Last week, I discussed one of my favorite holiday plants: the amaryllis. This week, I’ll discuss another one of my favorite holiday plants: the poinsettia.
From Mexico With Love: The History of Poinsettias
In 1825, Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first appointed U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, was intrigued by some beautiful red flowers he saw growing in Taxco, Mexico. He sent some of those flowers to his Greenville, South Carolina home. Poinsett, a skilled botanist, propagated the plants and began to give them to friends and various botanical gardens.
A grower in Pennsylvania got his hands on some and, before long, began to sell them to the public with the botanical name) Euphorbia Pulcherrima. Eventually, that gave way to the common name Poinsettia, after Joel Poinsett.
Today, the poinsettia is the most common plant sold during the holidays, with more than $250 million in sales.
The Legend of Noches Buena
The Mexican legend about the poinsettia says that a young girl named Pepita was on her way to a church on Christmas Eve and realized she’d forgotten to bring a gift for the Nativity. She grabbed a handful of weeds that were blooming. Angels transformed the weeds into beautiful red flowers. To this day, poinsettias are known as Flores de Noches Buena—or Flowers of the Holy Night.
How to Grow Your Own Poinsettias
To grow your own: Poinsettias need bright but indirect light during the day. They can take some direct sun, but only in the mornings before 10:30 a.m. or after 2:00 p.m. If you have one wrapped in foil, poke holes in the bottom so when you water it, it NEVER stands in water. Water it when it is dry an inch or two down, but never allow it to wilt. Keep away from heat vents or cold drafts from doors.
Yes, You Can Rebloom Your Plant
If you want to try and bloom it again for next year, it’s not hard, but it will take a little work. Poinsettias are known as a “short day, long night” plant. That means about eight weeks before you want it to bloom, you must put it in a closet from 5 at night until 8 in the morning. A spare room you go in once or twice a month at night or a dark room with a bright street light outside the window will NOT work. It needs to be dark.
Begin fertilizing your poinsettia with a balanced fertilizer, like 20-20-20, around mid-March. Discontinue fertilizer as soon as the top of the poinsettia turns color.
The Real Blooms – Not What You May Think
By the way, so that you know, the blooms on a poinsettia are NOT the colors we see at the top—those are the leaves! The actual flowers are the tiny yellow fuzzy things in the middle. Who knew?