Hi! I am determined not to throw away my poinsettias I got this year but I need some help. My husband's cousin kept his well after Christmas, and as he told me, he just kept it watered, shaded and room temp to cool and now it looks viney. I am keeping mine in indirect bright light, and well its been really nice (70's daytime) here in Tucson AZ, it only gets a little cool at night and we have humidifiers in our home. I water them when they get dry allowing the excess to drain out. My large 'settia's bracts have just about all fallen and from my reading from various sites on the internet it sounds like the bracts are supposed to stay on a bit longer. My small settia is okay so far. I do mist them about once a day too. I just wondered when is the right time for cutting back the stems? Is it after all the bracts fall? and do you just cut the stems like pruning a tree or rose bush? do you need to protect the stems any special way after you trim them?
Give them more light, they still need bright light. You prune in the early spring, usually around March/April. Prune back to 1/2 size and put in bright light but NOT direct sunlight. Keep moist not soggy. When new leave emerg feed half strength every other watering. Misting does absolutely nothing for a plant unless you plan on doing it every 5-10 minutes 24 hours a day. Better to use a humidifier or vaporizer. See this site for more: http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/poinsettia/ Happy New year! Tom
I appreciate the above response but I don't understand it being that what I had to say was mostly ignored. So far my pointsettias are doing well. The bracts stopped falling from the larger, so it still has some left. With my large pointsettia I think it was a matter of the the plant adjusting from its previous environment before it was given to me. My little poinsettia is doing fine. Maybe I wasn't clear the last time, but my question is, what determines the time to cut back the stems? the time of the year or when the bracts all fall off? That may be a strange question but I ask it because, like because trees on the east coast for example, they don't decide to shed their leaves because it is September, rather they shed them when the temperatures change. So to state 'to cut them back in April', doesn't really answer my question. I am also concluding from my reading on the settia that the reason why the settia is cut back in April is because the bracts have fallen off. So I was trying to decide if it was okay to cut one back prematurely or later depending on when the bracts have fallen off ...
I don't think people are answering your question very well, I realize what you are asking however I'm not very smart with plants. It's practically summer all year round where you live so it being April or not probably doesn't matter so much. Here's a chunk of information from a nice site I found, at: http://www.helpfulgardener.com/container/2003/poinsettia.html (text removed - Daniel - see edit notes)
