Instead of throwing out your poinsettia, keep it growing and learn how to turn the leaves red every Christmas! To preserve their colors, poinsettias should be kept out of high-traffic areas to help protect their delicate leaves. Try to keep them away from drafts, cold windows, heating vents or fireplaces.
Why Doesn't a Poinsettia Turn Red? You're probably aware that the green pigment chlorophyll gives leaves their vibrant color, but did you know that another pigment, called anthocyanin, is responsible for the bright red hue we see in plants like poinsettias? To achieve that stunning red, you'll need to take specific steps to induce this. Keep the temperature cool, ideally 60-70 F (16-21 C), and water sparingly. Bracts color in around 8-10 weeks.
Figuring out how to make a poinsettia flower hinges on this dark period - interrupt it, and the leaves stay green. How to Get Poinsettias to Rebloom As long as you provide poinsettias with regular water and bright, indirect light, poinsettias are relatively easy to grow as foliage plants. But if you want your poinsettias to turn red again, you'll need to "trick" them into blooming by depriving them of light.
Colors How many colors of poinsettias are there? How do poinsettias change color? There are many colors of poinsettias on the market now. Red is the old standby and still the most popular. White and pink are favorites too.
These days, poinsettias are available in yellow and orange. You can also find them in bi-colors as you'll see in some of the images here. If you find a blue or purple.
Poinsettias change color in response to shorter winter days. Poinsettia flowers are made up of the bracts, which look like petals, and the tiny yellow flowers in the center, called cyathia. The poinsettia's colorful display comes from its bracts, which are modified leaves surrounding the plants' small, yellow flowers.
As the amount of daylight decreases, the bracts change from green to the colors we cherish during the holidays. Handle the bracts gently, as they are prone to bruising or tearing. With the right care, your poinsettia may "rebloom" annually.
Some do, some don't, but it's always worth trying. We call it "reblooming" but the true flower of a poinsettia is the tightly-clustered yellow buds in the center (termed " cyathia '). The surrounding leaves that change color are modified leaves called bracts.
Poinsettias need long nights to change color. This means total darkness for about 14 hours a day starting in early fall. And when I say total darkness, I mean it.
The tiniest light leak can reset the whole process. Some people put the plant in a closet from evening until morning. Others use blackout boxes.