Curly Pink Poinsettia
Poinsettia, a member of the Spurge family of plants is a commercially important genus of plants in floriculture. Cultivated by the Aztecs and other Central American natives for its use in traditional medicine, the spectacular looking leaf forms of this plant has made it a favourite in the Western world during the holiday season. The curly, coloured leaves, commonly misunderstood as flowers are nature’s little trick for the plant to call the attention of pollinating insects to its tiny yellow flowers cradled within.
Adopting and caring for a Curly Pink Poinsettia
Adopting: It?s easy to fall in love with the Curly Pink Poinsettia. At eplants, we bring you display-ready healthy plants with rich colours, compact shape and well-formed heads
Locating: Poinsettia will thrive in medium to bright light though they are also known to tolerate artificially lit indoor conditions. While most people look at a Poinsettia as a single season plant, by managing its light and feeding needs through the year, a Poinsettia can bring joy to a garden, year after year
Watering: Overwatering is the chief cause of disease or loss of plant life. While a Poinsettia needs regular watering, do ensure that you don?t overwater them
Fertilising: If you have picked up a Poinsettia around the winter holiday season, you won?t need to do anymore fertilising until the season is over
Reviving: Maintaining a Poinsettia is simple. When a Poinsettia is fading, it starts to drop its leaves. Clear out the fallen leaves and prune the plant to get it to a more compact form. Move it to a bright corner of your home and water it only when the topsoil goes dry. As new leaves start to sprout, give the plant some organic liquid fertiliser as recommended on the pack. Repot the plant in early August and wait a few weeks for the plant to revive. Once new shoots appear, move the plant to a sunny spot and give it a few more rounds of organic fertiliser feeds every other week, so as to ready the plant for the upcoming blooming season.
In the early 20th Century Poinsettia received bad press as many people thought that the plant was poisonous to humans and animals. This hasproven to be false, with scientific studies showing that there is little or no harm that the plant can really cause.
Did you know
To induce early flowering in a Poinsettia, growers in Europe keep the plant in controlled pitch darkness for many hours.
