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Holiday Plants for Holiday Spirit

Dec 19, 2014

Winter can be a rather dark and dreary time of the year, with the shortest days, long cold nights and lots of cloudy weather. Thankfully, the holidays help to brighten things up with colorful lights, displays and beautiful plants too. 

There are quite a few holiday plants that one might find for sale at this time of the year.  If you give them proper care, you can enjoy them through the holidays and even for months and years to come.

Just about everyone is familiar with the traditional poinsettia with its bright red colored bracts, actually modified leaves, which are their main attraction. But, did you know that they come in lots of different colors? White and pink cultivars have been around for quite a while but now there are some with bracts in pink, red, yellow or mauve and these can have blotches, spots or speckles in some of the other colors. They are even dyeing and spray-painting poinsettias with even glitter sprayed on to make them just about any color under the unnatural rainbow. 

Care of poinsettia

Proper care of a poinsettia starts at the nursery, garden center or flower shop, wherever you purchase your plant. It is important to remember that these plants were once native to semi-tropical areas and do not like the cold weather of the Dakotas and Minnesota. Make sure the store wraps up your plant before bringing it outside in the cold or to be placed into a cold car. 

Be aware that sometimes the big box stores do not have large enough bags to properly cover a poinsettia plant to protect it from the cold. You may consider purchasing it someplace else that really knows plants or bring along a lightweight garbage bag to carry it in. Be careful though, the branches are pretty brittle and can easily break off the main stem. Be careful unwrapping the plant too!

Once you get it home and unwrapped, find a good place to display the plant. 

If the plant can get good light exposure it will last longer and probably look better too.  This is especially important if you want to keep your plant in bloom for more than a couple of weeks. 

Poinsettias do not need full sun but bright indirect light will be the best. Avoid a drafty location that either gets cold drafts from doors or leaky windows or warm, dry drafts from heating ducts, which will cause the plant to dry out too quickly and could encourage pests like spider mites.

If the plant is in a fancy container or pot cover, make sure that there are holes in it to allow for excess water to drain out after watering. If there are not any holes in the container, then just dump the excess water out after watering by tipping the plant over the sink on its side, allowing the excess to pour out. If a plant sits in water it can cause root rot which will make the plant wilt. 

That may make you think the plant needs water so you end up making the problem worse. Stick your finger into the potting media to see if it feels moist. If it does, then don't water yet. Wait another day or two and check again.  When it feels dry, water thoroughly to saturate the potting media, then let the excess drain out. 

If the plant is sitting in a saucer, empty the saucer when it is done draining out. You probably don't have to worry about fertilizing your plant if you are only going to keep it for a few weeks. But if you want to try to keep your plant looking good and growing, you should use a half-strength houseplant fertilizer about once every two to three weeks.

Leaf loss

One of the most common problems we see with poinsettias is that they will lose their leaves. You will usually see this when you come back from being at grandma's house for a few days. If poinsettias, and a lot of other plants, dry out too much between watering, the most common response is to drop their oldest leaves.

If the plants didn't get too dried out, they will recover but probably be rather ugly. People often keep their poinsettias growing for months, maybe thinking they can get them to rebloom. But it is not an easy task - making sure the plant will get six to eight weeks of a short day photoperiod treatment next fall. 

We recommend that people enjoy these colorful plants for a month or so for the holidays then recycle it in their compost pile.

Christmas cacti

Holiday or Christmas cacti (Schlumbergera) have been another traditional plant for the holidays. These "jungle cacti" are another group of plants that naturally bloom during the shorter days of winter. They typically have bright pink, red or white flowers but one can also find them in golden-orange. 

Holiday cacti can be found for sale in 3-inch or 8-inch pots. Unlike the poinsettia, these interesting plants do not have leaves, rather they have specialized, flattened stem segments called cladodes. The cladodes are green and act like leaves in that they perform photosynthesis.

Areoles are found at the end of each cladode that may produce one or more cladodes or flower buds. Schlumbergera are native to warm, humid climates and are usually epyphitic meaning that they grow in crevices in rocks, or in the crotches of trees. They can grow to be quite large plants in their natural habitat and at home too. I have seen a number of old plants in large pots that were over 3-feet in diameter and with a height of about 2-feet. 

Holiday cacti should be grown in a bright location. During the late fall and winter they can be placed in full sun but they should be in a more shaded location during the rest of the year.  

If they are exposed to the natural day length they should come into bloom about the middle of November to the middle of December, depending on the type that you have. The Holiday cactus with the more sharply pointed cladodes flowers earlier and is the most commonly sold in stores.  

