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Wait! Don’t Throw Out Your Poinsettia

January 10, 2025 by Tracey Besemer Leave a Comment

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Every year, millions of poinsettias make their way into homes for the holidays—about 35 million poinsettias, to be exact. Unfortunately, every new year, those same poinsettias make their way into the landfill.

Womp, womp.

Poinsettias are viewed as a disposable Christmas decoration but can be a beautiful and easy-to-care-for houseplant for those of us who are in the know.

Before you pitch your poinsettia in the bin, let’s take a look at how easy it is to keep them alive and get them to turn red again next Christmas – for years to come!

Oh sure, it’s sad-looking right now, but trust me, that poinsettia could be your next houseplant obsession.

But, Isn’t It Already Dead?

No, it’s not dead.  

I wonder if we would be so quick to throw away poinsettias if they didn’t drop their leaves at the end of the season?

It’s important to understand a few things about how these plants grow before we jump into caring for them. It helps explain why they look so awful come New Year’s Day.

Poinsettia entering dormant phase

It’s easiest to explain why poinsettias do what they do if you think of it as a tiny tree rather than a charming Christmas plant. Because that’s what they are in the wild. They are small shrubs or trees found in Mexico and Central America. They can sometimes grow to about 15 feet tall.

Like other deciduous trees, they change the color of their leaves before dropping them for the winter.

Let’s talk about those bright red leaves. Okay, they’re probably crunchy and falling on the floor by now, but you know what I mean. The red leaves of poinsettias are a specific type of leaf called a bract. Bracts are specialized leaves whose job is to entice pollinators to the plant.

If you look closely at the center of the cluster of bracts, you’ll find the true flower of a poinsettia. Yes, those tiny little yellow and red cups are actually the flowers. You might even see some pollen.

Close up of poinsettia flowers

The bracts turn red around the time the poinsettia flowers, which coincides with the longer nights and shorter days of winter. They stay that way for a few weeks, long enough for pollination to occur. Then, the bracts naturally die and fall off for the season.

When this happens in our homes, everyone usually assumes the plant is dead or dying.

Okay, sometimes it is dead or dying because we overwater it or we’ve put it in a cold, drafty room. Oops! But if you’ve given it proper care, then it’s only entering the natural dormant period. This means, with a little regular care, your poinsettia will grow again in a few months and produce lots of bracts, ready to join the Christmas festivities the following year.

How to Care for a Poinsettia Post-Holidays

By the time you take your Christmas tree down, your poinsettia will likely be entering its dormant period. (Unless you’re like me and you keep your tree up until February.) Don’t worry; it’s just as worn out from the holidays as you are, so caring for it is super simple.

Clean up dead and fallen leaves and then place the plant where it will receive bright, indirect sunlight. You want the soil to completely dry out before watering it, and then only give it a bit of water. The plant is essentially ‘sleeping,’ so if you give it too much water, the water is just going to sit in the pot and rot the plant.  

Around Easter (Isn’t it nice of this plant to have a growth cycle that coincides with easy to remember holidays?), the plant will need to be pruned and pruned hard. You’re going to cut back all of the past season’s growth to about 6”.

You can start watering normally, always waiting for the soil to dry out between waterings. Poinsettias hate wet feet, so don’t let it sit in standing water. Also, begin feeding your plant with a balanced fertilizer for houseplants each month.

Now is also a great time to ditch that ugly nursery pot and the metallic Christmas pot sleeve (if you haven’t already.) Repot your poinsettia into a quick-draining potting mix, moving up one pot size larger than the one it came in.

Poinsettias are native to Mexico, so they need toasty warm temps and lots of bright, indirect sunlight. That whole ‘indirect’ thing is important; otherwise, you can scorch the tender new leaves. Once temps reach 60 degrees or above at night, you can even move your plant outdoors for the summer.

As the summer progresses, you’ll see lots of new growth.

Don’t be alarmed that it’s all bright lime-green. Just like us, it will put up its decorations in time for the holidays.

In late summer, before evening temps drop below 60, bring your plant back indoors.

Here’s Where Things Get Weird

To get those beautiful deep green leaves and red tops, we’re going to trick the poinsettia into thinking it’s in Central America so that it will get red-y for the holidays. (See what I did there? Sorry. I’ll stop.)

Roughly eight weeks before you want to display your red poinsettia, you’ll need to put your plant to bed early. That’s right. The changing of the seasons – long, dark nights and short days are what trigger the plant to start changing color. We need to trick nature a little to ensure that it coincides with our holiday season.  

You can see a tinge of red on the edge of the bracts as it starts to change color.

We’re going to mimic this change in our homes by putting the plant in a completely dark room (think closet or pantry, somewhere with no windows) early in the evening every day.

You want to ensure the plant receives only ten hours of light a day and 14 hours of total darkness.

If you don’t want to move the plant every day, you can also cover it with a cardboard box or black garbage bags. (Double bag them to ensure they keep out all light.) Whatever you use, it needs to be completely dark without crushing the leaves.

After eight weeks, you can bring the plant out, ready for the holidays.

The Big Benefit of Keeping Your Poinsettia That No One Talks About

Poinsettia at Christmas time

Okay, but it’s so easy to go out and buy a new poinsettia every year. Why would I bother keeping one?

I’ll tell you why.

Stores are notorious for mishandling poinsettias, which means they drop their leaves early or die off halfway through the holidays. Not to mention, if you live in the north, you have to worry about getting your plant home without the cold shocking it, leading to dropped leaves.

If it’s already in your home and receiving your tender loving care, you’re going to end up with a fuller, more colorful poinsettia at Christmas time that will last all the way through the holiday season.

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Filed Under: Christmas Plants

About Tracey Besemer

Tracey is the main contributor and editor in chief of popular gardening website, Rural Sprout. But once that last tomato of the season is picked, she switches to full-on Christmas Nut. Before you can say, “It’s not even Thanksgiving yet!” you’ll find her pulling her Christmas decorations out of the attic. Lover of all things Christmas, a few of her favorites are collecting mid-century Christmas decorations, choosing massive Christmas trees that are too big for her house and wassailing with friends.

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