. The watering cycle varies so it may need watering every few days or as much as a week or two between watering. If I find myself watering every two or three days for a month or so, I know it is time to change the soil and transplant my poinsetta to a larger pot. I will be transplanting this plant soon.
This poinsettia is fertilized every two months using a granulated plant fertilizer dissolved in water. I use my wife's Miracle Grow fruit and vegetable fertilizer, 3 tablespoons to 2 cups of water and I saturate the soil completely about an hour or so after I add the fertilizer.
I have only had this plant flower twice since it was given to my wife as a flowered plant. It was eighteen inches tall when we received it and it had a single stalk with three stems. But I was pretty excited when it did flower even though it was several months after Christmas. I may try to put it in the garage or in our sun room around the middle of November this year to see if I can get it to bloom in time for Christmas.