Festive Flower, Plant Care, Left Over Mash Ups & Strictly Charm

Taken from Lynne’s weekly column ‘Green Scene’ for the Western Mail
17^th December 2022

Festive Flower

The number one plant, or ‘flower’ associated with Christmas is apparently the Poinsettia, with around 8 million being sold at each festive season in the UK. The number one question I was always asked when I worked in a florists was, “Can I plant it out in the garden after Christmas?” Yes you can but whilst theoretically it’s possible to get a Poinsettia to bloom again, it requires a lot of effort and the plant rarely looks as impressive as it did in the first year.

The large colourful ‘flowers’ of the poinsettia are in fact leaves, called bracts. The flowers are actually the tiny yellow berry-like structures at the centre of each leaf bract, which are called cyathia.

So although it is tricky to get your Poinsettia to ‘flower’ again, if you prune them at the end of the flowering period indoors and plant outside, they will form bushy green plants that do very well in the warmer months and make great ‘fillers’ in the border.

There is a bit of controversy about the toxicity of Poinsettias and it is generally thought that although the red bracts contain chemicals called diterpenoid euphorbol esters, which are mildly toxic to dogs and cats, they would have to eat a substantial amount for it to be fatal. As always, I just think it is better to ensure that your pet doesn’t eat any plants – indoors or out.

Poinsettias get their American name from Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first U.S. ambassador to Mexico and a founder of the Smithsonian Institution. He also dabbled a bit in botany and after discovering the plants growing in the wilderness in southern Mexico, took them to America in the early 1800s. In their natural habitat they are actually shrubs that will reach up to 10 feet and can be cut back quite hard early in the year. I remember seeing them growing wild on the side of the roads in Madeira, and they are really striking.

Incidentally, there is a fabulous eBook called The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Flowers and Gardens of Madeira, by Florence Du Cane, which can be read online at www.gutenberg.org. It’s just beautiful and well worth a read if you have any interest in plants and/or Madeira.

The plants became associated with Christmas as they were used initially to decorate TV studios over the festive period and their popularity just grew. However, a Mexican legend tells of a girl who could only offer weeds as a gift to Jesus on Christmas Eve. When she brought the weeds into a church, they blossomed into the beautiful red plants we know as Poinsettias, and from that day on they became known as ‘Flores de Noche Buena’, or ‘Flowers of the Holy Night’.

Although the bright scarlet ‘flowers’ are synonymous with Christmas, there are also pink, mauve, white, cream and ivory varieties, and you may even have seen a blue variety. Although these are real, the ‘flowers’ will have been dyed to make them blue. It’s a special dye that won’t hurt the plant, and it will grow as usual.

Plant Care

Poinsettias have a reputation for being a little tricky to care for, and I’m sure some Christmas dinner left-over’s will last longer than the pot plants. To get the best out of your plant there are a few tips to follow:

Like any indoor plant, always be careful where you purchase it from – more often than not it has started to die a death before you have even got it home.

Most Poinsettias will have been transported to the super-store in unsuitable conditions only to then be displayed near the front door to tempt shoppers. Being next to doors that are letting in blasts of chilly UK air won’t be appreciated by the Mexican plants and regular exposure to draught or temperatures below 12°C will definitely cause damage.

It probably won’t be obvious when you make your purchase, but the Poinsettia will start to drop its leaves soon after being brought home, making you think it’s something you have done wrong. So, try to buy from a florists or garden centre where they have looked after the plants properly and kept them in sheltered positions.

The soil should be neither dripping wet nor totally dry – again unless ‘professionally’ looked after, it will probably have been allowed to dry out as superstores have weird regulations about not being able to water plants in store with spilled water potentially causing a health and safety issue.

Then, when you’ve bought your Poinsettia, make sure to wrap it up in paper for the journey home to protect it from draughts. Once home, they will need warmth and light. It can be kept close to a radiator but it must be kept away from draughts – if it’s too draughty, the plant will shed its leaves in protest. They prefer a temperature between 15 and 22 degrees (don’t we all). Sufficient light is important for the plant to thrive and they will enjoy a south-facing window.

And finally, Poinsettias like humid conditions, so keep them misted if it’s in a room where the central heating is on full blast – which I suspect is going to be unlikely this year.

Left Over Mash Ups

Following on from last week’s column, so many of you have asked what on earth do I do in work during the harsh weather. Well, there’s always something to do and a couple of days last week were spent keeping nice and warm on a spade, digging out trenches and a soak-away for a client, where we couldn’t get access for a machine. And whilst it has been too cold for Yogi to come to work recently, as you can see she made a site visit late one day, just to make sure I had done it right.

And it also turns out that many of my readers are familiar with ‘double carbing’, after I revealed my brother had brought boiled potato sandwiches to work recently. It seems the favourite ‘mash up’ amongst readers is mashed potato left over’s – recycled as cheesy mash on toast or mashed potato and mayonnaise sandwiches.

Thanks for sharing, you lovely, crazy lot.