Winter wonders: Alan Titchmarsh on adding poinsettias and Christmas azaleas to your garden
ADD A festive flourish to your home with poinsettias, cyclamen and Christmas azaleas. And don’t forget holly and pines for your garden.
Create miniature Christmas trees for your garden
Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas without the splash of colour poinsettias provide.
Time was when Christmas azaleas and cyclamen reigned supreme as Yuletide pot plants.
Now, however, both have been relegated into second and third place for one simple reason – they enjoy being cool and most of us have central heating warming our homes to the point where they simply die away.
Create poinsettia arrangements for a festive garden
But if you still love Christmas azaleas and cyclamen (as do I), then place them in good light in a cool porch, bedroom or hallway, where they can enjoy the conditions that suit them.
Keep them away from radiators and make sure that the cyclamen is watered only when it starts to wilt ever so slightly due to dryness.
When it does, stand it in a bowl of water for half an hour, by which time it will have taken up what it needs.
Overwatering and overheating is the surest way to bump off a cyclamen.
Christmas azaleas
The azalea, on the other hand, should never be allowed to dry out. Water it every day if you like with rainwater or cooled, boiled water, especially in hard water areas.
There is no need to leave it standing in water for more than half an hour, but once that rootball dries out, it will be the devil to re-wet and the plant will soon turn crisp.
Cyclamen adds bright colour to your home
And the poinsettia? Give it a spot in good light in a warm room and water it when the surface of the compost starts to feel dry. Equally importantly, buy it from a shop, garden centre, nursery or store where it has been kept warm.
Finally, make sure it is well wrapped up for the chilly journey home and then it, as well as you, will be assured of a merry Christmas.
Don’t miss Alan’s column in today’s Daily Express. For more information on his range of gardening products, visit alantitchmarsh.com.