Poinsettia

As Christmas approaches, I thought I'd show you the progress of a Poinsettia as I did with the Jacaranda earlier this year.

The procedure is to cut them back to about one metre in the Spring and they quickly start their new shoots.

These are the first photos I have of it in July ...





1 October ...



1 November ...



15 November ...



and today ... 27 November ...







At a guesstimate, it's 3.5 meters tall now.

 

Now that's just showing off, next you will be telling me its warm enough for shorts in Portugal at the moment ! :D

 

Shhhhhh, Babe ... it's about 20 at the moment. :D

 

Very impressive Lol. I was looking at little ones in the supermarket today. There was a ring of red bracts and inside a number of buds. What kinds of buds are they? Presumably they don't flower here in the UK, in which case they must be more bracts. But how many tiers of bracts can you have?

And what are the buds in yours LoL?

 

Hello Peter

The buds are the brachts ... they open from the inside out (or so I believe) and the "flower" ie coloured brachts, get wider and wider. Mine are about 20cm across at the moment.

They have some awful coloured hybrid ones here at the moment for Christmas, cream (very insipid looking) and blotchy cream red (quite weird). I'll stick to the common one.

Here the common name is Estrela de Natal ... the Star of Christmas.

 

Thanks LoL, I assumed that they would be more bracts. But if it keeps growing for another foot (yours - not ours) they can't all be bracts can they? I have the feeling that you can't have very many layers of bracts - they are just a layer or two before the flowers - or are they? Bye the way, when do yours flower?

Traditionally they have always been red here, but last Christmas I saw pink and cream as well.

 

They never "flower" as far as I know Peter and I've had mine for six or seven years, maybe more. They "colour" from November - April.

I shall choose one "bloom" and monitor it for you and report weekly with a new close-up photo. There are several lower down (in the second to last photo) that are shorter than me! :rolleyes:

 

I think you find that the flowers are in the middle of the bracts, as with a lot of euphorbia types they are pretty insignificant.
I've not tried but I assume that if you dont cut the plant down after the bracts have faded, it will form side shoots below the flowering point and grow on from there, eventually becoming very leggy.
have you tried not cutting it back LoL

 

Evening, pete. I cut it back every year to one meter. You cannot cut them back after they reshoot and brachts start forming (about August) or else they will not "colour". I don't think mine is "leggy" ... you should see the ones where people don't cut them back :eek: very unattractive.

I forgot to mention, this is a "resurrection" of the mother plant which we decided we didn't want it where it was. So, we dug it up, massive roots and all, and had it in a large pot at the front of the house where it did nicely for a couple of years but we then gave it away to our friends to put in the ground. It's doing nicely with them now.

That same year, like the horror Passiflora caerulea, this thing shot up from hell (it comes from the roots as well, pete) ... we cannot get rid of it. :( :eek: :rolleyes: We have fallen in love with it now.

 

I ahd little yellow flowers last year, if you remember, and then seed pods, which oozed some syrupy stuff! With Pete's dire warnings about possibly explosive seed-pods, I removed them all, though!

Here's a link to the last thread, with a couple of my pics (the one lower down the page is rather clearer....)

http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=000260;p=3

I have 3 old ones still happily growing in my front room, all turning red now, so that we can hardly see each other across the table, when we sit there in the evening! I've asked all friends NOT to give me any more!

 

Why then does this not happen here naturally?

As I said, I shall be monitoring this.

 

Dunno, LoL! Keep monitoring! I'll take photos as mine develop this year, if they do, of course, and see how they go.....

 

Lol, you mentioned Poisettia colours, The plant breeders now seem to genetically produce and want to produce every colour in every plant thus losing the specific colour ranges that make certain plants unique, I have seen in my trade catalogue a Cranberry and a variegated salmon Poinsettia among other hidious shades. Un fortunately as long as the public keep buying them the breeders will keep producing them.
Enough of this ranting, your Star of Christmas was penned Flower of the Holy Night here by Thomas Rochford (my old boss) in the 60's when he introduced and started growing them commercially but the name never stuck. I love your natural specimen. Do many gardens have them there?

 

In your last pic LoL, I would say the flowers are already open.
I was only suggesting not cutting it back to see where the new shoots come from, Peter was interested as to how many bracts can form and for how long.
The bracts only surround the flowers, once the flowers are finished growth must come from lower down the stem.
As you know LoL if you dont cut it back after flowering, that growth comes just below the flowers and the plant gets leggy, cut it back hard and the new growth has to come from the bottom.

 

strongy ... Flower of the Holy Night, what a lovely name.

Yes, they are popular here in Portuguese gardens more so than expats.

As I mentioned about colours, I've seen these variegated ones and I find them a bit off putting, for lack of saying anything else. Yes, they probably will be popular for Christmas but for those of us who grow them in our gardens ... there is only one.

pete, as I said, I shall be monitor this now with the "flowering" bir ... I noticed strongy didn't comment on this aspect?

They are an absolute joy to look at through the winter ... bit of heaven.