At Christmas this year, our church had a neat way to honor loved ones or commemorate special events from the last year. You could purchase a poinsettia at $10 a piece and have a special message written on the card. The poinsettias were taken to church and decorated the whole front of the church beginning the 2nd week of December. We could then take our flowers home with us after the Christmas Eve service (or later if we weren’t there for Christmas Eve).
We purchased 2 poinsettias – one in memory of my Sweetie’s Grandfather, Papo, who passed away on December 11, 2009, and one in memory of my GG (Great-Grandma) who passed away on August 9, 2010.
They were gorgeous – great big 9 inch pots with full leaves and flowers, and beautiful colors!
I brought mine home on Christmas Eve, and placed them both in the same place, on either side of our nativity scene. I watered them at the same time, the same amount. Same amount of sunlight (not much), same air flow, same everything that I can think of. However, they both haven’t responded in the same way.
Yup, one of them is pretty much dead, and the other one is still full and gorgeous. I have NO IDEA why.
The only difference I know of is that the one that is still alive got ‘touched’ a bit more than the other one, being right on the side of the table by the entryway into the kitchen. I know that it got brushed up against a few times and even shocked with static electricity a handful of times when someone touched it. I was actually worried that this one would die.
I do NOT have a green thumb, and I haven’t had a lot of luck keeping plants alive. Sweetie got me a bamboo plant for our anniversary two years ago and it’s still alive, but they are pretty low maintenance plants anyway. In this situation with the poinsettia I don’t know what happened at all.
Sweetie thinks maybe it just wants to go dormant and will come back out again (my mom-in-love kept poinsettia alive for 5 years – the leaves would fall off and then it would come out again the next year….).
It’s a mystery to me. Any ideas?
They usually die from too much or too little water, or a cold blast of air gets 'em. Maybe the soil had a bug …. could be anything …
Maybe it was just not a great plant.
Probably nothing you did. Even though they grow year round here, I treat them as an annual, and don't expect them to survive.
* I googled it and this is one answer from a Greenhouse attendant. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071229042122AAxAVcq
btw I know they go dormant and it is pretty normal for them to lose their leaves and be just sticks in dirt – don't throw them out though.
Not to say this is your issue, but I have bought potted plants like this and had similar things happen when they have no real ROOTS. They look fine for a few days and then they well, die – because they have no root system and just got "stuck" in the dirt. Have had it happen with MUMS and others.