By KAREN MADORIN
A post-Christmas challenge our house involves seeing how long I can keep each seasonal poinsettia alive. Part of this has to do with childhood memories as well as serving as a winter doldrum challenge.
Considering poinsettias aren’t native to Kansas or to living indoors adds to the project’s difficulty. Ten years ago, I kept one growing 'til the following Christmas before I finally gave up on it looking once again like a store model.
Poinsettias originated in Mexico and Central America where they grow up to 13 feet tall on the Pacific side of the map. According to sources, Aztecs called them cuetlaxóchitl. Later, due to their bright red leaves, some termed them “flame flower or painted leaf.”
Once the first U.S. Mexican Consul Joel Poinsett began collecting them in his South Caroline greenhouse somewhere around 1826, the term poinsettia entered American usage.
Native people utilized the red leaves to make dye, and in traditional medicine practice, healers utilized the plant to lower fevers.
Once Spanish priests arrived in the New World, they noted the brilliant colors prominent during Christmastide and decorated their churches with them. A Mexican folk tale relays the story of a poor native girl who wanted to leave an offering at the creche. She gathered a handful of weeds which happened to be poinsettias and thus began a Christmas tradition that continues.
Anyone who’s seen poinsettias growing wild knows they’re not truly house plants. Gone native, they’re tall, scraggly forbs or trees with thick stems and sparse leaves—green or red.
A previous owner of my childhood southern California home planted a row along the house’s north wall. When we moved in in mid-summer, we couldn’t identify them so my curious mom waited to see what happened over that first year. Sure enough, around December we had taller-than-our-roof poinsettias turning anemic red because without special care, they don’t brighten the way you see them in a store. By the time we left that house, they towered a foot over our roof top.
Christmas displays of these lead buyers to think that the red star-shape is the plant’s flower, but they’re actually leaves. The tiny, yellow barely-noticeable blossoms hide in the center of that scarlet field.
I’m guessing five years of watching wild poinsettias bloom each year led my grandma, mom, and I to attempt to keep Christmas centerpieces alive as long as possible. Mom and Grandma succeeded more often than I at babying finicky shrubs pretending to be Christmas decor.
Over time, I’ve learned you can’t over water or these plants suffer root rot. If you underwater, the green leaves curl and fall off.
As finicky as they are, they enjoy fertilizing once a month. Modern cultivars need to be pruned so research those guidelines. Who wants a poinsettia touching the ceiling?
If you keep it alive through September, investigate light requirements to guarantee a festive red and green plant dressed in its best for Christmas.
Looking back, Mom and Grandma had the patience to work with these plants. Apparently, that gene didn’t fully pass on. My current poinsettia is down to only red leaves. When those start falling, that weed’s scoring 2 points when it hits the trash bin.
Karen Madorin is a retired teacher, writer, photographer, outdoors lover, and sixth-generation Kansan.