flowers/poiensettas

[mclark04]

I live in Florida (transplant form the North) and last year planted my Christman poiensettas in the yard where they got sun and grew tall. At one point I cut them back and planted the tops also. They continued to grow but by November lost leaves and some did get red but tall and spindly.

I have since cut them back low and am ready to plant the fresh plants I got this year. Can you please tell me exactly how to take care of these beautiful plants which I know can grow well here in the Tampa area if given the proper care. Thanks for any help

[Cereus-validus]

Do a google search using "Poinsettia" as your key word. Thre are hundreds of websites with info on how to take care of them.

In Tampa, you probably can plant them in the ground and forget about them. Your only concern would be cutting them back when the bushes get too big.

[Pam - gardengal]

And keep in mind that those planted in the ground will seldom resemble very closely the plants you can buy in the stores at Christmas time. Those plants have been grown in greenhouses and fed a lot of fertilizer and growth hormones to bloom at an early age on small, compact plants. In the garden they will grow tall and rather spindly and not often look as lush as the Christmas plants.

[Cereus-validus]

I don't know about that. The modern Poinsettia cultivars are polyploid monsters that bear little resemblance to the original wild Euphorbia pulcherrima or the hybrids of the past that your grandmother grew. Full grown plants of the modern hybrids should be rather stout and stocky growing shrubs. The original wild E.pulcherrima in Mexico is a rather graceful looking tuberous rooted shrub in comparison. The little-known closely allied white flowered shrub Euphorbia cornastra (the "Dogwood Poinsettia") may have played a part in breeding the modern cultivars, especially in producing the new colors. Poinsettia breeders never disclose the actual parentage.

[no one]

At last the truth...

[Cereus-validus]

The truth is that you play with donkey dorks at petting zoos, Jacko.

I was being facetious, you mudder farkle.

If you weren't such a hateful troll, you wouldn't have deleted the actual reply that followed.