Poinsettia should I repot?

I just bought a poinsettia which was in a small pot and was wondering if I should repot it now?

 

Hi,

We would leave it well alone for now as disturbing it might cause it to drop its leaves.

Just keep it carefully watered as in the link below.

The link also details how to keep it growing next year, though to get the red leaves again is realistically not practical and sadly its best to discard the plant once its leaves fade.

Would place a saucer under the pot to save your furniture.

Poinsettia Care: How to Keep a Poinsettia Alive | BBC Gardeners World Magazine

 

The greatest potential for problem is the plant being unstable/top heavy. Could you place/plunge it in a larger pot to put more weight lower down. Subsequently,you might split the sides of the existing pot and allow rooting in to a larger pot. While some folks do manage to grow these on, the prognosis for most examples is , I fear, not good.

 

I managed to keep one going for at least 3 years when we lived in Spain. Mind you as we didn't have Internet in those days (1980s) I didn't know it should be pruned or other things I now know. I managed to get it to "flower" each of those years but in reality it was an ugly plant & the bracts were very small but I did mange it so it can be done.

Having said that a few years ago my son bought me a really lovely specimen - what did I do? I overwatered it & killed it!!! yet he bought a reduced price one that was more dead than alive that I wouldn't have bothered with & coaxed it back to life! And he's a fairly novice gardener, (about 6 or 7 years now), whereas I've been gardening for about 60 years!!!

 

Hi @bluegeranium , if the plant is toppling over, perhaps you can just pop it into a heavy cache pot for the festive period? It doesn't need any fertilising or root space just now, moderate watering is enough to keep it fresh for weeks.

Sadly, Poinsettia is not really worth growing on as the growing habit is a bit straggly and the lovely dark green foliage achieved by the professional growers often turns into pale unimpressive green in normal houseplant conditions. It will grow and get big, but there are much more attractive houseplants to choose from.


But it's always fun to give things a try I was just forced to buy one after decades of giving Christmas Poinsettias a miss (because I hate binning living plants) and got an idea.

I have a windowless cupboard and loads of grow lights, what if I trim hard and bask the plant in sun over the summer and then relocate it in the cupboard with the timer lights to get a perfect 12/12 light regime?

Hmmm...

 

Thanks for the advice I have left it alone and placed it in a larger pot for support as suggested and it looks fine with no loss of leaves yet which is what usually happens so fingers crossed.