drh146
Cool Member
Posts: 89
Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2012 1:27 am
Location: New Bern, NC

poinsettia resuscitation

I was given a very bad looking poinsettia to try to bring back to health. Just a month ago it was in very good shape. But a few wrong decision made it take a turn for the worse. Its definately too wet, so ive got a fan on it trying to dry it out a bit. It was just repotted a couple weeks ago, then overwatered (I suspect), the cut back some. Then the remaining leaves fell off.

Image

now I have it. Can anyone offer anything else I can do ?(cut back, repot again, etc) I will be very thankful if you could, as I'm afraid to cut it back with out someone with knowledge saying its worth a try.

imafan26
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Posts: 13961
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

I'd make sure it isn't over watered. It is pretty cut back now. Here we normally would cut back poinsettias in April and again in August to get it to bloom for Christmas. Light needs to be reduced after the August for about 6 weeks to trick the plant into blooming at Christmas. Otherwise it wants to bloom in March.

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rainbowgardener
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Posts: 25279
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

It's not looking to good, but I did save one that was in about as bad shape and is now thriving. I didn't do anything special to it, just put it in a big container in a pretty shady spot. But poinsettias really do need to dry out thoroughly between waterings. They thrive on benign neglect, which is what I gave it.



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