Poinsettia: choosing, keeping and reblooming

Daniel Platteau

In short: the poinsettia is a three-metre Mexican shrub that the Aztecs were already growing. It fits on a table thanks to a micro-organism passed on by grafting and to greenhouses timed to the minute. Buy it with its small yellow flowers still closed, and have it wrapped for the journey home. At home: 16 to 21 °C, plenty of light without scorching sun, water only when the surface of the compost is dry, and never leave water standing. Well looked after, it stays attractive until March. To see it red again the following winter, cut it back in spring, then from 1 October give it 14 hours of total darkness every night for about eight weeks.

Every winter Europe buys tens of millions of poinsettias, and most of them end up on the compost heap in January. That is a pity, because this plant has a remarkable story, from the Aztec empire to a Californian greenhouse secret, and it can live for years. Its four most stubborn myths (is it deadly? are its flowers really flowers?) are covered in our article Christmas plants: 15 myths checked. Here we go further: where it comes from, how it is produced, and how to choose it, keep it and make it flower again in a Belgian home.

An Aztec flower turned Christmas plant

The poinsettia, Euphorbia pulcherrima, grows wild along the Pacific coast of Mexico and in Central America, where it forms a shrub about three metres tall (RHS, n.d.-b). The Aztecs called it cuetlaxochitl, a Nahuatl name translated as "flower that withers" or "leather flower" (Lee, 2023). They made a red dye from the bracts and used the sap against fever (University of Illinois Extension, n.d.). The plant was grown in gardens around what is now Mexico City before the Spanish arrived (Trejo-Hernández et al., 2015).

After the Spanish conquest, Franciscan friars linked it to the Nativity because it colours up in December (Trejo-Hernández et al., 2015). It became the flor de Nochebuena, the "Christmas Eve flower", a name credited to the first Franciscans who arrived in the 16th century and still in everyday use in Mexico (Lee, 2023). Mexico devotes a national day to it every 8 December (Expansión, 2025).

Its English name comes from a diplomat. Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first United States envoy to independent Mexico, came across the plant in 1828 and sent cuttings home to South Carolina (Lee, 2023; University of Illinois Extension, n.d.). Tradition places that encounter in northern Guerrero State, near Taxco. In 2012 a team of Mexican and American biologists checked it against DNA: the genetic combination found in poinsettias grown worldwide occurs only in the wild populations of northern Guerrero (Trejo et al., 2012). The 300 or so commercial varieties therefore very probably descend from Poinsett's plants.

In the United States, 12 December is National Poinsettia Day, the date of Poinsett's death in 1851 (University of Illinois Extension, n.d.). But the man is controversial: a diplomat expelled from Mexico for meddling, a slaveholder, then Secretary of War during the forced removal of Native Americans. In Mexico and among the diaspora, some young people now prefer to say cuetlaxochitl (Lee, 2023).

The Ecke secret: why it stays small and bushy

A wild poinsettia is a tall, gangly plant with few branches. The one in your living room is compact and carries a dozen coloured heads. The difference comes largely from one family and one micro-organism.

Albert Ecke, a German who emigrated to California in 1902, added poinsettias to his farm around 1910 (California State University San Marcos, n.d.). His son Paul first grew them outdoors for cut flowers, then moved the business to Encinitas, near San Diego, in 1923 (Leichtag Foundation, n.d.). The Eckes bred varieties for pot growing, and at one point their company supplied about 90% of the poinsettias sold worldwide (Leichtag Foundation, n.d.). In the early 1990s cutting production moved to Guatemala. In 2012 the family sold the business to the Dutch Agribio Group (California State University San Marcos, n.d.), which is now part of Dümmen Orange (Leichtag Foundation, n.d.).

The real secret was only solved in 1997. Growers had known for decades that an "agent" passed on by grafting made plants branch freely, without knowing what it was (Nicolaisen & Christensen, 2007). A team from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) identified it: a phytoplasma, a bacterium without a cell wall that lives in the sap (Lee et al., 1997). Phytoplasmas are normally parasites that ruin crops. In the poinsettia, this one upsets the plant's hormonal balance, so it grows outwards rather than upwards and produces more bracts. Without it, Christmas poinsettias would stand more than 2.4 m tall (Suszkiw, 1998).

In practice, almost every commercial poinsettia is "infected", and that is deliberate: it is one of the rare cases where a phytoplasma brings a sought-after trait rather than crop losses (Nicolaisen & Christensen, 2007).

From Kenya to your living room: how it is produced

The poinsettia is the world's most economically important potted plant (Trejo et al., 2012). Nearly 200 million are sold every year, worth a little over one billion euros at retail. The biggest markets are the United States (about 70 million), Germany (20 to 25 million), Mexico, Italy and Spain. The Netherlands grows about 19 million, a fifth of European production, and exports 80% of them (van Horen, 2023).

