For poinsettias to feel comfortable and thrive, you need to provide them with the right location. Here are some tips to help you find the ideal place.
The original home of poinsettia are subtropical dry forests. Because of its beautifully red-colored leaves, it managed to become one of the most popular houseplants in the world. Produced as short-lived seasonal plants, poinsettias are offered in large quantities in the weeks leading up to Christmas, often in home improvement stores and supermarkets whose employees are not necessarily familiar with the plant care of delicate plants. Buy Christmas star rather in nurseries and garden centers, where you can be sure that the plant is treated as a sensitive living being and not just as a commodity.
Where is the best place to put the poinsettia?
The tropical plant does not like cold and drafts, so it is important that you wrap the poinsettia well in several layers of paper for transport home. Once home, look for a bright to partly sunny location for your new plant, such as can be found on east and west facing windows. During the winter months, poinsettia can receive a little direct sunlight in the morning and evening hours, but this should be avoided the rest of the year. If necessary, shade the window with a semi-transparent curtain or blind. On wider windowsills, you can also place the plant in a pot in front of a lush foliage ornamental plant, so that it provides natural shade. In a sunlit room, it is best to find a place for the Christmas star outside the direct rays of sunlight.
Poinsettia: Further tips on the location
If the windowsill is made of cool stone, you should protect the poinsettia from the cold creeping up from below, because it damages its roots. With a coaster made of cork or a wooden tray, you will always give the poinsettia “warm feet”, which it will thank you with long-lasting beauty. As far as temperature is concerned, the plant is also a little picky: overheated rooms are a horror to it and make it susceptible to pest infestation. Ideally, one provides for 18 to 20 °C (59 to 68 °F). If it is a little warmer, poinsettias will tolerate it, but in this case you should definitely avoid stronger temperature fluctuations.
Poinsettia loses its leaves
Often this is a reaction of the plant to drafts. In order to prevent it from this, it is important to avoid cool drafts at all costs. So never open the window where the plant is located for a short time for ventilation, but choose another option.
If your poinsettia has survived the winter: Then you have done everything right with the location and care, As a reward, you are welcome to send it to the balcony or terrace during the warm months. However, its location should then be shaded. As soon as the days get cooler, bring it indoors, but here, too, there is a special feature to consider when choosing a location: The poinsettia is a so-called short-day plant, which forms its flowers only when it receives less than 12 hours of light each day for at least six weeks. Suitable locations for this are, for example, the unlit stairwell or a basement with a window. As an auxiliary solution, you can put a large cardboard box over the pot with the poinsettia every afternoon.
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