The Christmas cactus has more rounded cladodes and it usually flowers later, in December. Schlumbergera need more water than the typical dessert cactus. Allow the potting media to dry somewhat before thoroughly saturating it. Be careful not to let plants sit in water or the roots will rot, just as they would in a poinsettia. Use a houseplant fertilizer at full strength about once a month during the spring to fall when the plants are actively growing.

All of these plants are easy to root from stem cuttings stuck in potting media in the spring, so it is fun to share.

Amaryllis

Amaryllis is another popular holiday plant, available in stores everywhere at this time of the year. Their large, colorful flowers are borne on thick stems that may grow over 2-feet tall, each usually bearing four flowers. 

Amaryllis bulbs should grow larger each year and will eventually produce daughter bulbs so that in a few years what started as a single bulb in a pot that produced a single stem of four flowers could produce several flower stalks and produce a dozen flowers or more. 

It's not too late to plant amaryllis bulbs or give them as gifts but they will probably not bloom in time for Christmas.

Norfolk Island Pines

Norfolk Island Pines (Araucaria) are commonly available at this time of the year too. These small evergreen trees are sold when they are small, often as several little trees growing in a 6-inch or larger pot. 

When they get a bit larger you could even decorate them like a little Christmas tree, using small ornaments or lights until the branches get strong enough to hold heavier items. They should be kept in a full sun or at least a bright location and thoroughly watered when the potting medium feels dry. However, do not let the potting medium dry out too much or you will likely see the lowest branches turn yellow and drop. Norfolk Island pines can live for many years, putting out new growth as whorls of new branches at the top of each main stem. 

Eventually they can grow too large for your home. They are not hardy here but if you lived down south in Florida or the gulf coast you might have one of these trees in your landscape. They can grow well over 100-feet tall in a good location.

Moth orchids

Moth orchids (Phalaenopsis) are growing in popularity as a houseplant in general but are now being seen as a holiday plant too. They are grown by the millions and most are now very inexpensive. Moth orchids are one of the easiest orchids to grow, really breaking the old idea that all orchids are difficult to grow and get to rebloom. 

In fact, it is not difficult to see one of these plants in bloom four to six months of the year! They are making appearances all over on television too, just check out the sets of some of the daytime dramas and popular talk shows like "Ellen". There are several large moth orchids in the background.

Moth orchids come in a variety of flower colors ranging from pure white to pink, burgundy or even yellow, and they may have delicate striping or spots as well. You might even see some that are bright blue, but don't be fooled, those have been dyed. Flower size ranges from about 3-inches or more for the standards down to about an inch in the miniatures.

One of the great aspects of a moth orchid is that they are easy to rebloom. 

When you look to purchase a plant, check the flower stalk to make sure that there is a small green bud at the very tip of the flower stalk. Once the flowers on the main stem wilt and die, that bud will soon grow out to produce another set of flowers. If there is still a green bud at the tip, this can happen again.

Eventually that bud at the tip will produce a flower or turn yellow and die, along with the upper part of the stem. Cut off the yellow/brown part of the stem just above a small, triangular leaf along the flower stem. That is yet another bud that can also grow out to produce another flower stalk that in turn can grow out a second or third time. By then, a healthy plant might have sent up an entirely new flower spike so you can see how you can have flowers for several months of the year with an individual flower lasting 2-3 weeks on the plant.

Moth orchids like to grow at typical room temperature and receive bright indirect light. Full sun during the winter through a sheer curtain would be fine but additional shade from direct sun will be needed during the spring and summer. An east window would work well or they can even be grown under artificial lights. 

These orchids are epiphytic so are usually grown in a potting media that is mostly comprised of bark, coarse chunks of perlite and maybe charcoal. The roots are fairly coarse and covered with a whitish material that allows them to adhere to rocks, wood and other materials and also absorb moisture. However, like most other plants, allowing plants to sit in water or overwatering is the most common cause for failure. 

Plants should be grown in pots with drainage holes. If those pots are in a decorative container, either take them out of the container or be sure to dump out excess water in the container after watering. I have my orchids sitting on a plastic tray filled with pea gravel. When I water my plants the excess runs out of the pot and goes into the pebbles. It then slowly evaporates to create a more humid microclimate for the orchids which is beneficial to most orchids. 

Additional water can be added as needed to keep the gravel moist. Just do not let the bottom of the pots sit in water. This again can lead to root loss, wilting of plants and yellowing of lower leaves. Use a half-strength houseplant fertilizer about once a month.

- See more at: http://igrow.org/news/holiday-plants-for-holiday-spirit/#sthash.8nY7k8wF.dpuf
by David Graper, SDSU Extension Horticulture Specialist & SDSU Extension Interim Coordinator of the South Dakota Master Gardeners Program. - See more at: http://igrow.org/news/holiday-plants-for-holiday-spirit/#sthash.8nY7k8wF.dpuf

By David Graper, SDSU Extension Horticulture Specialist & SDSU Extension Interim Coordinator of the South Dakota Master Gardeners Program.