A plant's journey is tightly organised. A handful of breeding companies, seven worldwide, create the varieties. Their stock plants supply unrooted cuttings, often produced in Costa Rica, Guatemala or Kenya. These are shipped, rooted in the country of destination, then delivered to growers in July or August. Cultivation then takes 15 to 20 weeks, and most sales happen in November and December (van Horen, 2023).

To get the bracts red on time, greenhouses control night length. The poinsettia is a short-day plant: it starts forming flowers once the night is longer than about 11 hours 40 minutes (Zhang & Runkle, 2019), which happens naturally around 21 September. It then needs eight weeks of consecutive short days for the flowers to develop properly. Blackout curtains let growers shift the date (Attaway, 2021). Trials at Clemson University showed that a 12-hour night is enough for flowering, but at least 13 hours are needed for the best colour (Alden & Faust, 2022).

To keep plants compact, growers also play with day and night temperatures and use chemical growth regulators, whose use is restricted to varying degrees from country to country (Zhang & Runkle, 2019). Two issues are rising up the sector's agenda. The first is heat: above about 26 °C flowering is delayed, and global warming makes this "heat delay" worse (Attaway, 2021). The second is sustainability: Dutch growers are replacing part of the peat with coir, wood fibre or compost, and biological pest control has become common (van Horen, 2023).

Red, white, pink, marbled: the varieties

The large coloured "petals" are bracts, modified leaves. The true flowers are the small yellow beads in the centre, the cyathia (Mississippi State University Extension, 2026). Red is still by far the best seller, but the range has widened: pink, salmon, cream, white, bicoloured, marbled (Mississippi State University Extension, 2026; Reyes, 2026).

In Belgian garden centres you will mostly come across:

classic reds, with broad, flat bracts;
whites and creams, more discreet, which suit neutral decorations;
pinks and marbled types, with pink and cream on the same bract;
curled bracts, like the 'Winter Rose' series: the bracts roll under and the plant looks like a rose (Dümmen Orange, n.d.);
Princettia, a compact range from the Japanese company Suntory, in very vivid pinks, increasingly sold as a decorative plant rather than a purely seasonal one (Reyes, 2026);
minis, in tiny pots, cute but delicate: their small root ball dries out very quickly.

Blue, purple or gold poinsettias do not exist in nature. They are cream varieties that have been spray-painted, sometimes with glitter (University of Minnesota Extension, n.d.). The paint only covers this year's bracts. If you manage to make the plant flower again, it will return to its original colour.

There is no point hunting for a particular variety: names change almost every year and rarely appear on the label. The RHS suggests simply choosing the plant you like, from a shop that keeps it warm (RHS, n.d.-c).

Choosing one in the shop

Most "failed" poinsettias were already doomed when they were bought. A few habits are enough:

Look at the centre. The yellow cyathia should be closed or only just open. A plant that has dropped its small flowers is past its best (Mississippi State University Extension, 2026).
Look at the bottom. The green foliage should reach down to the compost, with no yellow or fallen leaves. Check the undersides: no whitefly, those tiny white flies (Mississippi State University Extension, 2026).
Beware of the pavement. Do not buy a plant displayed outside, near automatic doors or in a cold aisle. The poinsettia suffers as soon as the temperature drops below 10 °C (Purdue University Extension, n.d.), and a few hours in the cold are enough for the bracts to fall in the following days (RHS, n.d.-a). On red varieties, cold turns the edges of the bracts bluish (Pundt, 2021).
Avoid plants that have been sleeved for a long time. The plastic or paper sleeve is essential for the journey, but a plant left in it for several days builds up the ethylene it produces itself. This gas makes the lower leaves turn yellow and fall (Browning, 2022).
Prefer a well-branched plant. A single-stem poinsettia looks pretty at Christmas but reblooms poorly (Mississippi State University Extension, 2026).

For the journey, have it wrapped, buy it last if you have other shopping to do, and do not leave it in a cold car. At home, take the sleeve off as soon as it arrives.

December to March: keeping it looking good

A healthy poinsettia keeps its bracts for several months (Mississippi State University Extension, 2026). Its needs are simple, but it does not forgive extremes.

Light. Put it in the brightest room, near a window, but without the bracts touching the cold glass (Mississippi State University Extension, 2026). It tolerates direct sun, but then it drinks more and its bracts last less long (Mississippi State University Extension, 2026). In Belgium, from December to February, that is hardly an issue.

Temperature. The ideal is 16 to 21 °C during the day, slightly less at night (RHS, n.d.-a). Below 13 °C it may drop its leaves and bracts; above 21 °C it lasts less long (RHS, n.d.-c; Purdue University Extension, n.d.). Keep it away from radiators, stoves, front doors and draughts.

