Can you grow a poinsettia plant outside?

[DebFred]

Hi All,

My neighbor lady got a beautiful poinsettia plant for Christmas. She asked me is there any way to keep them from dying and replanting them? We live in the Cincinnati area of Ohio. Of course I thought of this site when she asked me!

Happy New Year.

 

[Smart Red]

Hey, hey, hey! I did it the fall of 2011!

I have tried for over 4 years with two poinsettia plants I had. I tried in a locked room, I tried under a box, I tried everything I read to get the plants to rebloom in time for Christmas with no success.

Then came last fall.

I always have summered my poinsettia outside. I bury the pots in the garden. As the fall weather approached, I dug the pots and set them beside my brick house facing west and forgot them. I suspect the radiant heat from the brick kept them from the earliest frosts. It was a week into November before I spotted them and brought them inside. By that time they were already turning red. Once inside they continued to bloom through the holidays.

So my success was the result of living in the country with no neighboring lights, a lack of real freezes, and an absent minded gardener. It was just the natural way for them to flower.

Love, Smart Red

 

[nittygrittydirtdigger]

When I lived in Santa Barbara, people would just plunk them in the ground on the side of the house and watch them grow up to the second story. They like mild weather.

 

[DebFred]

So far so good! How about the one she just got? Does she keep it in the house all winter or plant it outside on the west side? Her house is brick, and she loves her flowers. This is a yellow one, and that sucker is huge!!!

I hope she can keep it alive.

Thanks you two!! :happy_flower

 

[lesa]

One of the things I enjoy most about visiting Florida- looking at the plants growing outside as big as shrubs. Those would be the same plants we baby in the house in NY state! I remember visiting California and seeing the jade plants literally used as foundation plantings. That stung!

 

[thistlebloom]

So far so good! How about the one she just got? Does she keep it in the house all winter or plant it outside on the west side? Her house is brick, and she loves her flowers. This is a yellow one, and that sucker is huge!!!

I hope she can keep it alive.

Thanks you two!! :happy_flower

She'll have to treat it as a houseplant. Pointsettias will only grow outside year round in climates with no freezing weather. She can do as Smart Red did and let it summer outside, but there's no chance it will survive a winter outdoors.

 

[so lucky]

DebFred, your neighbor needs to keep the poinsettia inside, near a window, this winter. It is not acclimated to cold weather now, and would surely die. She can set it out in the spring, after danger of frost is past. She could either trim it back this winter, after the red bracts fade, or wait till she sets it outside to trim it back. I'd say cut about a third off, so it doesn't get too spindly. When it starts growing it will branch out as a result of the trim.

 

[catjac1975]

I would cut it way back and repot it. The blooms will not look like those in the store. They are given specialty hormones to bloom just right. They also need full dark at night with NO electric light in order to set bloom. I kept one a live for several years and got it to rebloom. Cutting can also be taken and may be even more successful.

 

[DebFred]

Thank you all so much. I will tell her what you all have said. Appreciate all your input.

Deb

 

[Nyboy]

My Father has one that is on the stair landing. Every night the stair lights are turned on. It has bloomed several years in a row. He does nothing but water it.