Originally published in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner on November 29, 2017.
Ho, ho, ho! It’s not quite December, but this is my chance to give you a poinsettia pep talk. Remember the days when Fairbanks locally produced poinsettias? Now the state’s entire commercial crop is grown farther to the south.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service reported last year that potted poinsettia crop sales were down 3 percent.
Alaska grows about 50,000 plants, but I worry this seasonal icon will fall into obscurity, along with Jell-O salad and tinsel. It perplexes me that in our culture of nearly disposable everything, poinsettia sales aren’t booming. Poinsettias make the perfect gift. You need not worry if the recipient has a green thumb or space for another houseplant. After the holidays are over, the plant can be thrown away. Or not.
I spoke to a gardener a few days ago who smiled as she told me her poinsettia from last year was just starting to turn red. Poinsettias are short-day plants and most varieties require 12 hours of uninterrupted darkness to initiate coloring of the bracts that we think of as flowers. To make last year’s plant turns red, or burgundy, pink, white or yellow, you can put it in a closet about Oct 1. Write yourself a note to bring it out again after 12 hours because the plant also needs its daily dose of light. More than one poinsettia has gone into the closet and not come out alive. Once the bracts start showing a little color, the dark period can be suspended.
Poinsettia’s true flowers are tiny and right in the middle. When plants first arrive at the retailer, these little flowers will be fresh if they’ve had proper conditions during shipment. Dark black or brownish bract edges indicate plants may have gotten too cold.
Moving a subtropical plant during the winter in Interior Alaska requires planning. The car needs to be warm and once you load up, you’re committed to going straight home, but with a little protection, poinsettias can handle short periods of cold.
Every year I get on a grow-a-poinsettia bandwagon and last December, I carried a live plant to Nenana and Healy. I had never moved a poinsettia in and out of the car at 25-below and was sure that if the plant survived the trip, it would most likely succumb once I got back to the university and put it in my cold vehicle for the ride home. The plant survived quite nicely packed in a box with a lid. It didn’t shrivel, get brown edges or drop a single leaf.
Consider the poinsettia as a houseplant to be enjoyed throughout the year. Keep it out of cold drafts and away from blowing heat. Fertilize when the plant is actively putting on new growth, and water when the soil feels dry to the touch.
If one more houseplant is not in your future, know you’ll be supporting a farmer if you purchase another poinsettia next season.
