The Yorkton and District Horticultural Society held their Directors meeting recently, and part of that meeting was devoted to planning the program for 2016! Plans are still being finalized, but it will be an exciting year! As always, interested gardeners are invited to attend, you don’t have to be a member to come to the meetings. You can find out more about the group by logging on to www.yorktonhort.ca
When you and I last had tea, I was telling you about the beautiful amaryllis that we were eagerly watching, waiting for blooms. We now have eight beautiful red trumpets in full bloom, and aren’t they a glorious sight on a December day!
Some very kind friends gave us a stunning poinsettia plant. It is a delicious color, not quite red, not pink, but sort of like the color of crushed raspberries mixed with cream. It’s beautiful! Since poinsettias are such a lovely floral symbol of Christmas, I thought I should do a bit of homework on how to take care of them.
I read that poinsettias like bright natural light, but not direct light. They like a steady temperature, moderate, and will keep color longer if the room is not very hot. But the tender poinsettia does not like drafts of any kind, so be sure to keep it away from a location where doors are opening and closing nearby, or away from vents where the furnace is blasting out hot air. Water when the soil feels dry to the touch, but do not let the plant sit in water.
Poinsettias can last long past Christmas. It’s an ambitious undertaking, but here goes: by April, you can cut the plant back by about five inches, and move it near a sunny window (no direct light). New growth may start to come, and if it does, give it a spring tonic of fertilizer. When June arrives, continue with the fertilizer, water when the soil feels dry to your touch, and by now you can move your plant outside to a lightly shaded area. You might want to re-pot it at this time, too. By the end of August, take your plant back inside, and cut it back to three of four leaves per stem. Now comes the tricky part: from mid-September until the beginning of December, give your poinsettia light only from 8AM till 5PM; after that, it is “lights out”, literally, as the poinsettia has to be moved to a dark location until 8AM the next morning. From what I read, when they say “ a dark location”, they mean it. If all goes well, you will have a blooming poinsettia for Christmas again.
I’m sure when Mr. Joel Poinsett, the first US ambassador to Mexico, sent poinsettia plants back home to South Carolina in 1825, he could not even imagine how the beautiful poinsettia would become a Christmas phenomenon. In times past, the Aztecs grew them as a precious gift from the gods. Hundreds of years later, they became part of Christian celebrations, and were carried in nativity processions, becoming known as the Holy Night flower, “la flor de Nochebuena”.
And a couple more little factoids: December 12, the day Mr. Poinsett died in 1851, is known as Poinsettia Day. And guess what; over twenty million poinsettias are grown each year in the United States.
Beautiful plants for a special holiday! Have a great week!
