Besides bringing a Christmas tree into your home, you can add life and color by decorating your home with other holiday plants.
The poinsettia is a proven performer for festooning a corner, fireplace hearth or tabletop with seasonal cheer. With leaves of white, coral, pink, red or burgundy, as well as in variegated tones, poinsettias splash color wherever you put them. Try grouping several poinsettias at varied heights using upside-down terra cotta pots for perches, weaving greenery or garland into bare spots.
Your local nursery will have wonderful blooming plants ready for you to start placing around your house. Pots of paperwhite narcissus and amaryllis forced into bloom, cyclamen and Christmas cactus will cheer you on through holiday parties. For something new, try an exotic orchid or dainty miniature rose plant.
A small holiday tree that will still be right at home the rest of the year is the Norfolk Island Pine. Its rows of soft branches are naturals for holding lightweight ornaments and a sprinkling of bows. You can use your pine as an accent or even as your Christmas tree.
Caring for Holiday Plants
You have decided to bring home holiday plants to provide festive decoration for the season. You may find yourself groaning as you think of the care you don’t know how to provide. Well, cheer up. The old saying about needing a “green thumb” to grow plants successfully is just not true.
There are cooks who just “know” how much of what spice to add, and there are some people who have the knack for growing great houseplants. But there are also cooks who get delicious results by carefully following a recipe; so, in the same way, anyone can grow healthy plants by following simple rules for their care and feeding. Most plants come with instructions—you know, those little plastic inserts you find sticking inside the plant’s potting soil. Follow these instructions and you’ll discover you can grow houseplants. If there are no instructions that come with your plant, use any internet search engine to find guidelines for your plant’s care and feeding needs.
Christmas plants like azalea, Christmas pepper, Christmas cherry, cyclamen, Rieger elatior begonia, poinsettia and others, will stay attractive long after the holiday season, provided you furnish the conditions and care they require. All holiday plants require bright light during the day and a cool room (about 65°) at night. All holiday plants need watering before the soil is dry to the touch.
Cyclamens will need a little extra care when it comes to watering. Make sure to water the cyclamen around the edges of the pot because water inside the crown may cause rot. You can also set it in a dish of water and let it soak up moisture. Do not let the soil dry out while the plant is in flower, or the leaves will turn yellow.
So go beyond tree decorating this year and use some of these special plants to spread festive holiday color and cheer all around your home.
Enjoy and Merry Christmas!
By Misty Johns, Coastal Greenery Inc.
