Spacing & sowing

Plant spacing

17.7 in

In-row spacing

17.7 in

Between rows

22 in

Square-foot density

Not suited to SFG

Growing

Type

Houseplant · Perennial

Botanical family

Mixed / other

Sunlight

Bright indirect light, with no direct sun on it.

Watering

Water once the top 2 cm of the potting mix are dry.

Feeding

A balanced liquid feed monthly from spring through autumn.

Frost tolerant

No

Flowering

November

Pruning

Cut it hard back to 10–15 cm in spring.

Through the year

• Mar–Mar Senescence
• Mar–Nov Bud Break
• Nov–Dec Flowering
• Jan–Mar Flowering

Pests & problems

• Fungus gnats Fungus gnats breeding in soggy potting mix
• Whitefly Whitefly, which finds poinsettia more often than not
• Gray mold (botrytis) Botrytis gray mold taking hold in cold, damp air
• Root & crown rot Root rot where overwatering or poor drainage leaves the pot sodden
• Leaf drop after cold drafts or a swing in temperature

Garden allies

Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. ★ companion plant

• Dragonflies & damselflies Odonata
  Hunts Fungus gnatsWhitefly

  Aerial hunters that take mosquitoes, midges and small flies on the wing all day, and whose larvae spend a year or more clearing the same insects from the water. A pond with planted margins and no fish is the way to have them.

  Plant nearby BulrushIrisNymphaeaPickerel Weed
• Beneficial nematodes Steinernema & Heterorhabditis spp.
  Hunts Fungus gnats

  Microscopic worms watered onto damp soil that hunt down soil-dwelling grubs and release a bacterium that kills them within days. Timing is the whole thing: warm, damp soil and a small target grub, which means late summer for most of what they are used against.

• Big-eyed bug Geocoris spp.
  Hunts Whitefly

  A stubby 3 mm bug with enormous wrap-around eyes, working the soil surface and the low foliage for aphids, mites, thrips and insect eggs. It is the main natural check on chinch bugs in a lawn and it is killed outright by insecticide.

  Plant nearby CalendulaCloverCosmosGoldenrodSweet alyssum
• Centipedes Chilopoda
  Hunts Fungus gnats

  Flat, fast, one pair of legs to a segment — and a predator, unlike the slow round millipede it is constantly confused with. It hunts slugs, cutworms, springtails and woodlice by night under mulch and stones. Learn the difference and leave this one alone.

• Green lacewing Chrysoperla carnea
  Hunts Whitefly

  Its bristly larvae — "aphid lions" — impale aphids, mealybugs, thrips, and mite colonies, eating hundreds a week. Adults feed on nectar and pollen from small open flowers and overwinter in hollow stems left standing.

  Plant nearby CilantroCosmosDillSunflowerYarrow
• Ladybird (lady beetle) Coccinellidae
  Hunts Whitefly

  The gardener’s favorite ally: adults and their alligator-shaped larvae each eat thousands of aphids, plus scale, mealybugs, and other soft-bodied sap-suckers. Grow flat, open flowers for the adults and never spray a colony that ladybird larvae are already working.

  Plant nearby CalendulaCilantroCosmosDillFennelYarrow
• Minute pirate bug Orius spp.
  Hunts Whitefly

  A pinhead-sized true bug that is the best natural check on thrips, and happily spears aphids, mites, and insect eggs too. It needs pollen when prey is scarce, so keep something flowering nearby.

  Plant nearby CosmosFennelFrench marigoldSweet alyssum
• Parasitic wasps Braconidae & Trichogramma
  Hunts Whitefly

  Tiny, stingless wasps that lay eggs in or on caterpillars, aphids, and moth eggs — the white cocoons riding a hornworm are their calling card, so leave that caterpillar be. Umbel flowers with shallow nectar keep the adults fuelled.

  Plant nearby CilantroDillFennelLovageParsleySweet alyssumYarrow
• Predatory mites Phytoseiulus & Amblyseius
  Hunts Fungus gnats

  Fast orange mites that hunt spider mites egg-by-egg, and cousins that clear thrips and fungus-gnat larvae. Sold as a biological control for greenhouses; outdoors they follow humidity — mist and mulch, don’t dust with sulfur.

• Rove beetle Staphylinidae
  Hunts Fungus gnats

  Slim, quick beetles with short wing cases that hunt in soil and litter, taking root-fly eggs and larvae, fungus-gnat larvae, and mites. Mulch and undisturbed ground keep them resident year-round.

  Plant nearby MintThyme
• Spiders Araneae
  Hunts Whitefly

  Webs, ambushes, and night patrols make spiders the garden’s steadiest generalist predators, taking whatever flies or crawls past. Mulch, ground cover, and undisturbed corners keep the population dense.

  Plant nearby LavenderThyme