Last Christmas I saved a little 4" poinsettia from certain destruction on Christmas Eve by bringing it home with me. I don't even like poinsettias, but this one had been living on my counter for several weeks, it was the last one in existence, and would definitely not receive an adoptive home after Christmas. So, it spent the next week or so as a house decoration, of sorts, and then I decided to bonsai it! Right, a poinsettia bonsai.................really? It had an interesting, curved stem, which would become very thick and woody in time. I have seen poinsettias with trunks like trees. It seemed to tolerate pruning reasonably well, and it was free! So, it was pruned some, a branch was wired down in a somewhat graceful curve, it was planted in a bonsai-type pot, and it spent the whole spring, summer and fall under flourescent lights with my smallish plants.

Now, I tell customers who ask how to make a poinsettia change color again the next year to take a deep breath, put the poinsettia outdoors in the late fall for a breath of fresh air, and 'forget' to bring it in again. Then they can say "Oops' and feel much less guilty about throwing it out. They (the plants, not the people) need fourteen hours of absolute darkness and ten hours of bright light for three months in order to change color, and if you make a mistake and give it even one long day (or short night) it is back to square one! In addition, plants purchased at Christmas time are treated with growth retardant hormones to become short and bushy. These wear off after a year, so the next year the plants are long and leggy, trying to turn into trees. Most people take one look at it at Christmas time, think "I went to all that trouble for THAT!" and throw it out and buy another one anyway.

So, without even thinking about it, I turned on the flourescent lights at eight or so in the morning, turned them off again at six in the evening, and my scrawny little plant turned bright red! It is still ugly, but no less so than last year. I would like to nominate it for 'Unusual Bonsai of the Year' but still recommend not doing what I did. Still.....................it is kinda cute.