Plant of the Month

Plant of the Month for December
Poinsettia

Euphorbia pulcherrima

Perhaps no pot plant is more redolent of Christmas than the Poinsettia with its gorgeous exotic looking bracts set against large almost velvety dark green leaves. Poinsettias are natives of the lowlands of Mexico where they grow at the margins of woodland forming a shrub of up to 3m high.

The scientific name for Poinsettia is Euphorbia pulcherrima, but it is known throughout the world as Poinsettia, a name that was coined to honour Joel Poinsett, a keen botanist who was also the first United States Ambassador to Mexico and who is credited with its introduction into the U.S.A. in 1828. Long before this, the Aztecs who named it "Cuetlaxochitle" which means mortal flower, knew and valued the plant. To them it was a symbol of purity and a reminder of the blood sacrifice as well as being a valuable red dye and medicine against fever. It has been said that in the days of Montezuma, the last king of the Aztecs, large quantities were transported by caravan to his mountainous capital because it could not be grown naturally at that altitude. When the Franciscan priests introduced Christianity into Mexico it was a simple transfer of symbolism from purity and blood sacrifice to its representation of the blood of Christ in their celebration of Christmas.

By the late 1800s Poinsettias were being grown commercially in the U.S.A. both as landscape plants and as a cut flower crop and in the early 1900s the Ecke firm of nurserymen from California had made selections of superior plants and were offering strong 1 and 2 year old poinsettia plants for propagation. Eventually they developed this crop as a pot plant and since then, there has been a steady increase in the production of Poinsettias not only in the United Sates but also in Europe and Scandinavia. A breakthrough in the development of Poinsettias came in 1967 when the Norwegian firm of Thormod Hegg & Son introduced the cultivar Annette Hegg which had a self-branching habit and long-lasting characteristics. Cultivars now exist with pink, white and variegated bracts in addition to the vivid red of the type.

Buying and looking after your Poinsettia

If you are buying a Poinsettia for Christmas choose your plant carefully. Poinsettias hate being subjected to cold draughts which will considerably reduce the life of the bracts, the brightly coloured leaf-like parts of the plant which develop below the clusters of very small flowers. So don't buy plants that have stood out on a market stall on a cold winter's morning, they may be cheap but they aren't good value! Once you get your plant home, keep it away from draughts in an even temperature of about 20C, in good light but not in direct sunlight. Keep the plant well watered but not waterlogged as they require a very open well-aerated compost. Give them a weak liquid feed about once a fortnight and your Poinsettia should give you a good six weeks or more of colour.

Normally Poinsettias are thrown away once their period of interest is over, but if you wish to grow the plants on for a further year, then you can do so if you follow these simple steps. After flowering reduce the amount of water and place the plant in a slightly cooler position. Poinsettias often go leggy after flowering so keep them compact by pinching out the tips of the shoots to encourage branching, but beware the white sap is caustic and can cause skin irritation so keep it away from your eyes. About March, re-pot the plant using very open compost such as multipurpose compost bulked up by a third by adding Perlite or sharp sand. From about early May start to feed the plant with a weak liquid feed once a fortnight. Continue to pinch out any leggy shoots until August.

Poinsettias are strongly photoperiodic and will only initiate their flowers (and bracts)when the total amount of light they receive is less than twelve hours per day. It will take a further eight or nine weeks of these short days to bring the plant into full flower; so from about the second week in October cover the plant or place in a darkened room between say 5pm and 8am and you should successfully have your plants at their best for another cheery Christmas display.

At Myerscough we not only have a range of Poinsettia pot plants for Christmas for sale in the Plant Centre but a full size one growing in our Tropical glasshouse, two metres tall with reddening December bracts!