Success Tip of the Week
It’s time for Holiday Plants to brighten your indoors!
Poinsettias - It’s the holiday season and nothing says holidays indoors like the traditional holiday flower, ‘Flores de Noche Buena’. Flores de Noche Buena, or commonly known as the Poinsettia, is a plant native to South America, where ancient Aztecs actually extracted a dye from the colorful bracts for use in textiles and cosmetics. The white milky sap was even made into a preparation to help treat fever. Poinsettias, of course, grow quite nicely in Mexico, where it was admired and brought to the United States by Joel Roberts Poinsett back in the early 1800’s, propagated in his greenhouses, passed along to other friends, and well, the rest is history. Today, over 40 million poinsettias are sold each year, with over 150 varieties available for growers to choose from.
You’ll find a wide array of shades of reds, pinks, off whites, multicolored, variegated, speckled – it’s unbelievable the different colors available with Poinsettias today. Which is why it has become the Traditional Holiday Flower. By the way, Congress has declared Dec. 12 as National Poinsettia Day – which also marks the death of Joel Poinsett. Now here are a few quick tips on keeping your poinsettia looking good:
-Keep your poinsettia wrapped until you get it home and out of the cold.
-Place it in a well lit area with temperatures around 60-70 degrees. Try to keep them away from drafts of hot or cold air.
-Poinsettias like evenly moist soils – not soggy – so water your plants when the soil surface feels dry to the touch. -Take it out of the decorative sleeve, water, let it drain, and then put it back in the sleeve. Never let water sit in the bottom of the sleeve. By the way – the rumor about poinsettias being deathly toxic are just that – rumors. Research proves time and time again that poinsettias are not poisonous. Flores de Noche Buena – the traditional flower for the holiday season.
Other Holiday Flowers: The poinsettia may be the traditional holiday flower, but here are a few that will make you think Holiday Season.
Cyclamens – the blossoms of the cyclamen twist and turn like butterfly wings, and are supported by the silvery marbled coloring of the cyclamen foliage. You’ll find cyclamen blossoms in many colors, ranging from lavender, rose, maroon, red and white. When growing cyclamen, place them in a well lit area, away from drafts of heat and cold, keep that soil evenly moist, and be sure to keep them in cooler temperatures (65 degrees) so they’ll keep flowering all winter long.
Amaryllis – what a wonderful show of colors this bulb produces for the holiday season. Available in a wide array of solid and stripped colors, this tropical looking bloomer puts on a holiday display that will last for many weeks. Remember to stagger plantings of amaryllis bulbs so that you’ll have great indoor colors all winter long.
And one of the most popular holiday flowers next to the poinsettia – the Christmas Cactus. Although it’s not a true cactus, these easy to care for plants can really put on a consistent show holiday after holiday. Available in many colors, Christmas Cactus loves a bright location indoors, loves well drained soils, yet needs watering on a regular basis – so water when the top half of the soil feels dry. Again, cooler temperatures indoors will help these flowers last longer thru the holiday season. If you’ve had trouble getting your Christmas Cactus to flower each year, remember two things – shorter days (so limit their daylight hours to 10) and cool night-time temperatures (50 degrees) in the fall – those two factors will help set the flower buds for the holiday season.
Norfolk Island Pine – Okay, so you’d like to have a live tree to decorate for Christmas, but you’re not sold on a cut tree, and you have no place to plant a live evergreen. Well guess what? I have your answer – it grows indoors, and it really is a pine! Okay, it’s a tropical pine, and it’s called Norfolk Island Pine. It’s actually a native of Norfolk Island which is near Australia in the South Pacific, and in its native habitat, grows as high as 200 feet! But, when grown in a container – indoors, stay smaller and really make a nice houseplant that can easily be decorated for the holiday season. You’ll find Norfolk Island Pines in all sizes, short and tall, single stem or multi-stem, and they really do make the perfect indoor pine to be decorated for the holiday season. Norfolk Island pines need bright light, but nothing direct – love the cooler temperatures – and enjoy even watering, so water it well, let it get close to dry (not totally dry), and water again. Otherwise, this tropical plant is one of the easiest plants to grow indoors. Now be careful when you’re decorating your Norfolk Island Pine and don’t use ornaments or lights that may be too heavy for the stems. But otherwise, this cool looking easy to grow indoor pine should be around for you to decorate for many holidays to come.
[Today, poinsettias are not only the most popular Christmas plant; they're also the number one potted flowering plant grown in the U.S.]
Tags: amaryllis, christmas tree cactus, cyclamens, poinsettias
