- When can you plant the poinsettia?
- A good place in the garden
- Proper care in the garden
- Transplant into a pot before winter
Basically, the poinsettia is purely a houseplant in our latitudes. It is not hardy and must therefore be protected from frost in winter. After the flowering period, you can plant poinsettias in the garden over the summer. What you have to consider.
The poinsettia can only be outdoors during the warm season
When can you plant the poinsettia?
Since poinsettias do not tolerate frost, you may only plant them outside after flowering when it is warm enough. The temperatures must never fall below five degrees.
If you want to make the poinsettia bloom again for the next Christmas, plant it out in the pot right away. Then the roots will remain undamaged when you bring it back indoors.
By autumn at the latest, it's time to dig up the poinsettia again.
A good place in the garden
In order for the poinsettia to grow well in the garden, the location should meet a few conditions:
- warm
- semi-shady
- sheltered from the wind
- permeable soil
- not too humus-rich substrate
It does well under trees and bushes that give it some shade in the direct midday sun.
Proper care in the garden
Before you plant the poinsettia in the garden, remove all withered leaves and cut off any remaining bracts.
Poinsettias prefer it dry to moist. However, you must water occasionally in hot summers, whenever the soil has dried up. The poinsettia does not tolerate waterlogging at all. Make sure that rainwater can run off well.
You do not have to fertilize the poinsettia in the garden. There are enough nutrients in the substrate so that the plant is sufficiently supplied.
Transplant into a pot before winter
As soon as the days get cooler, the poinsettia is dug up and potted in a flower pot with a loose substrate.
In order for it to develop its eye-catching bracts, you have to keep it darker for several weeks. As a short-day plant, the poinsettia needs a phase in which it receives less than twelve hours of light per day.
tips
In their homeland in the tropical deciduous forests of Central and South America, poinsettias can grow up to four meters high. They bear only a few branches and often flower for many months.