One of my poinsettias with fading leaves. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

“…saw you taking several sale poinsettias home. Mine are fading. What did I do wrong?” — Mary

Poinsettias Fading

Hi Mary,

Yes, it can be tricky buying plants on sale but that rarely stops me. If you know what you are buying, and have a little patience, you can continue to enjoy them, especially poinsettias.

Don’t know if you heard me but I insisted as I was checking out that the poinsettias be covered in plastic before I took them outside. Poinsettias are not only from a tropical zone but are raised in greenhouses. They are not acclimated to our colder mid-Missouri temperatures. At all.

When taking them outside, they need to be protected if exposed to 60F and below. I also left them in the store and pulled the car as close to them as I could, wrapping them in a blanket to move them from the store to the warm car.

If you didn’t do that, being exposed to cold can shock them and make them easily drop leaves. Keep them in a warm spot off the cold floor and they should adjust after a few days. Some of the colored bracts may be normally turning yellow and dropping so give them time to adjust.

Secondly, when choosing your poinsettia, look for the tiny yellow flowers in the center. The bracts that provide the color are actually leaves. If you find some that still have little yellow flowers in the center, that poinsettia is going to last longer than one with the center flowers faded and gone.

These are the small yellow poinsettia flowers in the center. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Nothing wrong with ones that are faded like this one, it just means the plant is farther along in its development and may loose its leaves earlier than one that is still in bloom.

This Pure Glow poinsettia no longer has tiny yellow flowers in the center. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Where you place your poinsettia once home is important. You want them in indirect light where they are warm so they can get used to their new conditions. Even close proximity to a window can be too cold for them so I place mine towards the center of a room.

Also don’t place them on the floor unless you know the spot is warm. If you can place them on a raised area like something with castors or even a container with legs, that should keep them away from cold. I moved one poinsettia from a coffee table to the center of another room on the floor and watched them drop leaves over two days. Moved back to their original spot, the leaves stopped falling and they are now growing new ones. Very sensitive to changes in temperature!

I have severals baskets of on sale poinsettias now adjusting to their new spots. I remove the dropped leaves to compost and check that their soil is moist; not too wet and not dry. Often times poinsettias get too much water and that causes them to drop leaves. Check the soil moisture before watering by placing a finger in the soil on the plant edge.

Once spring arrives and all danger of frost is over, mine will get slowly settled outside in shade and trimmed back so they will grow bushy again.

I remember them in Mexico, their native habitat where they can grow the size of small Missouri dogwood trees. Yes, I have some thought of trying to grow at least one into a larger plant.