22 December 12, 2008

We seem to be going from cold to warm and then back again. I guess this is winter in New England.

I know that I have brought this up before, but if you had plants outside for the summer and you brought them back into the house, there may have been insects that came in on the plants. You should take the time to check those plants each week to make sure that insects are not becoming a problem. It is much easier to get insect problems under control when the population is small, rather than letting the insect population get really out of control.

There are some holiday traditions that I would rather not see happen each year. Each year, I see people taking poinsettias out of stores without the poinsettia having some type of protective wrap over the plant. Poinsettias are very touchy about being exposed to the cold. If you think back to Mondays’ cold and windy conditions, you would find that an unwrapped poinsettia going from the store to the car would easily be damaged by the combination of cold and wind. When you buy your poinsettia, make sure that it is protected from the cold by a plant sleeve.

When you buy a poinsettia, many people want the pot covered by with a decorative foil or plastic wrap. The only problem with these pot covers is that they let water pool in the bottom of the cover. When poinsettias are watered, the plant does not want to sit in a pool of water. If the soil ball of a poinsettia is kept wet all of the time, the roots are easily damaged. If you keep poinsettia in the pot cover, you should remove the cover when you water the plant. Once the water has drained from the soil, you can put the cover back on the pot. If this is a pain for you to do, poke holes in the bottom of the pot cover and place the plant onto a plastic saucer. The holes will allow the water to drain, allowing you to just empty the saucer after watering the plant.

Many of you will have put up the Christmas tree this past weekend. You must be sure to check the water level in the stand twice a day for the first few days. The trees always seem to take up more water the first few days in the house. If the tree stand goes dry, you will have to remove the tree from the stand and make a fresh cut on the bottom of the tree. This will allow the tree to again take up water.

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