Getting Poinsettia to bloom

It's doing well @Ossie , mine is in the greenhouse getting just natural day length, no signs of bracts or buds.

 

Congratulations!

 

Then you are pretty unlikely to see any flowers! They need more hours of darkness than we can normally give them in the UK!

 

I will never understand this Balc!

 

We get more hours of darkness in winter than where the plant naturally grows.
I have a feeling that the darkness idea might be about getting them to flower at the correct time for Christmas, which is why I'm trying it this way.
We will see, nothing ventured nothing gained.

 

My main problem will be when the weather turns colder, I'll need to find a sunny windowsill in a room I don't use after dark.
The plant appears to have almost stopped growing in the green house already and it's not really been cold yet.

 

I've been doing a bit of delving and on one site it says you need to give the plant 14 hours of darkness in September to initiate flowering.

Looking at a day length chart we are just around 14 hours of darkness now, so by my calculations, if I should get mine to flower it will be a couple of months late for Christmas.

 

@pete One way you can introduce longer & darker times is to cover your plant - very carefully - with a black bin bag, It's something I did with my plants & it worked really well. Though there were days I'd forget to get it out of the cupboard where it also passed the night So in a way it's a "miracle" my plants ever lived to produce flowers at all!

 

I'm trying to get it to flower with no messing around @Balc

I'm not really bothered when it flowers, the aim is to just get it to flower without too much hassle.

I dont think I'd be able to stick to any day night regime that isn't natural.

I mean, lets face it, you can buy them for a couple of quid in Morrisons in a month or so.
Now if it was something rare and unusual I'd be prepared to spend the time.

 

@pete Don't forget to upload a picture or two when it does eventually flower! I'd be very interested to see the plant!

 

I will, if it does, its just experimental really.

 

Having cut mine down to about a meter in late March, It is now towering to nearly three meters but not turning red yet (which is slightly late this year) ...

 

I've brought mine indoors now, its in a room that gets no artificial lighting, I was thinking that the cold greenhouse was probably a bit too cold at night to expect any growth.

Anyway, I think something is happening, remains to be seen if it gets any more reddening of the existing leaves or if it needs to grow new ones that are red.

 

@pete I think with the natural shortening of daylight as we head nearer to Christmas will do the trick! Just make sure to keep it warm & away from draughts; cold & draughts will surely kill it!

 

Don't think you'd get one this size for a couple of quid though