If you’re like millions of Americans, there’s a flowering houseplant in your holiday future. Poinsettia heads the “Big Three” list of holiday plants, with over $250 million in annual sales, followed by Christmas cactus and amaryllis. All are relatively carefree, but unless you know what to shop for, you could end with a disappointing poinsettia, a fractious cactus, or the dreaded amaryllis “unfulfill-us.”

Poinsettia Pointers

By late November you can’t swing a giant plastic candy cane in any retail store without hitting a poinsettia display. To pick a lasting, healthy plant:

Check overall shape and size: plants should be no more than 2 1/2 times taller than their containers.

Avoid plants that have been spray-painted or sprinkled with suffocating glitter.

Look for a firm, stout stem and dark green foliage almost to the soil line.

Inspect the flower petals (actually modified leaves called bracts). They should be fully colored (no green around the edges) and larger than the lower leaves.

Inspect the small yellowish-green buttons (cyathia) in the middle of each group of petals; they should be tightly clustered, showing little or no pollen. Once pollen is released, the plant will drop its bracts!

Cover with plastic to keep your plant warm and head home. Choose a well-lit location: cool at night and away from heat sources and drafts. Water when the top of the soil is dry, mist occasionally, and don’t fertilize.

Remember, poinsettias are dangerous for pets if ingested, so keep them out of reach.

“Christmas” Cactus Checklist

Most of the Christmas cacti sold are actually Thanksgiving cacti, which bloom earlier. So, if you want abundant blooms on Dec. 25, delay your purchase until closer to the holiday (Retailers will re-stock through mid-December).

Choose a plant with both buds and blossoms. Plants can flower for 4-6 weeks, but individual blooms last only 7-9 days.

Avoid plants that are lopsided or have damaged stems or signs of bruising.

As with poinsettias, loosely wrap the cactus for the journey home.

Temperature, light and watering requirements are generally similar to poinsettias, except water from the bottom, and add a pebble tray for humidity.

Amaryllis Advice

From bulb to bloom, amaryllis takes about 6-8 weeks. If your heart’s set on flowers by December 25, run — don’t walk — to your nearest garden center. Bulbs are available loose or in kits including a container and soil. Here’s what to look for:

Avoid sealed, opaque boxes. You should be able to see (and preferably handle) the bulb.

Size matters: Bulbs can range from 2″ to 7″ across. The larger the bulb, the larger and more abundant the stems/flowers. Softball size should be relatively easy to find.

Bulbs should be firm, plump, and unbruised, with whitish, fleshy roots and some green starting to show at the top.

Planting the bulb:

Snip off withered roots and sit the bulb in a tray of tepid water for a few hours.

Amaryllises need to be pot-bound to bloom. Choose a heavy container with drainage holes, at least 6″ deep and only 2-3″ wider than the bulb.

Fill the bottom with potting soil. Fan the roots, and place the bulb on top. Fill around the bulb, making sure at least 1/2 of it remains above ground.

Water thoroughly (moist, not wet), keeping the top of the bulb dry.

Place in a cool, bright location; rotate pot 90 degrees daily so stalks grow straight.

Once stalks emerge, move to a warm, sunny location and feed with half-strength water-soluble fertilizer every 2-3 weeks.

Once blooming starts, you should have a succession of flowers for 4-5 weeks. To prolong further, move the plant to a cooler, darker location.

As with poinsettias, amaryllis bulbs can be dangerous for pets, so keep them out of reach.

As if brilliant holiday flowers aren’t enough reward, remember: Poinsettias, Christmas cacti and amaryllises are all perennials. Come summer, you can move them to your garden. And — with a little TLC — they will re-bloom next holiday season. Check the Internet for “how-to” info.

Have fun with your new plants … and best wishes for the best bloomin’ holidays ever.

About the Evening Garden Club of West Roxbury

website: http://gcfm.org/eveninggcwestroxbury/Home.aspx

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EveGardenClubOfWestRox

Founded in 1996, The Evening Garden Club of West Roxbury is a member of the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts. A 501(c)(3) charity organization, the club maintains four community beautification sites. Club meetings – which are open to the public – are held the 2nd Wednesday of each month and feature presentations by experienced horticulturists.

Ann Morgan is vice president of The Evening Garden Club of West Roxbury and associate editor of Mayflower, the official publication of the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts, Inc.

When a hard freeze is in the forecast, it is time to pick the last of the tomatoes, peppers and eggplants and clean the plants from the garden! 

All the tomatoes, peppers and eggplants should be harvested before the vine is killed.  Green tomatoes can be made into fried green tomatoes (I love a spicy fish breading on mine), pickled, or stored in a dark place to ripen.  You can bring your pepper plants indoors and they will flower and produce for weeks.  They will survive the entire winter and get a one to two month head start on next year’s season.

You can compost any garden debris that is disease free, but dispose of any diseased plants in the garbage. Only high sustained temperatures will destroy the spores and it is not worth the risk of spreading into next year’s garden.

This is the time of year to put a coat on your potted plants that you are going to leave outdoors. The best place to locate your plants and greenhouse is close to protection and on the south side of the house in full sun. Putting the greenhouse against the house will help keep the temperatures warmer for your plants.

I have my portable greenhouse over my three Earthoxes that contain kale, celery, French dandelion, spinach, lettuce, blood veined sorrel, and garden purslane. It is also best to make sure the pots are sitting directly on the ground.  I have my pots placed next to our outdoor kitchen and on the concrete patio.  The outdoor kitchen wall and concrete patio absorbs heat during the day to release overnight, keeping the temperatures from dipping inside the greenhouse.

I put five 1 gallon jugs filled with water and spray painted black inside the greenhouse along the outside edge. I have 2 on each side and 1 in the end.  The black will help heat up the water during the day.  These will help moderate the temperature inside the greenhouse overnight.  Make sure you have the edges of greenhouse secured to the ground (there is an internal flap all around the inside of my greenhouse that I placed the milk jugs on to hold the flaps down).

The biggest risk with a greenhouse? Overheating! The sun’s rays are quite hot on a cloudless day. I open the vent on my greenhouse when it is sunny and in the 30’s. I will unzip the front door flap when it gets into the 40’s.   In the 50’s, the cold crops really don’t need any protection.

For more potted and small space gardening tips, see my blog at VictoryGardenOnTheGolfCourse.Blogspot.com.

Walnut Creek’s Ruth Bancroft is a national authority on drought-resistant gardening. Twice a month, she and her staff share their knowledge with readers.

While some plants have a fixed time of year when they invariably come into bloom, others are less precise. One such species is Senna artemisioides, a shrub native to Australia.

Although it generally flowers during the winter and spring months, the timing varies from plant to plant and from year to year. At the Ruth Bancroft Garden, we have had it begin as early as September and end as late as May.

Senna artemisioides is sometimes referred to as Feathery Cassia, in reference to its fine-textured feathery foliage. In older books, it is referred to as Cassia artemisioides, and the old genus name persists in its common name. In current taxonomy, most of the shrubs formerly included in Cassia have been transferred to the genus Senna, while the trees have kept the name Cassia.

The gray-green leaves of Senna artemisioides are up to 3 inches long; they are divided into very narrow leaflets that look like pine needles. On closer inspection, it can be seen that the leaf stalk and the undersides of the leaflets are silvery, contrasting with the green upper sides. The overall effect is gray-green, with the fineness of the foliage giving the plant an airy look.

This species normally attains a height of 5 to 6 feet, and sometimes a little more. At the Ruth Bancroft Garden, we value S. artemisioides for the way its feathery foliage contrasts with the solidity of large-leaved plants such as agaves and aloes.

The cupped flowers of Feathery Cassia are a half-inch to two-thirds of an inch across. They are bright yellow with a dark eye, due to the cluster of dark brown stamens nestled within the cup.

Although the flowers are not large, they are produced abundantly over a long period of time. The seed pods that follow are initially glossy green, then turn brown at maturity. They resemble narrow shiny snap peas, which is not surprising since Senna belongs to the pea family.

Sennas are found worldwide, mostly in tropical or subtropical regions. Fortunately, there are some kinds, such as S. artemisioides, with enough cold tolerance to endure the occasional dips into the 20s that we experience in Walnut Creek.

Email questions on drought-resistant plants to info@ruthbancroftgarden.org.