Buy and Care for Organic Poinsettias

Choose This Holiday Plant to Brighten Your Seasonal Décor

Dec 9, 2008

When the organic garden lies fallow in the winter, many gardeners rely on houseplants like poinsettias to extend their hobby into the winter months.

Although poinsettias may seem like a clichéd icon of the holiday season, there are several reasons for organic gardeners to give this plant a second look. Gardeners can purchase poinsettia plants grown without the use of chemical pesticides or fertilizers, and it’s easy to continue to care for these plants in the home.

Poinsettia Varieties

The poinsettia came from its native country of Mexico to the United States in 1825 via its namesake, Ambassador Joel Roberts Poinsett. Since this time, horticulturists have introduced dozens of new cultivars, improving the longevity of the plant and expanding the color palette. In addition to the popular red poinsettia, gardeners can choose from pink, white, cream, coral, and variegated or flecked varieties that have a mottled appearance.

Buy Poinsettias Grown Organically

Poinsettias are grown in commercial greenhouse settings, and they can experience whitefly, thrip, fungus gnat, and mealybug infestations there. Disease problems of poinsettias grown in greenhouses include a variety of root and stem rots, which conventional growers control with fungicide drenches.

Although it’s unlikely that the poinsettias sold in big box stores were grown organically, an increasing number of specialty florists like OrganicBouquet.com are offering organic gift plants and flowers. It’s worth cultivating a good relationship with your local nurseryman, who can share his growing methods with you.

Organic Poinsettia Plant Care

Poinsettias thrive in well-draining soil that resembles the lean soil of its homeland in Mexico. Many poinsettias come wrapped in a decorative foil cover that conceals a plain plastic pot. Gardeners should pierce the bottom of this wrapper to ensure that water drains away freely.

Keep plants in a sunny window away from drafts. Plants appreciate a cooler environment at night, between 60 and 65 degrees F. If any whiteflies hitched a ride from the greenhouse, collect them with yellow sticky traps.

Reblooming Poinsettias

Convincing poinsettias to rebloom is a challenge, but a fun experiment for gardeners. After the holidays, continue to water and care for the plant as normal. In the spring, cut the plant back to four inches and repot in a mixture of compost and sterile potting soil.

Move the plant outdoors to an area of lightly dappled shade in early summer, and feed every two weeks with compost or manure tea. Pinch the plant back regularly to keep it from becoming gangly.

In the fall, bring the plant indoors back to its sunny window. From 5 p.m. until dawn, keep the plant in complete darkness to signal shortening days. Approximately 10 weeks from this time, the plant will produce buds and blossoms.

December 12th marks the anniversary of the death of Joel Robert Poinsett, and Congress has designated this day as National Poinsettia Day. Celebrate the introduction of this appealing flowering houseplant by picking up an organically grown variety that complements your holiday décor.

The copyright of the article Buy and Care for Organic Poinsettias in Organic Flower Gardens is owned by Jamie McIntosh. Permission to republish Buy and Care for Organic Poinsettias in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.