The poinsettia I bought at Christmas quickly lost a lot of leaves and was looking quite pathetic. I think it was over watered at the store plus moving from greenhouse, to store, to home is always stressful for a plant. I pretty much ignored it but finally one day, I cleaned off the dead leaves and had a better look at it. I trimmed off the stems that had soggy ends. It had two stems that were still healthy with some red bracts and flowers so I thought I would try to revitalize the plant.
I kept it on the dry side and put a few granules of slow release fertilizer on the soil, and soon some new growth started to come. Even some new red bracts grew.
Where I had trimmed the stems, new leaves are shooting, and all the nodes along the bare stems are also started to grow leaves. I have it near a south facing window but set back about a foot so it doesn't get a chill at night. I'm feeling optimistic about it especially as the days are slowly getting longer.
Next summer if it is still chugging along, I will put it outside where it will get the morning sun. If I am organized enough, next fall I will try to trigger the blooms by putting it darkness for 16 hrs. a day for a month or so.
The Greek oregano that I planted is surviving as well as the basil. I think I am past the damping off stage so unless I totally mess up the watering, I should have some tasty herbs in a few months.
I hope you are all keeping well, and enjoying perusing some colourful seed catalogues.
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