We’re already in one of the most colorful seasons, full of red, green, and gold tones, so it’s time to start preparing your home and garden for Christmas. That’s why this time we’re going to give you some excellent advice on the season’s iconic plants: how to make your Christmas Eve plant bloom if it’s from last year or grow it if it’s new?
Also known as “Flor de Pascua” or Christmas star – like its scientific name -, this flower is native to Mexico and belongs to the Euphorbiaceae family and is considered to be of high ornamental value . That’s why it is one of the spoiled ones this Christmas season !
“Christmas Eve is prized for its extraordinary red leaves, which appear at the end of the year, which is why it is used as part of Christmas decorations ,” explains the CONACYT Institute of Ecology.
Because my Christmas Eve doesn’t bloom
If you have decided that this plant will accompany you this season, it is important that you know how to help it so that at the very end of autumn and as soon as winter arrives it is leafy and colorful.
Take note, because if your beautiful flower has become sad, we will tell you how to make your Christmas Eve bloom if it is from last year and thus you can have a beautiful plant that could accompany you almost until the end of February.
How to make your Christmas Eve bloom
To paint your Christmas Eve in red, yellow, white or pink – since there is currently more than one color in the horticulture of this species – we will give you a tip that comes from “The Garden of a City Dweller”.
The first thing you should know is that the Christmas Eve flowers are NOT the beautiful red leaves, but the small yellow flowers that are right in the middle of the star. In fact, the red leaves serve to prepare the plant for flowering, which is why outside of its season (winter), these are usually green because they enter vegetative rest the rest of the year, that is, they “fall asleep.”
However, without proper care, this plant will not prepare for proper flowering and therefore will not bear that intense and spectacular red that characterizes it.
To achieve the desired blooms, you should reduce the number of times you water the plant to just once after Christmas, place the plant in a cool spot where it does not receive direct sunlight, or place it near air conditioning or a radiator.
In addition, at the end of January or when it loses its leaves, the branches should be pruned by about 10 centimeters with disinfected and sharp scissors but making diagonal cuts and for spring it will be important to transplant it and apply a good substrate or fertilizer.
Later in the fall, it is recommended to start doing dark sessions on Christmas Eve (that is, when you still have time to do it). To do this, you should leave it for half a day in a place without any light, you can achieve this by covering it with a piece of cloth or a blanket.
Repeat this light covering process until winter arrives and you will notice how it acquires an increasingly beautiful and intense red tone.
The secret to getting them to bloom is to give them a period of semi-darkness before flowering, which is done so that the plant turns red and thus achieves the task of having the long-awaited flower on Christmas Eve. Around 4:00 a.m.: <> you must cover your plants with a cloth.
Now that you know this, you can have the most beautiful specimens for your plants at home.