Thursday, December 31, 2020

Whoops, I did it again.

 My sister has a whole window sill full of poinsettias. It is the window right above her kitchen sink, and she's kept her poinsettias for at least 4 years now. 

Then there's me. 

I kept one once, and it was a gorgeous thing, Big and wild, regular little tree. It died during a move. In the intervening years, I've tried to grow another. It does not matter what I do, those things die. Over and over, year after year, I've tried. 

Death.

I gave up. Last year I didn't even try to save one. I didn't buy one this year either. But then I went to pick up a few groceries for the week. They had a huge rack of poinsettias that they were trying to get rid of. They were marked down to 25 cents each.  They were big ones too. 

I stopped pushing the cart to look.

I said to myself, "Self, it's a very sad thing that you cannot save a poinsettia if your life depended on it." 

My self nodded sadly in agreement.

Except there was a pink one. 

I've always wanted a pink one.,,

And that is how I ended up coming home with three poinsettias. I have a call in to my sister to call me when she gets home from work. If the darn things don't die in the next hour, they've got a fighting chance. 

13 comments:

  1. I've never kept one long either and gave up trying. Good luck with your pink plants

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  2. You could call one of your plants Britney after your blog title? They like it hot and a drink now and again. Good luck.

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  3. Here's me not ever knowing that they were anything but temporal. The little one that we bought this year is already on life support, but it has severd for the season.

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  4. Interesting that what we call Poinsettia is the Mexican Christmas Eve plant.
    I googled how to keep ours going...you will find some useful tips on that.. don't know if we will be able to succeed either, but at least ours was grown by a local plant nursery who grow all the trees and the materials for the wreaths they make and sell.

    I always look at the plant rescue department in garden centres..you don't win them all, but when you succeed it is worth it!!

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  5. A rescue plant, Debby!! Well done. I got 5 years of chilli sauce from a 50c plant.

    Houseplants come to die at mine, however.

    I once had a friend who I had helped with housing way back last century.

    When it came time again for her to find her feet, she presented me with a cylcamen. (https://www.bhg.com.au/grow-cyclamen-indoors)

    These plants have a reputation as being rather delicate.

    I had a reputation, too. NOTHING survived my balcony.

    The next day - a public holiday - she had a conundrum.

    An ex's mother had done her a favour of looking after her cat (for five months) but she had no thank you gift.

    "Is she a gardener?" I enquired.

    At her nod, I handed her the condemned cyclamen and said "save a plant".

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  6. Lol Jeanie. I have a lot of plants indoors I have done well with them. I can't seem to hold a geranium or a poinsettia over a season. My sister handily manages both. Another heartbreaker for me is avocados. I have tried for years and never managed one. I finally got one to grow and nurtured it tenderly. It was about a foot and a half tall. I was moved to give it a newer roomier pot. It immediately showed its gratitude. Outside? Don't make me talk about asparagus. It will make me teary and I will think jealous dark thoughts about Ed's patch.

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  7. Ps..the avocado? It showed its gratude by dying immediately. My heart was broken.

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  8. I've heard that holiday poinsettias aren't really MEANT to last. They often have poorly developed root systems and have basically just been nurtured long enough to survive through Christmas. So don't feel bad if yours die. They often aren't truly healthy, established plants.

    They are also famously hard to keep happy in northern climates. Being tropical plants, they like bright sun and warm temperatures, both of which are hard to provide in a northern winter!

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  9. So your sister who keeps them year round — do they have color? We’ve kept them going, but never seem to have red, pink or white again. We received three this year as sympathy gestures and they’re still thriving (but it’s early yet)!

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  10. At that price, it's no big deal what happens. I love pink and multi-colored poinsettias. There was one burgundy one that I bought whenever I saw it. However, I too am a poinsettia killer and my cat likes to chew the leaves. So, I admire them from afar.

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  11. They are grown in green houses down here and made to mature very fast. You can drive by and there is a sea of red, white or pink in different houses. A day or so later the trucks are loading them out and they will all be shipped to stores. After the holidays we can plant them outside and they usually grow into 6 or 7 foot plants and start blooming in late fall. They are beautiful to see the hugh plants all full of color. I never have had lyck trying to keep them. I give them to people that knoww what they are doing.

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  12. There used to be a weekly gardening program on the radio here. Someone asked the horticulturist what to do with a poinsettia after Christmas. He said throw it in the garbage and buy another one next year!!,lol

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  13. Explains why I haven't gotten a poinsettia from Ellie. :D It's a fun experiment. I got a white one, a red one and a pink one. The pink one looks kind of dead, but the other ones look pretty nice. My sister trimmed hers back, stuck them in a window, waters them once a week with miracle-gro and otherwise ignores them. The one that I had grew waist tall, was in a huge pot. I never got around to trying to make it 'color'. It is my plan with these ones, if they live.

    My sister assures me that what I'm doing wrong is pitching them when they look dead. She swears that they die off and resurrect themselves if you just leave them alone and keep them watered with plant food once a week. We'll see.

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