Sunday, February 6, 2011

Confused Poinsettia- Blooming for Valentine's Day?

This past Thanksgiving, I put my Poinsettia in a dark room like the books told me to do to get it's leaves to turn red in time for Christmas.  Within 2 weeks, leaves started turning yellow and dropping off.  I had found that leaves turning yellow was a sign of too much water.  Sure enough, the soil was soaked.  For some reason, in a dark room it didn't use as much water as in a room with indirect sunlight.  So, I drained it and didn't water for a week.  With leaves still turning yellow, I gave up and set it back in the room with light where it used to sit.  I decided it was lonely and I'd rather keep it alive than have red leaves.  Then the tips of the leaves started turning brown which means it wasn't getting enough water.  So I went back to the usual routine of watering & finger testing moisture each time before I watered it.  Leaves still turned yellow and fell off.  However, I did start noticing new growth and decided that it must have needed to shed leaves in order to grow.  Maybe it's trying to tell me it needs a bigger pot [home].  This past week the new leaves started showing some red.  I'm thinking it got Christmas and Valentine's Day confused or like me, celebrating the end of Football season so that I get to spend more time with Mr. G.

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