Growing Poinsettias: Tips at a Glance
Poinsettias may very well be the plants the term "hothouse flower" was coined to describe: they like warm climates and will wilt at temperatures below 60 degrees. To coax them to bloom again, give them 12 hours of darkness for from eight to ten weeks.
- Type Tropical shrub
- Lifespan Perennial
- USDA Zones 10 to 12
- Light 10 hours of sun
- Water Moist soil
- Soil Well drained
- Design Tip Cut flowers
- Colors Red, white, pink, yellow
- Other uses White Christmas
Poinsettias: A Field Guide
A popular red Christmas flower, poinsettias are actually shrubs which will grow tall and gangly if allowed in their native Mexico and other warm climates.
Poinsettias—which can be found in a range of colors including white, pink, striped, yellow, and peach—can be coaxed to perform again next year if you keep them as houseplants after the holiday season ends.
Poinsettias may very well be the plants the term “hothouse flower” was coined to describe: they like warm climates and will wilt at temperatures below 60 degrees. To coax them to bloom again, give them 12 hours of darkness for from eight to ten weeks. For growing tips, see our post 10 Things Nobody Tells You About Poinsettias.
A few facts: the colorful part of poinsettia plants is its leaves (known as bracts), which fan out from a nondescript berry-like cluster which is the true flower. While we have a 19th-century US ambassador to Mexico (Dr. Joel Roberts Poinsett) to thank for bringing poinsettias home with him, the generations of growers in the Eckes family of southern California were the ones who developed a technique for making the spindly shrubs bushier and for promoting them as a colorful Christmas decoration.
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