06December 7, 2017

It’s hard to believe that we are now into the month of December. It seems like it was only yesterday that we were complaining about the heat and the humidity.

The holiday season is upon us and this week’s column will remind you of things you need to know about holiday decorating.

Let’s start with poinsettias. Every year, we get customers who come into the store and say that they would like to have a poinsettia plant in the home, but the poinsettias are poisonous to children. This is an old wives tale that has been passed down from generation to generation. If you are worried about poinsettias and kids, don’t worry.

Speaking of poinsettias, you will almost always get a poinsettia plant with either a foil or plastic wrap around the pot. When you water your poinsettia plant, remove the wrap when you water the plant. Poinsettias do not like to sit in water. If the soil stays soggy all the time, you will kill your poinsettia in a short period of time. Once you have watered the plant and the excess water has drained away, you can then put the foil or plastic wrap back on the pot.

When you put up your Christmas tree, you need to cut about an inch off the bottom of the trunk. You then want to put the tree in a tree stand and add water to the tree stand. It is critically important to keep the bottom of the trunk submerged in water. If the cut on the bottom of the trunk goes dry, your tree will stop taking up water and the tree will quickly dry out. The only way to fix the problem is to take the tree out of the stand and put a new cut on the bottom of the trunk. Santa hears people mumbling bad words when they need to do that. Remember that your tree will take up a lot of water during the first few days. Be sure to check that water level twice a day for the first few days. This will help to keep the stand full and this will lead to a fresher, longer lasting tree.

The holiday plants that you have in your home do need to be fertilized. If you get a cyclamen plant, they will produce flowers all winter long. In order to do this, they will need to be fertilized every 2 weeks with a dilute solution of fertilizer. We have used Jack’s Classic fertilizer in the store to fertilize our plants. Unlike the national brand, it doesn’t contain any filler. If you feed your cyclamen at the rate of a teaspoon in a gallon of water, your cyclamen will give you flowers all winter.

Well, that’s all for this week. I’ll talk to you again next week.