hello fellow gardeners welcome to urban
scape Bangalore and in today's episode
we will be learning about this plant and
it is called poinsettia or Point C dia
you can call it either because unlike
human beings these plants don't get
offended so let's move on to learning
about the conditions that these plants
relish and the characteristics it
espouses so you might think that these
brags or these leaves are the flowers
but it is not these are not the flowers
these are modified leaves and the
flowers are in between so if you see
this these are the flowers and since the
flowers are a little nondescript
and not very showing the leaves come in
and do the job of the flowers by
attracting pollinators so that is the
most important function of a modified
leaf so this to get these points eaters
to to color like this is it is a very
big deal and that is why these are very
costly plants in India you get this for
around 250 rupees which is quite costly
for our plant so they sell this saying
that it is an indoor plant yes you can
grow it indoors but you need to take
care of certain conditions otherwise
this plant will die so this is not my
first experience with point city I did
not have a good experience with points
idea so I had purchased the points that
you are from a nursery in why not and it
was a red crimson red one setter and it
died because these are magnets for
mealybugs
and that is one reason and then there
was no adequate watering so
I kind of neglected it and it died so I
hope I don't repeat the same with this
plant because the one that I got from Y
nod was little cheaper and this was
quite costly so let us look at how to
take care of poinsettias
so first and foremost these colors come
only during the winters when the day
length is shot up so it means that it
needs that darkness for its color or for
these leaves to turn this color because
without adequate darkness during the
winter months this result will not be
obtained so you need to be careful about
the amount of darkness this plant
receives during the winter times so from
November to December you will have to
see to it that this plant gets maybe
three hours of indirect sunlight and
then the rest of the day cover it with a
black cloth or put it in a carton box
and repeat the process again the next
day so this is a trick to make this this
plant you know bring out these beautiful
colors and that is why it is costly
because people generally buy this and
then the next year they don't see the
color they throw it off because this
plant is not attractive without this
color so you can try that I will also
try that this your and see if that
really works but the other thing that
people generally have a misconception
about is that you know these require
full Sun but it is not true because
these don't require full Sun these are
happy these plans are happy with partial
partial sunlight so please do not put it
under full Sun but during the winters
you can keep it under full Sun if the if
you find a problem
like mealybugs or if you if you see the
plant wilting and you put a lot of water
and you need that water to be evaporated
during winter times that is middle of
November till December you can keep it
under full Sun make sure that by now and
this is especially for people who live
in Bangalore and in climates where you
know you don't have harsh climates like
because harsh summers or winters in in
Bangalore it's always moderately the
winters are moderate the summers are
moderate so in Bangalore you can you can
dig this plant outside during December
and show it to the full Sun it doesn't
matter but that is like a last resort if
you find a lot of mealy bugs then it is
dying and that is that is like the last
resort but the best ideal condition for
this plant is partial sunlight or
dappled shade watering requirements it
does not like to be in really wet soil
so please avoid clay matter in your soil
and do not over water it just see to it
that it remains consistently moist but
not soggy wet so that is again a big
reason for the attraction of mealy bugs
because mealy bugs love moist
environments so that attracts millions
as well as kills the roots of the plant
so please keep a watchful eye on these
elements and the other thing is
fertilization so you can fertilize it
during the summer months you can
fertilize it you should probably cut
down on the fertilization during the
winter months so that it it it receives
that much resting it does not require
too much of
fertilization during the winter months
pruning you can prune it during the
April month April June month you can
prune it and you should prune it in such
a way that you don't you don't prune it
very hard and you know make it almost
bald but prune it in such a way that you
don't you don't kill all the nodes or
you don't damage all the nodes because
if you see the plant the new plants
actually grow from the nodes so see here
so we have a new plant here so it is
coming out from a node a node is a place
from where leaves come so you can see
there is another so if you want this to
be a little bushy so you can pinch so
here you can see they have actually
pinched the newest three guys have
actually pinched the plant here so that
you getting an even growth so you can
modify the shape and the look of this
plant by by pinching so that is also a
good technique in points easier care
yeah so propagation of this plant I will
show to you in detail if when you know
when Jamuna Joo I think it is good to
propagate this plant during the month of
June and July so the best way of
propagating is through new shoots so do
like once this flower stock or this
flowering stops you can cut it off and
then cut it just under a node and then
immerse it into a soil that is well
draining and also you can use cinnamon
powder or honey
to avoid any fungal infection around
that cutting so these are few tips that
I have for you guys I think for every
gardener for every individual their
conditions are different my conditions
in my area will be different from yours
so it all is an experiment but there are
certain important things you have to
keep in mind that is watering the soil
and sunlight sunlight is the most
important aspect of a healthy point City
so thank you for watching and please
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