Hello! Let it snow . . . Let it snow . . . Let it snow . . . Enough already! Well, here we are into the final stretch. And winter doesn’t officially arrive until tomorrow! And that’s a stretch!

At any rate, let’s talk about a really popular Christmas plant. The following information comes from Charlie Mazza from Cornell University.

The poinsettia, the Euphorbia pulcherrima, is the most common plant gift of the Christmas season. It’s colorful, traditional, and looks like it should be tough enough to withstand any conditions in the home. Some people assume that it will last for months in the home environment, but it’s all in the care you give it. Care for it properly, and the poinsettia will give weeks of color and pleasure to all of your visiting friends and family. Keep in mind – the poinsettia is a perennial with proper care. It becomes a short-lived annual when it doesn’t get the proper care, and is dumped into the garbage either right after Christmas or after it drops its leaves and bracts – whichever comes first!

But let’s face it - it can be challenging to keep poinsettias alive and healthy under normal house conditions. Many homes are kept entirely too hot, causing the air to dry out and the leaves to drop. Occasionally the plant was fertilized in the greenhouse only minimally. Or the plant may have gotten a draft in the store where it was sold. If the plant already had leaves with a yellowish cast to them when you received it, then it will not last long into the winter. Often the red, white or pink bracts (often thought of as the flower itself) will stay on the plant longer than the green leaves.

Perhaps the most important thing you need to care about is proper watering. Keep in mind - the plant was grown in a commercial greenhouse in its pot, with a sophisticated watering system and trained greenhouse workers who watered it properly. Then it was sent off to the retail market for sale.

If it stayed at the retail market more than a few days, it probably got watered a little less than perfectly. After all it’s the holiday sales season and shopkeepers are all busy. And then this beautiful poinsettia was sold in a colorful foil wrap around the pot to make it more attractive as a gift. Here is where the problems really begin.

Every time after that when it was watered, the excess water was trapped inside that colorful foil around the pot. So the first thing you need to do to care for your holiday Christmas poinsettia is remove the foil. Set it on a plastic tray or ceramic dish to protect your furniture or windowsill.

Keep the soil damp but not sopping wet. The dampness should feel cool to the touch. Lift up the pot after you have watered it. Take note of the weight of the pot with freshly watered soil. The weight will get lighter as the water is absorbed by the plant roots, but there reaches a point when it gets so light weight that is noticeable. It almost feels like a feather when it is dry. At that point, too, the soil actually has changed color from the dark (almost) black color of wet soil to a medium brown color of dry soil.

You never want the soil to get to that light weight, medium brown colored soil. That would be under-watering it. And you never want the soil to always be that heavy weight, dark (almost) black colored soil. That would be over-watering it. Somewhere in between is best.

Of course, that comes with experience to know what that "in-between" feel and color is like. How do you get that experience? Get in the habit of feeling the soil every day. Once you have removed that colored foil around the pot, it will be easier to get your finger down there to feel the top of the soil.

That damp feel should be as uniform as possible each day. Catch it before it starts going dry, but if you always have that cold, wet feel, then the plant roots are so stressed with all that extra water surrounding them that they begin to go into a kind of shock. That may be when you start seeing lower leaves drop off from over-watering. They may or may not turn yellow before they drop off. You may even see the flowers and leaves drooping, looking like they are wilted.

Interestingly enough lower leaves also drop off if you let the soil get too dry. Flowers and leaves can droop when they are under-watered, too. In fact, that's when they really are wilted. What you see (yellow leaves, dropped leaves, drooping or wilting) all looks the same to the untrained eye, but the cause could be as different as too much water or too little water. Only you will know which it is.

So, whenever you do water the plant, water it thoroughly until the water drips out of the holes at the bottom of the pot. That's what the holes are there for. Most people take the poinsettia to the kitchen sink to water it properly. If you water the plant with the pot sitting in its tray or dish on that living room end table, then you will know that it’s almost impossible to give the plant a thorough watering when you are more worried about spilling onto the furniture or getting the water into the pot evenly.

Now how often should you water? This is the difficult part. One size – one routine – does not fit all! Some homes are kept warmer than others. Sometimes you move the plant to a warmer or cooler spot for display. Displaying it in a window might be different from displaying it in a dark corner of the room. Sometimes the door opens more often over the holidays putting the poinsettia in a draft. You’re just have to monitor the plant for yourself and figure out how often it needs water -- by touching the soil, observing the color of the planting mix, and how heavy the pot feels.

You are probably saying right about now that you can't win. But you can. The majority of poinsettia caretakers at home do get it right. They do win the game of proper watering. Not too wet, not too dry, just right - in-between.

And let’s hope that this Christmas is not too wet – not too dry – but just right! Merry Christmas to you and all those you love!

Remember – Eat Smart New York!

And – Bye – Talk to you soon!
D