pointsettia drying up after pruning

[Sam]

hi there, i tried pruning away the leaves from my pointsettia left over from christmas. the plant consisted of 5 stalks with large leaves (green/red) at top and some small buds lower down. i made the cuts around an inch higher than each bud.

the buds developed into leaves 5mm across while the incision points started drying up.

now a month later the "drying" has progressed an inch downward along the stalk, and shrivalled the new leaves too.

only 1 stalk still has leaves. these have grown a bit.

what went wrong?should i have made the incision higher up? did i amputate too many of the original leaves and maybe the plant went into shock?

thanks, Sam

[Tom Randy]

Hmmmmm, did you keep the soil moist during the recovery period? I usually prune 1/4 inch above a leaf node personally with just about all plants. I also provide bright light but no direct sun for the first month or so.

Normally, what is done is you trim the whole plant back about a half way and repot.

[Sam]

did i prune too much? here is a link to a small pic of the plant

[Tom Randy]

The plant looks shot to me. Prune the branches back about half way just above a leaf node, keep it in bright light, no sun and keep the soil moist for the next month or so. No fertilzer. If you see no new leaves emerg after a month or month and a half toss it.