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Poinsettias in every color; even blue

November 28, 2012

Longtime readers of this blog will know that I have a love-hate relationship with poinsettias. I love them because they are one of the few plants that can bring some color into the house during these darkest days and because even if you do nothing else, a red poinsettia makes your house look holiday-ish. I sort of hate them because after Christmas I want them (and all the rest of my Christmas decorations) to just go away so I can get busy planning for spring (it’s a sickness). And then I’m forced to do things like this or this.

Apparently poinsettias, like so many other plants, are a hybridizer’s dream because there are certainly a variety of them to be found these days. The old days of red or white are long gone.
I swung by a local nursery last weekend and popped into their greenhouse to find a sea of poinsettias in almost every color.
A sea of poinsettias
In addition to the usual solid red, white and pink varieties, there were variations on red (burgundy) and the very dark-leaved on above. 
There was one that looked like it got in the way of one of my crazy spray-painting projects:
Red and white speckled poinsettia
This softly colored blush and cream one:
A darker, reversed version of that one with an almost coral color:
Salmon poinsettia
This one was a pinky red on the edges with a Pepto-Bismal pink center, but that’s not what I liked about it: 
red with pink center ponsettia -- The Impatient Gardener

Take a closer look. Do you see the cool accidental variation on that plant? One bract was split right down the center with red on one half and white on the other. I hope some smart hybridizer figures out how to isolate and stabilize that because that would be a very cool looking poinsettia.

Half red leaf, half white leaf poinsettia -- The Impatient Gardener
And then we get the most hideous of the offerings. The dyed blue poinsettia. Let’s just get this out in the world: no flower that is dyed blue is a good thing. Real blue flowers (Himalayan blue poppies and some delphiniums are the first that come to mind) are stunning treasures. This, not so much.
Blue poinsettia -- The Impatient Gardener

 My favorite of all the poinsettias I saw was this one, which manages to take just a tiny twist on the traditional with the variegated leaves.

Variegated leaf poinsettia -- The Impatient Gardener
Do you decorate with poinsettias? What do you do with them when the holidays are over? Are you a blatant plant killer like myself or are you overcome by guilt so that you actually keep the thing alive until spring? 
Want to test your knowledge about poinsettias? Take this little quiz on the favorite flower of the holiday season. I got one of them wrong. 
christmas poinsettia poinsettias
by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener 
21 Comments

About Erin @ The Impatient Gardener

View all posts by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener

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previous post: Do you see what I see?
next post: Buh-bye ugly lamp!

Comments

  1. LlNDA from EACH LITTLE WORLD says: November 29, 2012 at 4:28 am

    That blue one is actually creepy! My fave is the salmon peachy color — not so Christmas-y,

    Reply
    • Erin Schanen says: December 6, 2012 at 9:35 pm

      Creepy is right!

      Reply
      • kailla says: November 15, 2018 at 3:45 pm

        Blue is like a Christmas color so yea Red sucks the most

        Reply
    • Betty Schwerin says: December 13, 2017 at 11:02 pm

      My grandchildren just brought me a HUGH blue poinsettia. And guess what – it has been sprayed with blue glitter. It is 2 1/2 feet tall. A remarkable plant. I LOVE IT.

      Reply
  2. Heather @ new house, new home, new life says: November 29, 2012 at 12:42 pm

    I agree with you about the blue dyed flowers. I think this example of the poinsettia is the worst I've ever seen.

    What do I do with my poinsettias after Christmas. KILL THEM!!!! Like you, I can't wait for spring and the last thing I want in February is an old reminder of December. Looks like we have the same method – starve them to death. I usually put them in another room and try to forget about them. Funny, my husband must know this practice because I haven't had one given to me for a few years now.

    Reply
  3. High says: December 6, 2012 at 7:49 pm

    Is it just me, or are there pots hanging from the ceiling?

    Reply
    • Erin Schanen says: December 6, 2012 at 9:35 pm

      Your eyes do not deceive you: There are indeed poinsettias in hanging baskets there. I can't imagine what the application of those is, but they must do well with them to have so many.

      Reply
  4. Anonymous says: December 8, 2012 at 6:18 am

    Oh, no, I love the blue ones!!! So pretty. But hate that they are artificially so. I found a site that claims there are naturally occurring blue ones, tho. Wonder if it's true. The blue ones would match with my blue house!

    Reply
    • KimB says: December 6, 2014 at 8:53 pm

      I love them also!!!

      Reply
  5. Anonymous says: December 6, 2014 at 6:20 pm

    All color's are pretty!

    Reply
  6. KimB says: December 6, 2014 at 8:52 pm

    My husband just bought me a blue one and I LOVE IT!! Goes perfectly with my blue, silver and white Christmas decor!!

    Reply
    • Joyce says: November 27, 2015 at 8:22 pm

      Exactly! I have the same color scheme, and when I found a beautiful teal blue one at Meijer last winter, I was ecstatic. I generally don't like dyed flowers, but this was an exception I was thrilled to make. In fact, I have kitchen counter appliances in this shade of blue, so even after Christmas I was happy with it and sorry when it died.

