Happy New Year .How to rebloom your Poinsettia

When the Poinsettias blooms age and lose their aesthetic appeal, there is no reason to throw it out.With proper Care, dedication and certain amount of luck, you too can re bloom your poinsettia.By late March and early April, cut your poinsettia back to about 8 inches in height.Continue a regular watering program and fertilize your plant with a good balanced all purpose fertilizer.By the end of May you should see vigorous new growth. Place your plants outdoors in the warm sun.Continue regular watering during the growth period and fertilize every two to three weeks. Pruning may be required during the summer to keep plants bushy and compact.Late June or early July is a good time for this step, but be sure not to prune your plant later than Sept 1st.Keep the plants in indirect sun and water regularly.Around June 1st you may transplant your plant into a larger pot.Select a pot no more than four inches larger than the original pot, remember our re potting blog? A soil mix with a considerable amount of organic material such as peat moss or leaf mold is a highly recommended source.The poinsettia is a photo periodic plant, meaning that it sets buds and produces flowers as the autumn nights lengthen.Poinsettias will naturally come into bloom during November or December, depending on the flowering response time of the individual cultivator.Timing to produce blooms for Christmas holiday can be difficult outside of the controlled environment of a greenhouse.Stray light of any kind.such as from a street light or household lamp could delay or entirely halt the re flowering process.Starting October 1st,the plant must be kept in complete darkness for 14 continuous hours each night.Accomplish this by moving the plant to a totally dark room, or by covering them overnight with a large box during October, November and early December , poinsettias require 6-8 hours of bright sunlight daily with night temperatures between 60-70 degrees.Temperatures outside this range could also delay flowering.

Or to avoid this headache entirely just buy a new one every year. :}