Bert's BloomersThe Official Blog of the Ten Minute Garden!

Poinsettias are not my favourite plant, but I loved the challenge of growing them in a chemical free environment, something the “experts” claim is next to impossible. They are wrong! But, I’m not going to bore you with the technicalities of growing poinsettias.

One of the most often asked questions asked by our customers was “How do I care for my poinsettia when I get it home?” Here’s our answer:

As soon as you get the plant home, remove the protective sleeve. This prevents damaging ethylene from building up. If you’ve purchased the poinsettias as gifts, but don’t intend on giving them right away, remove the sleeve until just before you deliver them.

Place the poinsettia in a bright location, away from cold drafts. They deeply resent cold.

Poinsettias do not like wet feet! Keep the soil on the dry side, but do not allow the plant to wilt. That just shortens its life.

When to water? When the pot feels light. If the bracts (leaves) are beginning to wilt, you are not watering soon enough.

Remove the decorative pot cover before you water.

When you water, drench the pot, being careful not to splash the foliage.

Fill the pot to the rim with water and allow the water to drain out the bottom of the pot. I usually water them in the kitchen sink so I know they’ll drain well.

After ten minutes or so, replace the decorative pot cover and you’re done!

You should not need to fertilize the poinsettia over the holidays.

And on a final note, Poinsettias are not poisonous! That is a myth. Research, tests and studies have proven that poinsettias are not toxic to human or animal life. The sap can, in sensitive individuals, cause a very slight case of dermatitis that lasts for a very brief time, but that is the worst thing that can happen.

There was a period of about three or four years that I did not have my own greenhouse, and no prospects of ever having one again. But ingenuity and a passion for recycling made my hobby greenhouse a reality. It began by accumulating old windows, with the thought that I could attach them to a frame and build a greenhouse. I soon discovered I could not afford the lumber to build a greenhouse large enough to satisfy my greedy addiction to plants. Never one to give up easily, I continued accumulating (scavenging) bits and pieces of “stuff” that I would use in and for the greenhouse I knew was going be in our garden someday.

While shopping at one of those giant box stores, I noticed a sale on one of those easy-up temporary car shelters. I glanced at it, but carried on through the store. As I wandered and shopped I started thinking about this shelter. When we left the store, we left with the shelter, a.k.a. the frame for my new 10’ x 20’ greenhouse. One of my (free) recycled finds was several pressure treated 6” x 6” of varying lengths. They would form the sill for the greenhouse. A neighbour was throwing out old wooden screen windows. When she heard of my greenhouse plans, the screens were offered to me, free, for my project. Now I had ventilation for the greenhouse. Another neighbour was renovating and offered about fifty pieces of 1” x 2” x 8’ lumber to me, free for the taking as well. Now I had a frame, a sill to set it on, ventilation, and lumber to close in the end walls. All that was needed now was a plastic cover. I could not and still can not afford greenhouse plastic, but vapour barrier is affordable. Two rolls of greenhouse repair tape were more than enough to piece together the vapour barrier into one sheet of plastic big enough to cover the entire frame. Make that two sheets, because I put a double layer of plastic on the greenhouse. Out of the 1” x 2” lumber I built the end walls and a door, covered with more of the vapour barrier.

Every greenhouse needs growing benches and again, my penchant for recycling paid off. The benches are made up of wooden pallets and concrete blocks that were destined for the landfill site until I put my pride in my pocket and asked if I could take them. For free. The potting bench was also rescued from a trip to the dump and was also free. Next, I needed a solid path between the benches. Ideally, I would prefer a gravel walkway, but that was beyond our budget. Keeping my eyes and ears open, I heard of some patio stones that were being removed. I offered to remove them and take them away, for free.

It took about one full year to gather everything the build the greenhouse, but it was certainly worth being patient for! Every spring I spend hours upon hours in there, listening to Vivaldi, planting seeds, pinching seedlings, fertilizing, transplanting, or just puttering away. Nothing is as enjoyable as the hours I spend in the greenhouse. What makes them even more special is knowing I saved the landfill from filling up with “stuff” and what few things I did have to buy, cost me less than three hundred dollars in total!

By the way, do you know anyone who could use some old windows of various sizes?

First to go were the growth regulators. Instead, we learned to control plant height and width by judicious pruning. This is a very labour intensive undertaking in a large scale greenhouse operation, but much safer for the greenhouse workers. (Discounting the increase in nipped fingers of course.) I cannot count the number of experts who told me it was impossible to grow plants, poinsettias in particular, without using growth regulators. They were wrong! Our poinsettias were the best looking in three counties, and no, that is not an exaggeration. We applied the same pruning principles to our spring bedding plants and fall mums, and they too did exceptionally well.

Next to go were the disinfectants used to sterilize the greenhouses and benches. We switched to an organic based cleaner, which worked just as well. The brand we used was safe enough for use even when the greenhouses were full of plants.

The most difficult part of the switch to green growing was eliminating the pesticides. We had many problems during this phase. Our ultimate goal was to introduce beneficial insects into the greenhouses to control the bad bugs. This meant going a full year without any insecticides until the greenhouses were completely clear of residual chemicals that could harm the beneficial insects. It also meant sterilizing each greenhouse from top to bottom, all thirty thousand square feet.

Throughout this transitional period, I worked closely with the specialists we would be purchasing the beneficials from. Without their assistance, not to mention moral support, we could not have made the change over. When the time finally came to introduce beneficial insects into the greenhouses, relief was the main emotion, followed by excitement. We knew what insects we had to control – whitefly, aphids, thrips, spider mite, and mealy bug, and had on hand (in the flower cooler of all places) the predator insects that would keep the nasties in check. On the big day, we ceremoniously released the beneficials into the greenhouses. In less than a month, the crops were virtually clear of the bad bugs.

IPM is an on-going thing, not a one shot deal. It is not meant to eliminate every single bad bug, but rather keep them at a manageable level. Every day we would monitor the pest situation and apply beneficials as necessary as part of our daily routine. The final results were healthy plants, and a healthy environment in which to shop and to work. You could tell the difference as soon as you walked into the building. There wasn’t any chemical smell, just fragrant plants and clean air. Employees and customers alike appreciated the effort, the work and the time taken to rid the greenhouses of chemicals, which in my mind were the biggest pests of all.