“A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” – John Keats
I would like to think that beautiful things are timeless. Though the memory of them may be, the actual things eventually wear out and are discarded.
The same is true for plants. They bring us joy, fulfill their life cycles and return to replenish others. However, using the experienced advice from articles such as “How to Keep Poinsettias and Other Holiday Plants Alive After Christmas,” written by Penn State Master Gardeners of Lancaster County, (www.lancasteronline.com), there are steps that can be taken to extend the lives of various beautiful plants that were enjoyed in December.
The amaryllis (Hippeastrum spp) is a perennial bulb, whose hybrids offer stunning red, pink, salmon, orange, white or creamy yellow blooms emerging from green strap-shaped leaves. With care, it can be made to rebloom.
After the bloom has faded, the website suggests trimming the flowering stalk to a few inches above the bulb. Do not cut off or damage the leaves because they are needed to make enough food to store in the bulb for it to flower again later in the year.
Keep the soil barely moist and give the plant direct sunlight and indoor temperatures of about 60 degrees.
In spring, move the plant to dappled sunlight in a southern exposure and begin fertilizing it regularly with liquid fertilizer once a month to grow leaves. It can be placed outside in a partly sunny location in summer and watered daily if there are warm spells.
In early fall, withhold water to help the plant go dormant and be sure to bring the bulb indoors before the first frost. After about a month, the soil and foliage will be dried out. Take the bulb from the pot, shake off the excess soil, remove dead leaves and store it in a cold dark place at 50 to 55 degrees for about eight to 10 weeks, depending on the variety.
Then, take it out of the pot, “revive it” by repotting it in fresh potting soil, put it in a warm spot, and resume watering, sparingly at first. Once the new growth starts, increase the amount of water. New flowers should appear within 5 to 8 weeks.
Paperwhite daffodils (Narcissus papyraceus) are also perennial bulbs, with delicate white and strongly fragrant flowers. These are usually started indoors in autumn in water and forced into bloom around the winter holidays. I was fortunate to receive these bulbs, grown at Longwood Gardens, from a friend in mid-December and they bloomed beautifully about one month later.
Unfortunately, paperwhites are usually added to compost once their beauty fades, which is a good reason to refresh my supply again this fall.
David Deardorff and Kathryn Wadsworth, authors of “What’s Wrong With My Houseplant,” offer helpful tips about caring for the Christmas cactus (Schlumbergera truncata). This is a true cactus, but also a tropical evergreen with lovely 3-inch tubular flowers in shades of either white, scarlet, pink, purple, orange or yellow.
The Christmas cactus prefers bright filtered light. Average house temperatures and humidity are acceptable, but it is important to avoid drafts and rapid temperature changes. Buds can drop off if the plant is too cold, over-watered or doesn’t have enough light.
I purchased gorgeous cactus plants with salmon-colored buds. However, I relocated them after a cold trip in the car. That proved too much and many of the flower buds never developed.
I water these only when the soil feels dry to the touch, and I drain excess water from the plant. I also fertilize them by using a liquid fertilizer. Deardorff and Wadsworth say to apply the fertilizer at half-strength every other week in spring and summer and once a month in fall and winter. Also, the cacti would prefer to be pot-bound and like high humidity.
In about early September, place the plants in a room that has a window but no artificial light. If the indoor temperature is 55 to 70 degrees, in about nine weeks buds should begin to appear.
At last, we arrive at the poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima), a perennial favorite. This tropical evergreen shrub prefers bright filtered light, ample water when the top of the potting soil becomes dry and once-a-month fertilizer to promote flowering. A common question is how to make poinsettias rebloom.
For this answer, I relied on a friend, Thelma Homan, who lives in a rural part of Pennsylvania Furnace. She has had repeated success having her poinsettias rebloom each December without putting them in a closet.
When I asked her the secret, she confided that she first places the plants out on her rear screened-in porch in the spring where they get nice bright light, but “not hard afternoon sun” during the summer months.
As the days shorten, she said they are left out on the porch at night, where the neighbors don’t have a light. (Her home backs up to a farm with horses.) Therefore, it’s very dark.
“Then in the fall,” she continued, “when I see some color coming, I bring them in.” From then on, they spend their time in a brightly lit room until they are in full bloom. This is how Homan naturally creates the 10 weeks of uninterrupted darkness the plants need to create new blooms.
For those who can’t duplicate the conditions needed to keep poinsettias in pitch black darkness to initiate flowering, there is another answer: Simply propagate new ones from stem tip cuttings taken in July and grow them in the shade.
It’s easy to say that, but it is actually not that easy to do. Just like for Homan, it will take patience and lots of trial and error.
