How to Care for Holiday Plants

Blooming plants that we like to give or receive as gifts during the holiday season are garden mums, poinsettias, Christmas cactus, cyclamen, azaleas, begonias and green plants. They can all be used to brighten up a room. However, each of these plants has their own care requirements. At a minimum, you want them to last long enough to make it through the holidays or for the person who gave them to you to see displayed in your home.

Garden Mums are beautiful and it just wouldn't be fall without some colorful groupings of mums around the yard next to a jack-o-lantern on halloween, but mums with Christmas reds, pinks and white are available. Local nurseries that grow their own will have the best selection and healthiest plants. Water frequently, and if you would like to keep them until next year, plant them in the ground in spring. In June, when they try to bloom again, shear off the blooms and form a nice round shape. They will bloom again in the fall but will freeze to the ground in winter. They like a typical garden fertilizer applied occasionally.

Poinsettias are the most popular holiday plant. If your room is at a comfortable temperature for you, then it is probably fine with the Poinsettia. Water when the top of the soil in the pot is dry. When watering, remove the pot from any plastic sleeve or basket that may trap water around the roots of the plant. Any potted plant will quickly rot if allowed to sit in water for very long, but poinsettias seem especially vulnerable. Also, poinsettias can be brittle and break easily. A windy porch is not the best place for them, but find a bright place inside that's away from traffic and drafts. They will decline rapidly in temperatures below 50 degrees. Because they are a tropical plant that likes shade, mild heat and lots of humidity year round, we don't have the right climate for them to make it in the garden for any length of time.

Christmas Cactus can be tricky. They are not drought or cold tolerant like the name "Cactus" might imply but don't like to sit in water. A bright window without direct sunlight is an ideal place for them. Water when the top half of the soil is dry. A bright porch or under the shade of a big tree is fine during the warmer months, but bring them inside during the hottest time of the year to encourage them to bloom at Christmastime. Christmas Cactus doesn't really like extreme summer heat. They are native to the cooler rain forests in Central and South America.

Cyclamen like it cool. They won't make it in warm weather. Don't put your cyclamen in the warmest part of the house, such as the kitchen. They also like to stay fairly damp, but not waterlogged. You can fertilize them every couple of weeks with a weak solution of a general use houseplant fertilizer. Some varieties can be moved to a dry and shady part of the garden in April or May and allowed to go dormant. They will come around again in the fall. At one time, the Cyclamen was the plant for Christmas before the flashier Poinsettia took over.

Small azaleas are often given as potted plants during the holiday season. They are cold tolerant and if hardened off by exposing to cold temperatures for an increasing amount of time, they can be successfully planted outside in the spring. Cover the roots with mulch and be sure the soil is somewhat acidic even if it needs amending with azalea and camellia planting mix. Azaleas will not grow in alkaline soils. Protection from the hot afternoon sun is imperative for any azalea.

Most Begonias will do fine in the garden or a big pot when the weather warms. However, they seem to pick the time of year that they decide to bloom. Some will bloom in spring and others in the fall. I just put them in a slightly shaded area and water them regularly. They are one of the easiest plants to propagate from cuttings. Simply take a tip cutting, apply some rooting hormone to the cut end and root in wet sand.

Different green plants have different requirements, but the most important thing to do is repot a green plant or houseplant into a well-drained container. Most houseplants are tropical plants and cannot make it outside when temperatures get below 40 degrees F.

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