Prolonging your Poinsettia

Ah, the poinsettia! These days it is as much a symbol of Christmas as Yule logs and chestnuts. I suspect that half of the houses in England contain one sitting on the side at Christmas. But they are such irritating plants! They have a list of dislikes as long as your arm and if the slightest thing upsets them they respond by promptly dropping their leaves.  They hate draughts, cold windowsills, overwatering, draughts, strong sunlight, the plastic sleeves supermarkets put them in, lack of light and did I mention draughts?

Occasionally, you get one that makes it through the festive season. But how can you get it to turn red next Christmas? The theory is as follows:

• In April, prune them back hard to about four inches and repot them using three parts John Innes No 3 to one part grit.
  
• Keep them all summer in a light place with a temperature of about 15-18 degrees C (60-65F).
  
• Now here comes the tricky bit. From the end of October, keep the plants in daylight for twelve hours, darkness for twelve hours.  Try not to expose them even to artificial light.
  
• They will also need a constant temperature of around 18 degrees C.
  

Hopefully it will then produce the famous coloured leaves in time for Christmas.

Back in the 70s, when poinsettias were an expensive treat, my mother was determined to get her poinsettia to survive. She heard on Woman’s Hour that you had to put the plant away for twelve hours a day, which she faithfully did, to be rewarded at Christmas by a very healthy looking completely green plant. My mother is a resourceful woman and so sprayed the poinsettia with artificial snow to make up for its lack of colour. It was very much admired by friends and neighbours, who all thought that she had intended it to be that way.

So, I have two poinsettias that so far are surviving. If they make it to April, Operation Poinsettia will be put into operation. Check back at Christmas to see how I fared!