Flowers and plants are always welcome as gifts, but no time is better than the Christmas and Winter Holidays. Plants can so liven up a room...and what better gift can you give than something that inspires happiness and peace? A Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New year!! Peace and Joy goes with you!
Poinsettia
Legend has it that the first poinsettia bloomed on Christmas Eve. Hundreds of years ago, Franciscan priests used them in Nativity festivals. We enjoy their rich green leaves and bright red bracts as living Christmas decorations.
Poinsettias are wonderful gift plants, easy to keep alive, providing a fiery display during the grey days of winter. Actually, the red petals are colorful bracts framing tiny yellow blossoms. Newer varietres come in pink, white, and mottled shades, and usually grow to 3 feet (90 cm).
To get a plant to bloom for Christmas, give it fourteen hours of uninterrupted darkness daily starting at the end of September.
Poinsettias grows best with high light with a temperature of approximately 60° to 85°F (15° to 29°C) and an average humidity of 25% or more. Can tolerate 35°F (2°C) without damage. Keep the potting mixture moist, but plant can tolerate some surface drying without damage.
Special Notes: Repot if plant becomes too large for pot, using well-aerated potting mixture containing 50% or more organic matter.
In addition, if tips and edges of leaves turn brown; raise humidity.
Jerusalem Cherry
The Jerusalem cherry is the common name of a colorful little plant that is also known as the Christmas pepper. However, it is neither a cherry nor a pepper (its Latin name means "false pepper"), but a poisonous relative of the eggplant.
So long as children or pets don't try to eat the marble-sized red, orange, or yellow fruit, the Jerusalem cherry can be a cheery gift for a winter birthday. It flowers from July to September and produces its fruit during November and December.
The cherries may cling to the plant for two months or so. Save the seeds for gift plants next Christmas.
Jerusalem Cherry grows well in high light with a temperature of approximately 60° to 85°F (15° to 29°C) and an average humidity of 25% or more. Can tolerate 35°F (2°C) without damage. Allow the surface of the potting mixture to dry out between watterings.
Special Notes: Pinch back tips of new growth to stimulate bushiness. Repot if plant becomes too large for pot, using well-aerated potting mixture containing 50% or more organic matter.
Also, if few flowers appear, move to higher light. Check for spider mites on undersides of leaves; if present, spray with appropriate pesticide.
Florist's Cineraria
Cineraria is a Cinderella present with a real color kick. These are bright and bushy little spring-blooming plants with deep green leaves covered with white, blue, or purple hairs, and immense clusters of velvety daisylike flowers.
The blossoms may be white, pink, red, blue, or purple, with blue or white centers and rings of contrasting colors-a real rainbow for a sunny windowsill. Plant them annually-they'll show off their best colors and you'll be able to pick your presents literally!
These plants require cool, temperate conditions for continual growth.
Florist's Cineraria grow best with high light with a temperature of approximately 50° to 70°F (10° to 21°C) and an average humidity of 25% or more. Can tolerate 35°F (2°C) without damage. Allow the surface of the potting mixture to dry out between waterings.
Special Notes: Repot if plant becomes too large for pot, using well-aerated potting mixture containing 50% or more organic matter.
Also, check carefully for spider mites on undersides of leaves; if present, spray with appropriate pesticide.
#5 Decorating Gift Plants
If you're giving a plant as a present, it's easy to make it more attractive. Here are a few suggestions:
- Tuck in a bow to complement the flower color-use waterproof ribbon.
- Tape a small gift such as a bird or miniature garden ornament to a piece of dowel rod, and insert it in the gift plant.
- Wrap containers in aluminum foil and add a fluffy tissue outer wrap.
- Put the pot into a straw basket or ceramic container.
- Add red pipe-cleaner hearts to Valentine greenery.
- Colored eggs sitting in a moss nest at the base of an Easter lily make it more festive.
- Add pussy willow branches to an early spring gift plant.
- Trim fall gifts with pencil-slim cattails.
- Wheat, oats, and grasses can be used with Thanksgiving flowers or in a dried bouquet.
- Tuck pine or other Christmas greens in your poinsettia pots.
- Tie a cluster of shiny tree ornaments around the pot of a Christmas plant.
- Use manzanita or driftwood branches with foliage plants
- Insert a fresh, colorful flower in a tube into the potting mixture of a foliage plant gift.
- Silk or dried flowers can be added to foliage plants and dishgardens for a bit of fantasy.
- Small stuffed animals mounted on a stick will liven up any plant for a sick person.
- Add a rolled magazine fastened to a small dowel rod to the gift you are taking to a convalescing loved one.