Winter can be a rather dark and dreary time of the year, with the shortest days, long cold nights and lots of cloudy weather. Thankfully, the holidays help to brighten things up with colorful lights, displays and beautiful plants too. 

There are quite a few holiday plants that one might find for sale at this time of the year.  If you give them proper care, you can enjoy them through the holidays and even for months and years to come.

Just about everyone is familiar with the traditional poinsettia with its bright red colored bracts, actually modified leaves, which are their main attraction. But, did you know that they come in lots of different colors? White and pink cultivars have been around for quite a while but now there are some with bracts in pink, red, yellow or mauve and these can have blotches, spots or speckles in some of the other colors. They are even dyeing and spray-painting poinsettias with even glitter sprayed on to make them just about any color under the unnatural rainbow. 

Care of poinsettia

Proper care of a poinsettia starts at the nursery, garden center or flower shop, wherever you purchase your plant. It is important to remember that these plants were once native to semi-tropical areas and do not like the cold weather of the Dakotas and Minnesota. Make sure the store wraps up your plant before bringing it outside in the cold or to be placed into a cold car. 

Be aware that sometimes the big box stores do not have large enough bags to properly cover a poinsettia plant to protect it from the cold. You may consider purchasing it someplace else that really knows plants or bring along a lightweight garbage bag to carry it in. Be careful though, the branches are pretty brittle and can easily break off the main stem. Be careful unwrapping the plant too!

Once you get it home and unwrapped, find a good place to display the plant. 

If the plant can get good light exposure it will last longer and probably look better too.  This is especially important if you want to keep your plant in bloom for more than a couple of weeks. 

Poinsettias do not need full sun but bright indirect light will be the best. Avoid a drafty location that either gets cold drafts from doors or leaky windows or warm, dry drafts from heating ducts, which will cause the plant to dry out too quickly and could encourage pests like spider mites.

If the plant is in a fancy container or pot cover, make sure that there are holes in it to allow for excess water to drain out after watering. If there are not any holes in the container, then just dump the excess water out after watering by tipping the plant over the sink on its side, allowing the excess to pour out. If a plant sits in water it can cause root rot which will make the plant wilt. 

That may make you think the plant needs water so you end up making the problem worse. Stick your finger into the potting media to see if it feels moist. If it does, then don't water yet. Wait another day or two and check again.  When it feels dry, water thoroughly to saturate the potting media, then let the excess drain out. 

If the plant is sitting in a saucer, empty the saucer when it is done draining out. You probably don't have to worry about fertilizing your plant if you are only going to keep it for a few weeks. But if you want to try to keep your plant looking good and growing, you should use a half-strength houseplant fertilizer about once every two to three weeks.

Leaf loss

One of the most common problems we see with poinsettias is that they will lose their leaves. You will usually see this when you come back from being at grandma's house for a few days. If poinsettias, and a lot of other plants, dry out too much between watering, the most common response is to drop their oldest leaves.

If the plants didn't get too dried out, they will recover but probably be rather ugly. People often keep their poinsettias growing for months, maybe thinking they can get them to rebloom. But it is not an easy task - making sure the plant will get six to eight weeks of a short day photoperiod treatment next fall. 

We recommend that people enjoy these colorful plants for a month or so for the holidays then recycle it in their compost pile.

Christmas cacti

Holiday or Christmas cacti (Schlumbergera) have been another traditional plant for the holidays. These "jungle cacti" are another group of plants that naturally bloom during the shorter days of winter. They typically have bright pink, red or white flowers but one can also find them in golden-orange. 

Holiday cacti can be found for sale in 3-inch or 8-inch pots. Unlike the poinsettia, these interesting plants do not have leaves, rather they have specialized, flattened stem segments called cladodes. The cladodes are green and act like leaves in that they perform photosynthesis.

Areoles are found at the end of each cladode that may produce one or more cladodes or flower buds. Schlumbergera are native to warm, humid climates and are usually epyphitic meaning that they grow in crevices in rocks, or in the crotches of trees. They can grow to be quite large plants in their natural habitat and at home too. I have seen a number of old plants in large pots that were over 3-feet in diameter and with a height of about 2-feet. 

Holiday cacti should be grown in a bright location. During the late fall and winter they can be placed in full sun but they should be in a more shaded location during the rest of the year.  

If they are exposed to the natural day length they should come into bloom about the middle of November to the middle of December, depending on the type that you have. The Holiday cactus with the more sharply pointed cladodes flowers earlier and is the most commonly sold in stores.  