      Reply
      • cathy says: February 7, 2021 at 12:12 am

        Loved the blue this year!!!!

        Reply
  7. Anonymous says: December 6, 2015 at 5:10 am

    I love the blue ones too because I celebrate Hanukkah, not Christmas. Where did you find them? I am having trouble finding them this year?

    Reply
  8. Jay Lynn says: May 23, 2016 at 6:07 pm

    Planted it outside. My neighbor has a gorgeously full poinsettia that is about 7 feet tall that changes back to bright red every year. It's truly breathtaking.

    Reply
  9. Jay Lynn says: May 23, 2016 at 6:08 pm

    Planted it outside. My neighbor has a gorgeously full poinsettia that is about 7 feet tall that changes back to bright red every year. It's truly breathtaking.

    Reply
  10. ann banc says: December 19, 2017 at 3:05 pm

    i just purchased a blue poinsettia for a friend because her favorite color is blue and she is going through a hard time right now. Now I feel embarrassed that I did it. no wonder I haven’t heard from her about it. she probably thinks it is tacky and likely feels the same towards me. thought I did something nice. guess I did something awful instead.

    Reply
    • JDHumphrey says: January 5, 2020 at 4:37 pm

      Or maybe she’s just busy and hasn’t had time to thank you. I battled breast cancer most of 2019 and still owe lots of thank yous to people who encouraged me along the way.
      I walked into Lowe’s before Christmas and saw the most beautiful blue and cream poinsettia. I immediately put it in my cart. I don’t care that it’s dyed. It’s gorgeous and still looks healthy.

      Reply
  11. Soo newman says: June 28, 2018 at 11:41 am

    I was brought a white poinsettia for Christmas last year and now it’s turning red why.

    Reply
  12. Carol Ranieri says: December 22, 2018 at 8:29 am

    Just because you don’t like blue and consider them “tacky” does not speak for everyone. I LOVE poinsettias and have them all over my house at Christmas. Yes, I keep them until they die (sometimes in July). I just put them outside. And I LOVE THE BLUE. They are not “tacky” at all. Everyone that sees it has positive comments and want to know where I got it Have given them as gifts and the recipients showed true joy. Don’t like pink or salmon or white. Red or Blue or variegated is for me.

    Reply
  13. Marianne says: December 18, 2019 at 8:03 am

    I challenge myself to keep the plants alive and blooming in December. I received an awesomely healthy poinsettia 3 years ago. It continues to grow and bloom for me.

    Reply

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The Impatient Gardener

Do you love gardening? Me too! I'm Erin and I garden in Southeastern Wisconsin, zone 5. The Impatient Gardener is all about real-life gardening: the good parts, the bad bits and even the funny stuff. It's part information, part inspiration and a little bit commiseration. Thanks for visiting.

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Here’s a combo I’m totally digging this year: Wicked Witch coleus with Compact White Sunpatiens. I should have planted more Sunpatiens because they haven’t filled in as much as I expected in this part sun spot, but it’s a great look.
When you leave your garden in the middle of summer you know there’s going to be some clean up on the back end. It’s amazing how the little things we do every day in the garden, even when we’re not “working” in it—pulling a weed, propping up a plant, tucking tendrils into a trellis—add up to important jobs. And you don’t realize that until they aren’t being done. 

When I came home after 8 days away I was planning to whip the whole garden into shape and ended up spending all day in the vegetable garden where things went awry quickly. 

I was rewarded though with lots of cucumbers and zucchini and a few pretty bouquets to put around the house. This is Madame Butterfly Bronze with White (a name I don’t understand at because I wouldn’t use any of those words to describe the color) snapdragon and Apricot Shades strawflower. 

Check the link in the bio to see the whole video and what I found when I first laid eyes on the garden after some time away.
It’s a nighttime hunt in the garden and it’s the best time to find hornworms. You’ll need a black light and a tough gag reflex but you have to remove these guys from your tomato plants or they’ll be gone quickly. If you find a hornworm with white things that look like grains of rice in it, that is parasitic wasp larvae that will eat them from the inside (everything about this is gross). Remove those hornworms from your plants but don’t kill then as you’ll be aiding the beneficial bug population by allowing those parasitic wasps to hatch. For other hornworms you can kill them or feed them to chickens or put on your bird feeder. They do turn into beautiful, big moths but you want to make sure they can’t get back to your plants if you let the hornworms live.
When it comes Echinacea, @garden.evolution (aka Coneflower king) and I don’t often agree, but I think we both feel the same about Color Coded ‘The Price is White’ being an outstanding variety. The flowers are big and flat, hold their white color really well, are sturdy and, well, put on a great show. I’m loving them growing with Rock ‘n Grow ‘Back in Black’ too. Both are @provenwinners varieties from @waltersgardens

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