Watering. This is where everything is decided. Water when the surface of the compost feels dry or the pot feels light. Pour in water at room temperature until it drains out of the bottom, then empty the saucer or outer pot after a quarter of an hour. If the pot is wrapped in decorative foil, pierce it or remove it (Purdue University Extension, n.d.; Mississippi State University Extension, 2026). Overwatering is the leading cause of leaf drop (Mississippi State University Extension, 2026). Minis may need water every day.

Feeding. Not needed while it is in flower: the grower's compost contains enough (Mississippi State University Extension, 2026).

Neighbours. Keep it away from the fruit bowl. Apples and bananas give off ethylene, the same gas that makes leaves drop inside a sleeve.

Situation	What to do
Buying in cold weather	Plant wrapped, short journey, unwrapped on arrival
Position	Bright room, 16-21 °C, away from radiators and doors
Watering	When the surface is dry; never water in the saucer
Decorative pot or foil	Pierce it, or empty the water after 15 minutes
Feeding	None until growth resumes in spring
Fruit bowl	Keep it away

Making it flower again: the calendar

Getting a poinsettia to colour up a second year is possible, but it takes consistency. The method has two stages: make it grow vigorously in spring and summer, then give it long, completely dark nights in autumn. Here is the calendar, adapted to the Belgian climate from the recommendations of Colorado State and Mississippi State universities (Newman et al., 2025; Mississippi State University Extension, 2026).

Period	What to do
January-March	Same care as in December. When the bracts fade, water a little less, without letting the stems shrivel.
Late March-April	Cut each stem back, leaving three or four leaves. Resume normal watering and a houseplant feed.
May	Repot into a slightly larger pot with free-draining compost.
June-August	Put it outside in partial shade once nights no longer drop below 13 °C, which rarely happens before June in Belgium. Pinch out new shoots to keep it bushy.
Before 1 September	Last pinching: after that, it would delay flowering.
September	Bring it in before the nights turn cool, into the brightest room.
1 October-late November	Every night, 14 hours of total darkness (for example from 5 pm to 7 am), under an opaque box or in a cupboard. By day, 6 to 8 hours of bright light. Keep it at 16-21 °C.
Late November-December	Once the bracts are well coloured, stop the forced darkness and enjoy it.

The tricky part is the darkness. The slightest stray light, a lamp switched on for a few minutes, a street light, a television screen, can delay or block flowering (Newman et al., 2025). For the same reason a grow light should never shine on a poinsettia in the evening in autumn. The chrysanthemum and the Christmas cactus work the same way.

An unheated room with no lights on in the evening can replace the box, as long as it stays above 16 °C. Too much heat is also a problem: above about 26 °C flowering is delayed (Attaway, 2021).

Let's be honest: the result will almost always be less spectacular than in the garden centre. A second-year plant is taller and less even, with smaller bracts, because you have neither the growers' automatic curtains nor their growth regulators. Many gardeners simply keep it as a foliage plant. It makes a perfectly respectable one.

Common problems

Symptom	Likely cause	What to do
Leaves fall all at once, a few days after purchase	Cold shock during the journey or in the shop	Nothing to undo; keep the plant warm and in the light, the bracts often hold on
Lower leaves turn yellow, then fall	Overwatering, water in the saucer, or a long stay in the sleeve	Let the surface dry, empty the saucer, remove the sleeve
Plant collapses, compost dry	Lack of water	Water thoroughly; it recovers within hours if you have not waited too long
Plant collapses, compost wet	Roots suffocated or rotting	Let it dry out; if it does not recover, it is lost
Bract edges bluish or scorched	Cold, or bracts against cold glass	Move it away from the window at night
Small white flies that fly up	Whitefly	Isolate the plant, yellow sticky trap, shower the leaves
Grey fuzz on the bracts	Grey mould (Botrytis), damp and stuffy air	Remove affected parts, ventilate, water less

At the end of winter, when the bracts fade and the plant slows down, it is time to cut back the watering a little (Mississippi State University Extension, 2026).

Children, pets and latex allergy

The poinsettia is not the deadly plant of legend: a study of nearly 23,000 cases of ingestion found no deaths (Krenzelok et al., 1996). Its white sap is irritating, however. It can cause mild stomach upsets in children, and a dog or cat that chews the leaves may drool and vomit (Anses, 2020). The full figures are in our article on Christmas plant myths.

One point deserves more attention: the poinsettia belongs to the same family as the rubber tree. According to an emergency medicine review, about 40% of people allergic to latex also react to its sap (Evens & Stellpflug, 2012). Wear gloves when pruning it, and clean your tools, which the sap makes sticky (University of Minnesota Extension, n.d.).

Test yourself

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