Poinsettia, Euphorbia Pulcherrima

The Nations favourite flower for having around the home at Christmas.

The Poinsettia was first introduced into America from South America in the 18 hundreds.

I believe it came from Mexico originally.

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Beware of the nasty white sap, if you cut this plant, as it is a skin irritant.

The varieties of colours pink and reds through to white.

These colourful tops that may appear like flowers are actually known as Bracts and the flowers on this plant are small and yellow and usually start to appear as the levels of light get less and less.

Now that most of you have one, I thought it would be useful to include a few tips on how best to succeed with the plant for longer.

The actual plant if happy, will achieve a couple of feet quite easily, I have seen them in the wild at 4 feet or so.

A fairly organic mix of loam based compost and a handful of really old compost from the bottom of the compost heap and a handful of horticultural grit should do a nice mix for growing a Poinsettia on.

Remember to mix the mix of soil, compost and grit thoroughly as this will stop the compost from drying out in layers and be much kinder around the root system of your Poinsettia.

The plant will naturally lose its leaves between now and the end of March and it is then a good time to cut it back, once the leaves have fallen and beware of the milky sap at this point.

If you want to try and get it to colour up again for the following Christmas then you need to have a routine of darkness 14 hours a day, on the plant and be strict with your routine from September onwards.

Make sure you stand the pot on gravel, in the greenhouse to help prevent over watering.

The trick is not to put it in a pot much bigger than it is now and to do this in March.

It likes to be positioned in somewhere away from the midday sun, in a cool greenhouse, for the summer months

Keep it in the house until potting on time, unless your greenhouse is heated.

The watering should be stepped up during the spring, through to autumn and sparingly in the winter months.  But the trick is to almost dry the soil between waters.  If the leaves start to curl at the edges, a dry feel to it.  It is usually a sign that it needs more water.  However it is easy to give it too much water and it will also curl at the edges, this time quite a limp feel to it.  You can usually also tell because the water will be making the soil very dark.

It is good to fizz mist the leaves regularly during the growing season.

What you want for whitefly during the growing season, under glass.

In likes a fairly constant temperature of 60°F.

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