poinsettia

[glenis]

my plant is healthy and bushy but all the leaves are green ,any chance of turning the leaves red in time for christmas?

[hammerman]

You need to reduce the day length ie it needs light for about 6 hours a day, the rest of the time it needs to be dark eg in a cupboard.

Whether it'll go red in time i don't know but you should've seen some leaves starting to go red naturally by now.

[skylight]

Hi glenis, this site will tell you all you need to know ;http://www.ecke.com/html/h_corp/corp_pntcare.h tml#rebloom cheers skylight

[glenis]

thanks to you both ,although i think i have left it rather too latr to force it to flower now for xmas

[hammerman]

You'll never get the plant as red as it was in the garden centre when you bought it.....Poinsettias are often subjected to a gas treatment to bring the colours out and get the plant into colour at the right time. Not too sure what the gas is....could be bromide IIRC.

Ps...have you ever seen these things growing wild ? I saw big 6-8' tall shrubs of poinsettia growing in people's gardens in Barbados.....quite amaizing really considdering they're assosiated with xmas over here !!!