Your Garden Guy: Six steps to help your poinsettia bloom again next year

It's time to add Christmas 2015 to the memory book. It also is time to do something with the poinsettias that will begin to fade. Mine are looking pretty bad, so into the compost pile they go but ... your poinsettia may bloom again next December! It just takes some luck, and these helpful steps.

1: Until March, water your plant, provide a liquid fertilizer once a month, and place it in a window that receives six hours of indirect light a day. Place your plant on a deck or patio on days when temperatures reach 60 degrees or above. Be sure to bring the plant back in at night.

2: In March, prune the poinsettia to 10 inches in height. Continue water, fertilizer and sun requirements.

3: After the last chance of frost, and when outdoor temperatures remain above 55 degrees, move your poinsettia outside. Choose a place that receives morning sun with afternoon shade, or lots of indirect light. Continue with the water (do not let the plants dry out) and fertilization schedule.

4: In mid summer, transplant it into a pot one size larger. Prune the plant to keep it neat and attractive.

5: Easy so far -- now for the luck part! Beginning Oct. 1, your poinsettia must be in complete darkness for 14 hours each night. Accomplish this by covering the plant with a large box. Take the box off each morning and put it back on each night during October, November and early December. Night temps must be above 60 degrees. Continue with the watering schedule, making sure to water when the soil feels dry to the touch. Continue fertilizing.

6: Sometime in December, the poinsettia should start to bloom ... usually, sometimes. Well, it has been known to happen.

Todd Goulding provides residential landscape design consultations. Contact him at www.fernvalley.com or 478-345-0719.

This story was originally published December 30, 2015 at 9:48 PM.