Good afternoon, my reader. By the end of autumn, flower shops are full of bright leaves of a special type of milkweed (poinsettia), which is popularly called the Christmas star. In America, this plant has long been decorating houses for Christmas and New Year's holidays. Europe adopted the fashion, and now it has reached Russia.
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The Christmas star wears scarlet leaves only during flowering. We'll show you how to care for your crop to replicate its festive color in the new season.
Poinsettia and its features
The Christmas star or the most beautiful Euphorbia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) grows in Mexico and Guatemala. In the wild, these are bushes up to 3 m in height. And for home culture, several compact hybrids were bred no more than 30 cm.
Poinsettia has been valued since the time of the Aztecs. Local residents prepared dye and medicinal infusions from it. The flower came to the United States in 1825 and quickly gained popularity. About sixty million of these plants are sold there annually.
Characteristic
The most beautiful spurge is an evergreen shrub. The leaves are petiolate, ovate-elliptical in shape with a pointed end. Painted dark green. Milky sap is released on the cut, which can irritate the skin.
The flowers are very small, yellowish-olive, collected in a small rosette. Surrounded by bright scarlet bracts. And it all looks like a large multi-rayed star with a yellow center. The plant is appreciated precisely for this unusual effect. Flowering lasts from December to February, then the bush becomes monotonous green.
How to care for a Christmas flower
Poinsettia is a culture of short daylight hours, therefore it blooms only in winter, in conditions of minimal solar activity.
After the purchase
If the flower is bought long before Christmas, it is kept at a temperature of +21 ° C. And watered so that the water passes through the substrate and immediately glass. The soil should always be slightly damp.
Rest time
After flowering, the stems are cut to 10 cm and the plant is transferred to dormancy. Watering is reduced (moistened after drying 1/2 of the substrate), and the temperature is lowered to +15 ° C. The place should be free of drafts, away from direct sunlight.
Further care
After two months, the flower is transplanted into a pot 2 cm larger than the previous one, into a slightly acidic soil of sand, peat, clay-sod and leafy soil (1: 1: 3: 2).
Conditions:
- top dressing - in spring and summer, once every 15 days, with complex fertilizer for indoor flowers;
- watering - abundant in spring and summer, moderate in autumn and winter, so that the land does not dry out completely;
- humidity - keep high, the pot is placed on a pallet with damp moss and is often sprayed.
Bloom
Daylight hours are reduced in October. In order for the poinsettia to bloom, it is kept for about two months daily in complete darkness for 12-14 hours. The flower is put in a box or closet every evening (without access to light), and in the morning it is returned to its usual place. When scarlet bracts appear, the plant is transferred to a standard light regime.
Reproduction
Propagated in summer, by apical cuttings. Cut off the stalk, on which 5 internodes, let the milky juice drain. The cut is sprinkled with charcoal. Rooted in water or wet sand at a temperature of + 25... + 27 ° C.
With the right culture, the Christmas star will decorate the New Years every year.
Is poinsettia growing in your home?
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