Christmas Plant
Only a few more weeks till Christmas and most of you will be busy shopping and buying a poinsettia. If you have the room cluster some pots together to make it look like a small garden.
Some Poinsettia Facts:
Poinsettias are native to Mexico. The showy coloured parts of poinsettias that most people think are the flowers are actually coloured bracts (modified leaves). Poinsettias are part of the Euphorbiaceae family. Poinsettias are not poisonous. Many plants in this family ooze a milky sap. Some people may have skin irritation from the milky sap. Poinsettias were introduced into the United States in 1825 by Joel Poinsettia.
Selecting A Poinsettia
1. Choose a plant with dark green foliage down to the soil line. Choose bracts (modified leaves) that are completely coloured.
2. Do not purchase poinsettias with a lot of green around the bract edges. Do not choose plants with fallen or yellowed leaves.
3. Do not purchase plants that are displayed in paper or plastic sleeves. Plants held in sleeves will deteriorate quickly.
Poinsettia Care
1. Make sure the poinsettia is wrapped properly when leaving the store. Exposure to low temperatures even for a few minutes can damage the bracts and leaves.
2. Unwrap your poinsettia carefully and place in indirect light. Six hours of light daily is ideal.
3. Keep the plant from touching cold windows.
4. Keep poinsettias away from warm or cold drafts coming from radiators, air registers or open doors and windows.
5. Ideally poinsettias require daytime temperatures of 17 to 21 Celsius and night time temperatures around 15 Celsius.
6. High temperatures will shorten the plant’s life so move the plant to a cooler room at night.
7. Check the soil daily. Be sure to punch holes in foil so water can drain into a saucer.
8. Water when soil is dry and allow water to drain into the saucer and discard the excess water. Wilted plants will tend to drop bracts sooner.
Enjoy your poinsettia!
2 Responses to “Christmas Plant”
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Does anybody know about this site ( http://www.earthlab.com ) ? I have seen other environmental sites with carbon calculators like yahoo and tree huggers, but I am wondering what the deal with earthlab.com is, is it credible? I saw they also published a list last month of the top ten greenest cities ( http://www.efficientenergy.org/Top-Ten-Green-Cities-in-the-United-States ). Does anyone know if this site is better than say WWF site? Fill me in
I took their carbon foot print test and it was pretty interesting, but they said that I put out 4.5 tons of carbon while another test gave me like 15 tons? I think I trust earthlab.com’s test a little more (because my score is lower). Does anyone know about any other tests?
very interesting.
i’m adding in RSS Reader