Poinsettia pointers

Whether they're the top-selling red standbys or one of the dreamily named hybrids such as Premium Picasso, Monet Twilight, Shimmer and Surprise, how do you keep your poinsettia looking good post-holidays?

Follow this advice from Ron Wolford, a University of Illinois horticulturist and creator of the online Poinsettia Pages:

• Place your poinsettia in indirect light after bringing it home. Poinsettias need six hours of light daily (fluorescent light will work).

• Keep your plant away from cold windows, warm or cold drafts from furnaces or air conditioners, and open doors and windows.

• Poinsettias do best at daytime temperatures of 65 to 70 degrees. Higher temperatures will shorten the plant's life.

• Check the soil daily. Punch holes in the pot's foil cover so water can drain into a saucer. Water the plant when the soil is dry. Allow water to drain into the saucer and discard excess. Wilted plants will tend to drop bracts sooner.

• Don't fertilize poinsettias while in bloom. If they are kept past the holidays, apply houseplant fertilizer monthly.

For more tips, go to: urbanext.illinois.edu/poinsettia/index.cfm.

• The poinsettia, a tropical shrub, is native to Mexico and Central America. The Aztecs called it cuetlaxochitl, or "star flower." The red petals -- actually bracts or modified leaves -- were used for dye. The plant also was used medicinally.

• Joel Poinsett, the first U.S. ambassador to Mexico, is credited with introducing the plant to this country in 1828. He raised the plants in his South Carolina greenhouse and gave them to friends. National Poinsettia Day is celebrated Dec. 12, the anniversary of Poinsett's death.

• The red or otherwise colored bracts frame the plant's actual flowers, which appear as yellow clusters at the center of the bracts. The plant drops its bracts and leaves soon after those flowers shed their pollen. For the longest-lasting poinsettias, choose plants with little or no yellow pollen showing.

• Contrary to popular belief, poinsettias are not poisonous to humans or pets.