Late Christmas at Work

Every year at Christmas time, our office managers purchase beautiful poinsettias which are placed stategically throughout the office to make things festive. Every January it seems such a waste to toss these beautiful plants just because the holiday season is past. A co-worker of mine is simply the best at keeping poinsettia greenery alive and has a three year old plant still thriving. So, following her example last year, I continued watering mine. As the season progressed, the red leaves (are they leaves, bracts, something else??) died off and were replaced by new growth.

The plant thrived throughout the year. The first half of last year it had a very sunny location, facing southwest, but then I moved to a different office with only a northern exposure. The other interesting feature of my new office is that is gets very warm during the day. The best attempts at moderating the heat are futile. It seems to be all or nothing. So we make it a point to wear layered outfits so that we can be dressed for any of winter, spring, summer or fall on any given day. Well, the northern exposure, the stifling warm days, followed by cool evenings and actually quite chilly weekends (when the heat hardly comes on) and being watered lightly twice a week must have just been the ticket for the poinsettia of Christmas 2004. Near the middle of January 2006, I noticed a few tiny buds on the ends of some branches and slowly the new growth turned out to be red. This pattern has continued with the magnificent display of a full five flowering branches and maybe even a couple more to come.

I am delighted to share with you my very first poinsettia display, grown at work! I've never had a poinsettia ever re-bloom, particularly with enthusiasm. As it has gotten the new red leaves, it has been losing the old green ones, so it is getting a little straggly looking again. Perhaps this year I'll start my first attempt at cutting it back and trying this again next year. Of course, it might be 2008 before it is ready to bloom again. We'll see how it does - or if it lives that long. Poinsettia's are generally rather cranky plants and I find it hard to believe I could keep one happy for years. But here's to this year's success!!