The Festive Divas: Poinsettias

Decorating your home for the winter holiday, indoors and out, will add to the ambiance and beauty of the season. While fresh evergreen boughs and garlands are best suited outdoors in Mother Nature’s cooler, indoor décor doesn’t have to be just faux garlands and artificial trees – unless that makes your heart sing.  In your home, décor can also be fresh and natural by focusing on potted, seasonal houseplants.

You may purchase or be gifted a Poinsettia, but does it thrive in your home?  Probably not.  They are pretty little divas in the world of indoor seasonal plants.  Liking an environment that is neither too hot nor too cold, they require a brightly lit location without any fluctuations of temperature, including no cold drafts or bursts of hot air. Setting a Poinsettia on the hearth of a working fireplace looks great in a magazine, but it is not a practical location for this live plant. Water your Poinsettia as needed (touch the soil to determine) but pop it out of the cover pot or wrapper to ensure it is not sitting in excess water.  What. a. diva!  They are the true floral representative of the holiday, so do enjoy a pretty Poinsettia displayed here and there throughout your home, but also give yourself permission to compost it once the holiday is over; it is not usually a plant worth saving and stressing over.  

Cyclamen are gaining popularity as a nice flowering, potted alternative.  Loving a cool, but brightly lit room, they tend to bloom throughout November and into early Spring.  At the garden centre, do peek between the foliage of the plant to ensure the one you take home is full of newly forming buds.  Weak, floppy leaves and extended blooms on a cyclamen is an indicator of being placed in a location that is too warm.  Water  a cyclamen as needed, erring on the side of dry soil.  In the Spring, cyclamen enjoy cool temps outdoors and can be integrated into your window boxes or small pots to accompany pretty pansies.

Other seasonal potted plants include easy-care mini Cypress trees and Norfolk pines along with white-tipped frosty ferns. Alone, or planted together, all of these options create fresh and beautiful indoor decor for the holidays.

By Vikki Whitney,
Owner of Griffin’s Greenhouses
705-652-8638 or 1-877-647-4334
www.griffinsgreenhouses.com