Poinsettia’s bright bracts crowd around true flowers no bigger than tiny yellow balls, while a single hyacinth bulb sends up a fresh-scented spike of spring colour. Both are undemanding houseplants, and a poinsettia watered only once its soil has dried will keep its colour for months.
That’s what Poinsettia and hyacinth have to offer. These two plants gift us with an explosion of colors at the heart of winter.
Amazing natural anti-depressants! They’re easy to care for, and last long after end-of-year festivities… Great ornaments for guests and for your own enjoyment, too!
Native to Mexico, poinsettia bursts into a multitude of colored bracts, which earns it the name of Christmas star.
No need to wait for the end-of-year holidays to splurge and gift ourselves with one or more, selecting several colors: red, green, white, pink, salmon and purple.
Leaves of poinsettia are what take on such bright colors, since actual flowers are just teeny-tiny yellow balls that appear in the center.
Poinsettia is a fragile plant, it is vulnerable to the cold and to drafts. Ask that it be wrapped well for transporting it outdoors, and don’t select a plant that is set near the store’s entrance door, where the air is drafty.
To keep your poinsettia alive for months, take care to water without overdoing it, only when the soil has dried off, by immersing the pot in a container of lukewarm water – cold water would tend to make the leaves fall off – and then drip-dry it off so that still water doesn’t collect in the saucer. Set it up in a warm room, 60 to 72°F (15 to 22°C), with abundant indirect light.
Forced hyacinths are sold by colour as much as by name, and a few varieties turn up year after year in garden centres and bulb catalogues. All of them will grow in a shouldered vase of water before being moved outside.
| Variety | Flower colour | Forcing in water |
|---|---|---|
| ‘Delft Blue’ | Soft porcelain blue | Excellent, a classic forcing variety |
| ‘Blue Jacket’ | Deep violet blue | Very good, sturdy spikes |
| ‘Pink Pearl’ | Deep rose pink | Very good, early to flower |
| ‘Anna Marie’ | Pale pink | Excellent, one of the earliest |
| ‘City of Haarlem’ | Soft primrose yellow | Good, though a little later than most |
| ‘Carnegie’ | Pure white | Very good, compact and even spikes |
| ‘Woodstock’ | Beetroot purple | Good, strongly scented indoors |
| ‘Gipsy Queen’ | Salmon orange | Good, unusual colour indoors |
With its superb pink, blue, white, violet, yellow or orange blooms and its fresh fragrance, hyacinth is a concentrate of spring in the middle of winter, just add water!
This bulb, usually sourced from Holland, isn’t very demanding:
Hyacinth that bloom in December come from forced bulbs, you’ll find them in pots at the florists’ shops, but you can also prepare them yourself in a tall vase with a shoulder. This is a fast-growing experiment that kids love. And you can transfer it outside later on!
Read all our advice on growing and planting hyacinth
Shown above/right: sprout hyacinth directly in hydrogel balls for easy care!
Laure Hamann
