Does anyone know how to make a poinsettia turn red for Xmas?

[AYearOfCushions]

I love a poinsettia at Christmas but they always seem to die off. My last one is growing beautifully but as you can see it's very green.

Is there a method to make it turn red I can do at home? I've read conflicting advice. Some say bright sunlight which this plant has had all summer and some say darkness?

It's to do with the specific pattern of light and darkness, I can't remember the number of hours exactly but they need a set number of hours of light and darkness each day.

Has it any flower buds? Because it is the bracts surrounding them that are red (or pink or white depending on the cultivar).

I tried to do this last year and failed. I kept the plant in the dark for 12 hours per day plus from September onwards, having reduced watering at the end of the summer. Unfortunately, there were days when I forgot to put it in the cupboard so I wasn't as consistent as I could have been, and it remained green. In the end I decided it was easier to compost it and buy a new one in December!

Swap it for a Christmas Cactus, much easier to look after and they bloom reliably every year (in fact my Mum's is ancient, nearly as old as me).

Tried to keep a poinsettia alive for years without success but the Christmas Cactus is fab.

Spray paint.

No idea but I love Poinsettias too!

I’m trying the same thing for the first time, I have a box and I’m going to be going in it for 14 hours overnight from next weekend.

Sounds like a time consuming process.

No flower buds that I can see. I'm very surprised it's lasted this long but its done well on the kitchen windowsill and doubled in height.

I'll give it a go I think, 14 hours in the dark and the rest in sunlight?

If it fails I can always stick a bit of tinsel on it!

If you have a grow light, you could stick it in a cupboard on a timer, that would save on time.

You'd just have to make sure you watered it regularly enough.

Not sure why they need so much faff, tbh, when I lived in South America they flowered outside all over the place, and days were never that short!

Grow light is definitely the best idea. They need about 12 hours of dark followed by 12 hours of good light for several weeks. Often a winter windowsill just won't be bright enough light to make it flower.

I did it successfully but the plant seemed to get exhausted after its second flowering, got yellow leaves and died despite my attempts to revive it. I don't know why.

I had mine on a S window in a boxroom used for storage. I just made sure never to go into the boxroom after dark. Worked very easily