Reblooming a Poinsettia

I got this poinsettia from a Christmas party in 2007 and decided to try my hand at reblooming a poinsettia. I didn't do so hot last year because I was gone a lot traveling in the fall. Well, my mother in law took pretty good care of it and it did grow some little red bracts. They were kind of dinky looking, but it was good for our first try!

Anyway, then we moved, and it survived, but looked kind of damaged. Then Vince ripped a bunch of the brances and leaves off back in January/February after we had moved. I wish I had a picture of what it looked like back then. Poor little plant.

So I've been taking very good care of it recently, and it is very full and bushy. I'm hoping that I will be able to rebloom it this year. I'm fully prepared to do what it takes, and living in California we have pretty much just the right conditions. It needs lots of sunlight, and we're getting lots of sunlight.

It's really not that hard to keep a poinsettia alive. You just treat it like any other houseplant. And contrary to popular belief, poinsettias are most definitely not poisonous. The white milky substance that comes out when the leaves are broken off will cause an allergic reaction in people who are allergic to latex.

After I rebloom my poinsettia this year, I'll start posting a "how-to" guide for reblooming your poinsettia, based on what I have done. There are a lot of good websites, as well. Just google "reblooming a poinsettia" or something similar.

Hopefully I'll be posting pictures of my rebloomed poinsettia in a few months!