Indoor plant "Christmas star", more known under the names of the spur of the most beautiful or poinsettia, came to us from Central and South America. This is a perennial shrub with a bare erect dark green or brown stalk with large broad leaves 10-15 cm in length, releasing small yellow flowers on bright red (rarely yellow) bracts of stellate form.
In this article, we will look at how to properly care for the flower "Christmas star", to achieve an annual long and beautiful flowering.
Caring for the indoor flower "Christmas star"
- Location . It is better to place this flower on the western window, but put the pot so that the leaves do not come in contact with the glass, and make sure that there is no draft in this place.
- Temperature regime . To grow a Christmas star, you need a constant air temperature: during the day + 20 ° C, and at night + 16 ° C, at rest - not more than + 15 ° C constantly.
- Lighting . This light-loving plant, so it needs a lot of light - in spring and summer (during the period of active growth).
- Watering . It is recommended to water it with warm and constant water as the soil dries up, not allowing water to stagnate in the pan. In summer, more abundant watering is required than in winter. Weekly, the leaves are sprinkled with boiled water, but so that the water does not fall on bracts
- Top dressing . The flower should be fed every 2 weeks with nitrogen fertilizers, stopping only for a period of rest.
- Reproduction . Poinsettia reproduces by cuttings obtained after pruning, which can easily be rooted in moist peat or moss, and then transplanted into nutrient soil. Due to the ease of the process of reproduction of the "Christmas star", you can make a wonderful gift in the form of this flower for the next New Year or Christmas.
How and when to trim the "Christmas star"?
During the year, it is recommended that she trim several times:
- after flowering - cut off its branches by half, leaving about 15 cm;
- after transplantation - cutting off weak and superfluous shoots;
- in the period of active growth - to maintain a neat and compact bush, too long and bare stems are cut off.
"Christmas Star": transplantation
This flower needs an annual transplant, which should be carried out in the spring - from April to May.
How correctly to transplant the "Christmas star":
- We take the flower from the pot and gently remove the old earth from the roots.
- We take the same or slightly larger pot, lay the drainage on the bottom and cover it with light soil with a high humus content or make a mixture of turf, peat and sand in the proportion of 3: 1: 1.
- We plant a flower in the prepared pot, put it in a warm sunny room and water it abundantly with warm water.
- When new sprouts of about 15cm height appear, 4-5 strongest should be left, and the rest cut off.
Cropped shoots can be used for reproduction.
How to make the "Christmas star" blossom?
That this flower blossomed on time, namely to the New Year and Christmas, during the autumn (October-November), it must be covered with a black film or a light-proof cardboard box to reduce the light day to 10 hours. And in early December put in
If you do everything right, then by Christmas the bush of the Christmas star will become even more magnificent and will please you with its unusual colors.
The main problem in growing a "Christmas star": the house is that it has fallen leaves. This is due to overabundance of moisture, temperature drops in the room or finding the pot on drafts.
Often, people who bought a Christmas tree flower for winter holidays, for some reason believe that it will not bloom any more, but with the proper care described in our article, it will please its unusual bloom for several years in a row.