Poinsettias are often staged near the entry and exit of grocery stores, big box retailers, and our favorite department store as impulse buys. A little holiday music, and suddenly, poof, there's one in the cart. 

I love poinsettias, and they are certainly a holiday staple and a symbol of the season. But is there a way to enjoy them again, or are we doomed to huck them in the trash (or, hopefully, compost) when January rolls around?

What are Poinsettias?

Poinsettias are tropical plants originally from Mexico and Central America. We love them for their bright red and green colors, but their blooms aren't really flowers at all, but colored leaves called bracts. No matter, we can still say they are in bloom if we like. The actual flowers are the tiny yellow structures you'll see at the center of a group of red bracts.

In their natural range, poinsettias can become a woody shrub up to ten feet tall or more. We know them as potted plants, and while they were formerly only available in one color, poinsettias can now be found in red, white, pink, orange, or even multicolor blooms.

Poinsettias bloom in response to shorter daylight length, or more correctly, longer periods of darkness. They will focus on green growth during the longer days of summer.  The longer nights of approaching winter trigger a change to flowering and reproduction.

When kept healthy and happy, poinsettias can live for years and, if you provide the conditions they need (see below), can rebloom year after year.

Is it Dead Already?

It's perfectly normal for poinsettias to start dropping their red bracts and leaves. Flowering plants drop their petals after the flower has been pollinated and start focusing their effort on developing the seeds. Poinsettias do the same thing. Since the bracts are part of the overall flower structure, away they go. 

Poinsettias will begin dropping their bracts and their green leaves, but that doesn't mean the plant is dead. It's just getting ready to slow down and rest for the remainder of the winter. Blooming is hard work.

Of course, if you haven't watered it in the past few weeks, it could actually be drying up, but if the potting media is slightly damp, there is no cause for worry. However, if the stems are shriveled and brittle, it's time to compost them.

How to Keep Poinsettias Alive

Like all plants, poinsettias need sunlight, water, and the proper temperature. When you get it home, follow these steps.

• Remove the foil wrapper from the pot, if it came with one. The foil is festive, but it prevents proper drainage. Any excess water will remain trapped in the foil, and the plant will, in effect, be sitting in a pond.

• Choose an appropriate spot for display. Poinsettias like 65-70℉ best, but normal room temperatures are fine. They should not be located touching cold window glass, too close to a furnace vent, or in drafty areas, such as near an exterior door.

• Poinsettias like light and are grown in a greenhouse with lots of it. While they will be fine with a few hours of light per day for a while, avoid placing them in a dark corner. Six hours of indirect light per day is perfect, but a sunny east, south, or west-facing window will be fine. Depending on your location, south and west-facing windows may be a bit too bright. If that's your chosen spot, sit them back a bit from the window, so they get light but aren't directly in the midday sunshine.

• Remember to water it. Poinsettias are easy to forget to water. Sitting on a table or countertop, they seem just another part of our holiday decorations. Check the potting medium with your finger, and if it feels dry, water it. You can also lift the pot to feel the weight. Water it well, then lift it to get a sense of how heavy it is. When the pot feels quite a bit lighter, it's time. If the plant has started to wilt, you've waited much too long.

• Avoid overwatering. Just like other plants, too much water is a bad thing. Saturated soil limits gas exchange in the root zone and also encourages the fungal pathogens that cause root rot. The poinsettia should never sit in water or waterlogged soil.

• No fertilizer is needed during the holiday season. However, if your poinsettia will be kept around for next year, you'll eventually need to start fertilizing it (see below).

Lastly, it's a good idea to repot your poinsettia if you plan to keep it. When poinsettias are grown in huge greenhouses, they're often grown in a heavy peat mixture, which can dry out at home and be hard to rehydrate.

Professional growers choose peat because it helps the plant survive a bit of neglect during shipping, marketing, and bringing it home. It's hard to overwater, since the drainage is fast, and the peat will hold some moisture, making a forgetful store employee or future plant owner less likely to prematurely kill the plant if they forget to water for a couple of days. Dig your finger down and take a look at the medium the plant is potted up in. If it's pure peat (often looks like moss), you'll want to repot it. 

