Green Speckles

Poinsettia

Euphorbia pulcherrima

Poinsettias
20 Jun
Poinsettias
4 Jun
Poinsettias
16 May
Poinsettias
21 Apr
Poinsettias
Pruned - 9 Apr
Poinsettias
Pruned - 9 Apr
Poinsettias
Back from holiday - 3 Apr
Poinsettia
Kids' window - 18 Feb 2022
Poinsettia
First new buds! - 18 Feb 2022
Poinsettia
After watering - 31 Jan 2022
Poinsettia
Before watering - 31 Jan 2022
Poinsettia
Windowsill - 23 Jan 2022
Poinsettia
11 Jan 2022
Poinsettia
Before Christmas 2021
Poinsettia

Shrub native to Mexico and Central America. The flowers are yellow and tiny, the large red foliages are the floral bracts, which are modified leaves. Also called Mexican flameleaf.Typically forced to bloom for holiday season. Not toxic to people and pet.

Purchased December 2021
Journal
  • December 2021
    • Purchased from Home Depot.
  • January 2022
    • Early: The red leaves tend to get black spot (rotting? dissease? wilting?) easily. While the green leaves are fine. Such leaves are removed regularly.
    • 23: Still luscious and have a lot of red. The green leaves are still turning to red here and there, balancing the red removal due to black spotting.
    • 31: Poinsettia becomes droopy very fast when the soil becoming to dry. But upon watering, it perks up very quickly. maybe even within 1-2 hours. We took photo of before and after watering today.
  • February
    • Early: New leaves starting to grow from the middle crown where old flowers gone.
    • 18: Budding! About the red leaves, even though many are removed as they get black spots, there's always ones turning red. So overall it's always looking red on top.
  • March
    • 25: Watered thoroughly in preparation of 10 days holiday.
  • April
    • 3: Back from holiday, Most older leaves at the bottom dried out. Young leaves, the new growth after flowering ended, are wilting but not dried up. That can be revived by watering. But since next month the plant needs to be pruned heavily anyway, action taken is pruning it at this point. All stems were pruned to about 10 cm. New growth that already occuring below that, are left. They were not dried out.
    • 21: a few days ago transferred to a medium clay pot. Leaves have grown since pruning.
    • 28: planted thyme seeds on the bottom. 6 holes.
  • May
    • Mid: thyme removed. Hard to water with it. Poinsettia is growing well.
  • June
    • 20: Moved into a bigger pot.
Care
  • Bright difused sunlight. Near sunny window with 6-8 hours of light a day. Direct sunlight can burn bracts and leaves.
  • Water when soil surface dry to touch. Saturate soil until water runs through the drainage holes, but do not let the plant sit in water. Do not overwater.
  • To retain blooming as long as possible, keep temperature at 18-24 °C.
  • Low humidity hurts.
  • Fertilizing:
    • All purpose fertilizer.
    • Not when blooming.
    • Fertilize a dose at late March / early April. Prune at this time too.
    • Continue once a month during spring and summer. half strength.
References
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