The author, John Marek, is a writer and executive director of the Anson Economic Development Partnership.
Perhaps you received it as a hostess gift, or maybe you bought it yourself to brighten up the house for the holidays; a Norfolk Island pine, rosemary topiary, Christmas cactus, amaryllis or poinsettia. If you are like 90 percent of people who buy these plants, the minute the holiday decorations come down they will be headed to that great compost bin in the sky. That’s really a shame because most of them make great year-round houseplants, and with a little care can provide many years of enjoyment.
First, a couple of caveats:
The businesses that grow and market Christmas plants fully understand most people are buying them as an extended cut-flower arrangement. Their efforts go into getting them to bloom at the correct time and stay relatively fresh and attractive-looking for the five or six weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. This impacts the way the plants are potted, fertilized and transported, and even the specific varieties grown. Very little thought or effort goes into the long-term health and vitality of the plant, so keeping them alive past January can be an uphill battle.
Also, Christmas plants are often displayed in discount stores and convenience marts or in parts of home and garden stores where plants are not generally sold, so the employees are often clueless about how to maintain them. You can pretty much assume that a plant bought from a temporary rack at the front of a Walgreens has been stressed by too much or too little water and insufficient light; possibly beyond the point of recovery.
Generally speaking, if you are going to buy a plant from a “nontraditional” seller, it is better to get it toward the beginning of the season. A few days before Christmas, stores will begin selling these plants at a deep discount, but you need to be extremely careful about buying something that has been sitting in a dimly-lit aisle, likely without water, since Thanksgiving.
Poinsettia
Of the five plants we are discussing today, poinsettias are the least likely to survive into the next year. A colleague whose thumb is at least two shades greener than mine is able to keep them alive, but it’s hard work and getting them to bloom again is hit-and-miss. Honestly, it’s probably more trouble than it’s worth, but here goes …
If you are planning to keep your poinsettias, the first thing you need to do when you bring them home – and this is a good idea for other seasonal plants, as well – is re-pot them. The soil mixture used to grow plants for the holidays is designed for fast growth in carefully maintained greenhouse conditions. It is not intended as a long-term growing medium. Use a high-quality potting soil that drains well while retaining moisture, or make your own by combining equal parts peat moss, compost and vermiculite. Poinsettias are tropicals and require lots of light and water, so keep your plant in a sunny window and water whenever the top of the soil feels dry. In a house with dry winter air, you will need to water frequently; at least two or three times per week.
In the spring, start cutting back on the water and move the plant to a cooler location like a basement or garage. As summer approaches, cut the stems back two to three inches and add a bit of organic fertilizer – I like Espoma Plant-Tone – every couple of weeks. Once the temperature reaches the mid-70s during the day and doesn’t drop below the mid-50s at night, move the plant outdoors to a partially-shaded location. Continue to water and fertilize. Around the Fourth of July, pinch each stem back an inch to promote balanced growth. By mid-August, you should see significant new growth. Pinch these new stems back a half-inch in late August.
Now, here’s the tricky part. Poinsettia blooms are triggered by the length of the day. In their native habitat, they bloom after eight to 10 weeks getting less than 10 hours of light. If you do the math, you will realize that poinsettias don’t naturally bloom at Christmas. To force the blooms, place the plant in complete darkness for 14 hours each day, beginning in early October. By late November or early December you should see new buds. Once these appear, you can leave the plant in a sunny window full-time, and if the poinsettia-gods are smiling, you will have beautiful new blooms in time for Christmas.
Rosemary
We go from the most difficult plant to keep alive after the holidays to the easiest. Rosemary is really a small shrub, a fact that is lost on most non-gardeners until the Christmas season when they are often sold as topiaries cut to the shape of Christmas trees. If you are planning to keep your rosemary as a houseplant, re-pot it as soon as possible after the holidays using a good quality potting soil. Rosemary requires full sun, but is drought-tolerant, so you can let the soil dry out just a bit between waterings. Do not allow the roots to sit in water. In many climates, including here in the North Carolina Piedmont, rosemary will grow as a perennial outdoors. If this is your intent, simply transplant into your herb garden or landscape bed right after the holidays.
