How to make the poinsettia bloom again (poinsettia)

If you want your poinsettia to bloom again and look like the one above in the photo, it's about time you started working on it.

The poinsettia or poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) that you bought for Christmas last year is probably now a little green bush… and will still be a little green bush if you don't do anything.

It is important to know that the poinsettia is a short day plant, which means that it only blooms when there are less than 12 hours in the day (or rather, more than 12 hours at night).

Thus, the initiation of flowering naturally begins around the autumn solstice (September 21 or 22 depending on the year in the northern hemisphere) ... and flowering - beautiful red, pink, white bracts, etc. star-shaped - usually starts about 2 months later, well in time for Christmas.

It takes more than 12 hours of darkness a day for the Poinsettia to bloom year after year.

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How to make the Poinsettia bloom again

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Everything looks wonderful - the days naturally shorten, so the poinsettia should also flower naturally. And this is the case of poinsettias or poinsettias that are grown in the South (but only in the South: it is a very cold shrub that does not tolerate frost). But in our homes, autumn arrives, the days get shorter, the weeks go by ... but the poinsettia does not bloom. What's the problem, how to make the poinsettia turn red?

The problem is that we light up our houses at night, artificially prolonging the duration of light, while the plant requires the opposite: there is no light after the afternoon. Even a single strand of light at the wrong time and flowering is lost.

Fortunately, is there a way to resolve this conflict and solve the big question of how to make the poinsettia bloom and turn red again.

Extra room

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Place the poinsettia or poinsettia in a room that is not used at night, but let it be sunny during the day: a guest room, for example.

Now remove all the bulbs from the room and place the poinsettia in front of the window. Without light bulbs, even if you walk into the room at night and accidentally try to turn on the light, you won't be able to do it. In this way, the poinsettia will inevitably receive short days and you will make it bloom at Christmas.

Do not worry that the moonlight that the plant receives will interrupt the flowering. The moon does not produce a strong enough light to affect it.

A light barrier

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Don't have a room that is not used at night? So, place your poinsettia or poinsettia near a sunny window in an "inhabited" room and place a display of some kind in front of it, or even a large plant or two. This will prevent the night light from reaching it.

Note that once the central leaves start to take their Christmas color (red, pink, white, etc.), even a little bit, it is no longer necessary to continue with the short-day treatment. The work is done! You can put the bulbs back in your lamps or remove the shade. Flowering will continue to progress until it reaches fullness.

How to care for a poinsettia

Apart from the short day treatment, which is the answer to how to make the poinsettia bloom, continue with the usual care of your poinsettia, especially remembering that you must water when the soil is dry to the touch. No special temperatures or very high humidity will be necessary ... and of course you cannot prune your poinsettia in autumn: this will eliminate future flower stems!

Merry Christmas in advance 🎄

If you want to continue learning how to take care of your Poinsettia so that it blooms year after year, these notes may interest you: