My favorite garden center is offering $10.00 off the purchase price of any plant you choose to replace your dead or dying poinsettia with… so long as you show your black thumb, admit defeat and bring the horrid thing along with you for trade-in.
Oh the embarrassment!
I wonder what they’ll do with them. Can a dying poinsettia be rehabilitated?
😉
Of course it can. What they’ll likely do is cut it back, wait for new leaves to sprout, put it in a dark place to encourage the bracts to turn red–or whatever.
And then they’ll sell it to you next Christmas.
I think they are creating a black thumb list. Next year the black thumbs will not be able to purchase one of their prize poinsettias.
KGMom has it about right. They need a lot of light before “conditioning” for the seasonal color change. That’s why they don’t do well as houseplants long term. It could probably use repotting as well.
Phew, the comments make me feel better–when I read the post I imagined a quick and painless euthenasia for the spindly, past-their-prime pointsettias.
I don’t think so Laura. I don’t recall ever seeing huge poinsettias in anyone’s home waiting to bloom the next season! :c) I think the $10 off for another plant is a genius marketing idea!
I’m sure it can. My sister could have done it. She received a lovely pointsettia every year, and had a long row of them in the front window of her workplace. She kept them going for years.
I, on the other hand, have a beauty from this past Christmas, which is slowly dropping leaves. I don’t know how much longer it will last, or what to do with it when it’s standing there naked.
I compost the darn things and move on.
I think it’s a great marketing move on their part to get people in the shops during this quiet gardening time (or quiet economic time).
Heather
Wayne, PA
That’s so funny! I’ve never heard of rehabilitating a poinsettia but I guess it can be done. Mine wind up in the large green trash can by late February, every year.
OH, and I just hooted at Donna’s comment :o) Kind of like re-gifting.
That’s hilarious! It’s so nice to see your photographs, Laura. I hope you’re having a great 2009. 🙂
Sending smiles your way,
Lené
Poinsettias can be rehabilitated, but they have to really want to. You can’t just do it to them; they need the motivation to help themselves.
~Kathi
I like Mary’s idea–rehabilitated as compost!