Caring for Your Holiday Plants

By Dawn Pettinelli, UConn Home & Garden Education Center

Although the newer poinsettia cultivars perform much better than older varieties, some care is still needed to keep them healthy and vibrant looking throughout the holidays. Start by giving your poinsettia as much light as possible. Plants will lose their brightly colored bracts sooner if kept in dim light.

Let poinsettias dry out slightly between watering. Be sure the drainage is good. All too often we leave poinsettias in pots surrounded by foil or plastic sleeves that hold water. Ideally pots should be placed on saucers and any excess water drained. Leaves on over watered plants will turn yellow and begin to droop. Keep poinsettias out of drafts and away from woodstoves, radiators and other heat sources. Ideal temperatures for poinsettias are between 60 and 70 degrees.

Amaryllis bulbs are great gifts to receive or give and easy to care for. These huge bulbs produce several stems of long-lasting, trumpet-shaped blossoms mostly in pink, scarlet, red or white. If your bulb came already potted, check that the container has adequate drainage. Unpotted bulbs should be planted in pots about an inch or two wider than the bulb. These plants are rather top-heavy so I like to use clay pots or place the plastic pots in heavier, decorative containers. Position the bulbs in their pots so that the top one-quarter is above the potting mix.

Water thoroughly and set the potted bulb in a warm, bright location. Do not let the bulb dry out but don't let it sit in water either. Your amaryllis will first send up flower stalks which will be shortly followed by long, strap-like foliage. Cut back the flower stalks after the blooms have faded. Water and fertilize the bulb regularly throughout the growing season. Plants can be set outside in a shady spot during the summer months and brought back inside before the first heavy frost. Set bulbs on newspapers in a dry, dark spot where temperatures will remain above 50 degrees. Repot next December for another spectacular show.

One store I visited was selling darling red miniature roses. They were even listed as buy one, get one free. It is very easy to become enchanted with the idea of bringing these little gems home and as long as you realize that growing miniature roses successfully indoors is a challenge, then by all means bring some home and enjoy them. My advice is to either do your best to meet their needs and hope that they hold on long enough for you to plant them in your garden in April or just enjoy them until the plants start to deteriorate and send them to the compost pile.

Miniature roses are very easy to grow outdoors but indoors they need a lot of light (full sun is good), a lot of water and nutrients, and temperatures typically cooler than we prefer. But they make for adorable holiday table arrangements, especially combined with ivy and small white poinsettias so do enjoy them while they last.

Cyclamen are easier to keep than roses but do need to be keep on the cool side as well. A cool, east window is good. Keep their soil evenly moist but avoid getting water on the bulb-like corm. Flowers will last for quite some time but eventually the foliage will yellow as the plant goes dormant. This is natural. Reduce watering at this time and remove spent flowers and leaves as they fade. Store the corm in its pot in a cool cellar until late July. At this time, you can repot the cyclamen corm in African violet soil, setting it with the bottom half only in the potting mix. Water thoroughly but wait until new growth is visible before watering again. Cool temperatures and bright, indirect light should stimulate flowering by early winter.

Topiary rosemaries in the shape of a Christmas tree, wreath or heart are beautiful and unique gifts. The secrets for successfully overwintering a rosemary are bright light, cool temperatures and to never let the plant completely dry out. These are not the easiest plants to keep and it is said that anyone who can keep a rosemary alive for more than three winters is truly an accomplished horticulturist! Check to see if the plant is rootbound and repot if necessary. Often these come in containers that are just too small. Water enough to keep the soil moderately moist, fertilize lightly once a month during the growing season, and prune as needed both for some flavoring in the kitchen and to maintain its shape. If you do have questions about your holiday plant purchases or gifts, call us, toll-free, at (877) 486-6271, visit our web site at www.ladybug.uconn.edu or contact your local Cooperative Extension Center.