The Christmas cactus has more rounded cladodes and it usually flowers later, in December. Schlumbergera need more water than the typical dessert cactus. Allow the potting media to dry somewhat before thoroughly saturating it. Be careful not to let plants sit in water or the roots will rot, just as they would in a poinsettia. Use a houseplant fertilizer at full strength about once a month during the spring to fall when the plants are actively growing.

All of these plants are easy to root from stem cuttings stuck in potting media in the spring, so it is fun to share.

Amaryllis

Amaryllis is another popular holiday plant, available in stores everywhere at this time of the year. Their large, colorful flowers are borne on thick stems that may grow over 2-feet tall, each usually bearing four flowers. 

Amaryllis bulbs should grow larger each year and will eventually produce daughter bulbs so that in a few years what started as a single bulb in a pot that produced a single stem of four flowers could produce several flower stalks and produce a dozen flowers or more. 

It's not too late to plant amaryllis bulbs or give them as gifts but they will probably not bloom in time for Christmas.

Norfolk Island Pines

Norfolk Island Pines (Araucaria) are commonly available at this time of the year too. These small evergreen trees are sold when they are small, often as several little trees growing in a 6-inch or larger pot. 

When they get a bit larger you could even decorate them like a little Christmas tree, using small ornaments or lights until the branches get strong enough to hold heavier items. They should be kept in a full sun or at least a bright location and thoroughly watered when the potting medium feels dry. However, do not let the potting medium dry out too much or you will likely see the lowest branches turn yellow and drop. Norfolk Island pines can live for many years, putting out new growth as whorls of new branches at the top of each main stem. 

Eventually they can grow too large for your home. They are not hardy here but if you lived down south in Florida or the gulf coast you might have one of these trees in your landscape. They can grow well over 100-feet tall in a good location.

Moth orchids

Moth orchids (Phalaenopsis) are growing in popularity as a houseplant in general but are now being seen as a holiday plant too. They are grown by the millions and most are now very inexpensive. Moth orchids are one of the easiest orchids to grow, really breaking the old idea that all orchids are difficult to grow and get to rebloom. 

In fact, it is not difficult to see one of these plants in bloom four to six months of the year! They are making appearances all over on television too, just check out the sets of some of the daytime dramas and popular talk shows like "Ellen". There are several large moth orchids in the background.

Moth orchids come in a variety of flower colors ranging from pure white to pink, burgundy or even yellow, and they may have delicate striping or spots as well. You might even see some that are bright blue, but don't be fooled, those have been dyed. Flower size ranges from about 3-inches or more for the standards down to about an inch in the miniatures.

One of the great aspects of a moth orchid is that they are easy to rebloom. 

When you look to purchase a plant, check the flower stalk to make sure that there is a small green bud at the very tip of the flower stalk. Once the flowers on the main stem wilt and die, that bud will soon grow out to produce another set of flowers. If there is still a green bud at the tip, this can happen again.

Eventually that bud at the tip will produce a flower or turn yellow and die, along with the upper part of the stem. Cut off the yellow/brown part of the stem just above a small, triangular leaf along the flower stem. That is yet another bud that can also grow out to produce another flower stalk that in turn can grow out a second or third time. By then, a healthy plant might have sent up an entirely new flower spike so you can see how you can have flowers for several months of the year with an individual flower lasting 2-3 weeks on the plant.

Moth orchids like to grow at typical room temperature and receive bright indirect light. Full sun during the winter through a sheer curtain would be fine but additional shade from direct sun will be needed during the spring and summer. An east window would work well or they can even be grown under artificial lights. 

These orchids are epiphytic so are usually grown in a potting media that is mostly comprised of bark, coarse chunks of perlite and maybe charcoal. The roots are fairly coarse and covered with a whitish material that allows them to adhere to rocks, wood and other materials and also absorb moisture. However, like most other plants, allowing plants to sit in water or overwatering is the most common cause for failure. 

Plants should be grown in pots with drainage holes. If those pots are in a decorative container, either take them out of the container or be sure to dump out excess water in the container after watering. I have my orchids sitting on a plastic tray filled with pea gravel. When I water my plants the excess runs out of the pot and goes into the pebbles. It then slowly evaporates to create a more humid microclimate for the orchids which is beneficial to most orchids. 

Additional water can be added as needed to keep the gravel moist. Just do not let the bottom of the pots sit in water. This again can lead to root loss, wilting of plants and yellowing of lower leaves. Use a half-strength houseplant fertilizer about once a month.

Poinsettias

Holiday or Christmas cacti

Norfolk Island Pines

Source:igrow.org