Christmas cactus
A Christmas cactus really is a cactus, although it bears little resemblance to what we traditionally think of as cacti. Native to the coastal mountains of Brazil, they grow wild on trees or rocks with very little soil, poor light,and high humidity. They were first cultivated as exotic houseplants in the 19th century and became associated with Christmas in the United States because they are relatively easy to force into bloom in the late fall. After the holidays, re-pot using a soil that drains well. The commercially available “succulent” soils are okay, or mix equal parts compost, sand and peat moss. Place the pot on a small saucer filled with gravel and water, refilling the water on a regular basis. This will help keep the plant moist. Water frequently, allowing the soil to drain completely. The plant will thrive in moderate light, but like the poinsettia requires extended periods of darkness to bloom. For Christmas blooms, place the plant in complete darkness for 14 hours each day beginning in mid-October. Having said all that, my mother had a Christmas cactus that grew to the size of a large beach ball over a period of 10 years and routinely bloomed in late December without any special treatment whatsoever.
Norfolk Island pine
The very first houseplant I purchased with my own money was a Norfolk Island pine. It was about six inches tall and I bought it from a display near the front entrance of the Woolworths in the Sandusky Mall circa 1977. That tree grew to be two feet tall in my south-facing bedroom window and thrived until I went off to college and my mother apparently neglected to water it. Since then, I have bought many “Christmas” Norfolk pines and have yet to recreate the success of that first one. It’s a plant that I seem to have difficulty keeping alive much past the holidays, despite doing “all the right things.” And here’s the reason; remember how I said growers are more concerned with the plants looking good for six weeks than they are with long-term viability? It turns out that many growers spray these trees with a green colorant to make them more attractive in the stores, and this interferes with the ability of the plant to photosynthesize food over the long term, essentially starving it. So, be aware that the odds may be against you on this one, and that the first thing you should do if you are planning to keep a Norfolk Island pine is to give it a good washing, preferably outdoors where you can really spray it well. Norfolk Island pines are one of the few plants that respond very well to being misted with cool water rather than room temperature water.
The Norfolk Island pine is native to, well … Norfolk Island, which is located off the coast of Australia. They are an ancient species that would be very at home in Jurassic Park. The trees grow especially well in high-humidity environments, so frequently misting them is important for their overall health. Norfolk Island pines should be watered every week during the summer months so that the soil is kept moist. During the winter months, however, the soil should be allowed to dry out completely before the tree is watered again.The pines grow best in cool daytime temperatures and indirect sunlight, but cannot be grown outdoors in the United States; too cold in the winter in the North and too hot in the summer in the South. When placed in a window, the plant should be rotated periodically so that all sides get equal light and the plant grows uniformly. This is important because these pines do not tolerate pruning.
Amaryllis
Amaryllis are sometimes available at the holidays as a potted plant, but are more commonly sold as a bulb, sometimes with a kit that includes a pot and soil mix. They are available in many colors – white, pink, peach, red and bi-colors – and the trumpet-shaped lowers can be single (a single set of petals) or double (several sets of petals to create a ruffled or fuller appearance). The growing kits are generally a plastic pot that is too small and an insufficient amount of peat moss, so it is better to buy the bulb and provide your own container and potting mix.
Amaryllis flower stalks can grow to two feet high, so a deeper clay or ceramic pot will help provide stability for the plant. Amaryllis bulbs do not like to be overwatered or sit in wet soil, so be sure to pick a pot with drain holes and use a soil that drains well. The standard equal parts peat moss, compost and vermiculite works fine. Plant the bulbs pointy side up, to a depth that the neck of the bulb is just at the soil surface. The bulb does not need to be buried deeply in the pot.
It generally takes four to six weeks for blooms to emerge, so in order to have plants blooming during the holiday season, plant the bulbs in late October, or early November, at the latest. To have plants blooming at different times throughout the Christmas season, plant a few bulbs each week in late October through early November.
Amaryllis bulbs will bloom for several years with the proper care. Native to the tropics, they are strictly a houseplant in most of the United States, and can only be grown outdoors in areas where there is no winter frost. As a houseplant, after flowering, cut down spent flower spikes to the base, but keep the leaves growing by careful watering and regular application of a balanced fertilizer. Place the bulbs in their pots near a sunny window or in the greenhouse. Some varieties will bloom again before going dormant. Once the leaves have started to shrivel, cut back on the watering and remove the dead leaves. This dormant stage will last until the next blooming season when you start the process all over again.