In honor of National Poinsettia Day tomorrow, let’s talk a bit about the care of them. Today the pot covers  are on my mind, as I had an incident with one recently.  Yes, they are festive and every poinsettia comes in some type of one, whether it be paper, plastic, or a decorative planter.  Yet, it is hard to tell when your plant is in need of water or on the other hand, may be too wet. It usually is the latter, as there is no drainage in these sleeves. Of course, checking them often will eliminate this problem….

Remember to check under the pot cover

So I picked this up the other day to move it and oops! I took off the pot cover and it was DRY! Most of the time, the pot covers are full of water and the plant is drowning. I pass those wet poinsettias by in the store, because I have no idea how long they may have been standing in the water. The roots could already be rotting…..  Anyway, so I took the pot cover off and look what it had been hiding. Dry curled up leaves!

The pot cover was covering a lot……..

It still looks good on top, so I’m lucky

Rejuvenating the plant

Luckily, I caught this before the whole thing was adversely affected. It still looks good on top. I removed all the damaged leaves, watered it well, LET IT DRAIN, and put it back in the cover. Notice I said I watered it and let it drain before placing it back in the cover. That is important, because we don’t want it now standing in water. Poinsettias want to be evenly moist-not standing in water, nor too dry. Keep them away from heat vents and cold drafts. They are tropical plants so they like it warm with even moisture. You may even want to set them on a pebble tray to keep the humidity up.

The lesson behind this story….CHECK your plants often before they let you know in a negative way, what they need. I will be watching all my poinsettias more carefully now.

How is your poinsettia doing? Go check it!

Happy Holidays!