Repotting Poinsettias

Repotting a poinsettia you've brought home is no more difficult than repotting any other houseplant. It's a task that can wait until after the holidays if you are vigilant about checking their water, but there's no reason to delay unless you are enjoying the container the plant came in.

1. Select a new pot with open drainage holes that is about an inch larger in diameter than the current container the poinsettia is in. 

2. Remove the poinsettia from its current pot, and inspect the roots. Trim off any that are mushy, slimy, or dark brown to black. 

3. Using fresh, clean potting mix, start filling the bottom of the pot. No need for gravel or rocks, that's an old gardening myth we can't seem to shake. 

4. Place the poinsettia in its new pot, pouring more potting mix around the rootball and gently firming it with your fingers as you go. You want to eliminate any air pockets, but not press so firmly that you compact the soil and make it hard.

5. When finished, the poinsettia's root ball should be at the same level as the fresh potting mix, and there should be about an inch of space between the top of the potting mix and the pot rim. That will give you room to water without overflowing.

6. Gently water the new container. If water flows out the bottom of the pot, that's enough.

How to get poinsettias to rebloom next year

A healthy poinsettia will rebloom again the next year, if conditions are right. Getting our poinsettias to bloom next December means keeping them healthy and growing all spring, summer, and fall. And in late autumn, you'll need to adjust its lighting conditions to trigger a new season of blooms.

Late Winter

In winter and early spring, provide light and water (check soil moisture with your finger) as you would any other houseplant. Remember to keep them away from cold drafts. Wait to fertilize until you begin to see new growth, or about March, whichever comes first. A monthly or twice-a-month balanced 10-10-10 NPK fertilizer will be fine; dilute it in your watering can when you water. 

If stems are leggy or bare, they can be cut back to 4-6 inches to encourage new, bushy growth, but it isn't necessary. 

Summer

In spring and early summer, your poinsettia will be all green. Pinching the new growing tips will keep the poinsettia more compact and bushy, just as it does for other plants. If you don't pinch it, you may end up with a larger, gangly plant, not the compact mass of foliage you purchased the year before. 

Provide monthly fertilizer and a warm, sunny spot. It's perfectly okay to move your poinsettia outdoors for the summer, once temperatures have warmed up. Remember to adjust watering frequency as needed. They'll likely use more water outdoors than they did inside during the winter and spring.

Autumn

As we get into autumn, remember that poinsettias are tropical plants and won't tolerate any frost or freezing temperatures. They mostly stop growing below about 50℉. Pull your poinsettia indoors and pamper it like a beloved houseplant. Now we're about to enter the slightly tricky part.

Poinsettias won't flower unless they are exposed to the right amount of darkness every day. You'll need to simulate that for reliable blooming. Of particular importance are two things: the duration of the dark periods, and that they are total darkness. Poinsettias need 12-14 hours per day of uninterrupted darkness (not even a night light or dusty ray from a dirty bathroom window). 

Poinsettias need this dark-light cycle for 8-10 weeks to trigger blooming and bract formation. If you start in late September or early October, you'll have a poinsettia coming into full bloom in early December, just in time for the holidays. Begin a little earlier if you'd like to have it for Thanksgiving. 

Achieving the right dark and light cycle for poinsettias

Moving plants into and out of a closet or constructing elaborate light boxes isn’t practical for most of us. Instead, try the below method.

• Set a timer to turn a plant grow light on for 10-12 hours each day. 

• Place the poinsettia and the grow light in a very dark spot, like that basement bathroom that doesn't have a window.

• Make sure the darkness is complete, not just hard to see. A streetlight shining in a window, a nightlight, or even a lot of light coming in from the gap below the door can be enough to slow or stop the process. 

• Continue watering regularly whenever the soil feels slightly dry to the touch. Cut the fertilizer back a bit, using half the amount as before.

• In late November, or after at least 8 weeks of the extended darkness period, bring the poinsettia back out and set it in your display location, where it should get 6 hours or more of indirect light each day, and enjoy.