My poinsettias are not flowering. What is the problem?

The poinsettia is a native of Mexico, and indeed the color you see is in the leaves not the flowers. The flowers are tiny undeveloped things in the center of those colored leaves.

As far as getting the color, YES, light and dark ratios are important. Right now my crop is getting 14 hours of dark, and I use shade cloth in my green house to make sure that the street lights do not interfere with their 14 hours of dark.

At your house you said that the Points were out side.

So make sure that they are away from car and street lights. Porch or deck lights, even the lights from the living room out a picture window.

They really need their 14 hour beauty sleep every night. You can start now, by covering them with dark cloth to block the lights out.

Then you will have Valentines day poinsettia!!! How cool is that?!?!

Points require a sustained period of total darkness as they are day-length sensitive. Start giving them 14 hours of total darkness on COLUMBUS DAY (or right now!) Continue for 8-10 weeks, giving them as much sun as possible during the day. Once the bracts begin to color up, you can discontinue the dark treatment. You will have lovely blooms for Christmas!

(If you can't carry the planter inside, do you have a box, garbage bag or tarp you can cover it with? It must have NO LIGHT!)

On ST. PATRICK'S DAY, cut off the bracts.

On MEMORIAL DAY re-pot the plant in a larger container and place it outdoors for the summer.

On the 4TH OF JULY cut the entire plant back by 6". (Where you have cut it, it will branch, giving you many more flowers).

on LABOR DAY bring it back indoors.

Feed it year-round, every two weeks, with an all-purpose fertilizer.

Points are really easy to care for, and as they get older and larger they can be really spectacular for the holidays. Follow the above directions and you will have specimens that you might easily pay $50 or more for! Good luck!

The "flowers" on poinsettias are not really flowers but leaves. The reason they are red is because they keep them in the dark so the leaves do not turn green they turn red..similar to the way all the leaves in the trees do in the fall, it has to do with photosenthesis and a special technique. I'm not sure how you do it but they are only allowed very little sun light.

Good luck with that but they will probably stay green but healthy as long as you are growing them outside.

For it to develop red leaves you need to keep it in pitch dark for 14 hours everyday and after 6 to 8 weeks you will see red leaves come out or flower as you described it.

Poinsettias need a period of total darkness in order to flower. You have to put it in a dark closet or put a box over it. I forget for just how long. I think it is 6 weeks at least.

The pointtsetias are not flowering because winter is coming and the flowers will flower next spring make sure to bring them inside for winter.

It probably gets too much sunlight.

Poinsettias only flower during mid-winter months because they days are shorter and they get a lot less sunlight.

You can trick them by bringing them inside in a low light room, and they would probably flower, if not...move them out of the sun.

They have to be put in darkness (only 2 hours of light per day) for 2-3 months to get them to flower (once the "light" reappears after that period, it tricks them into thinking it is spring).

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/newsl...

The only place I am truly aware of where poinsettias get larger than homes is Hawaii where they also bloom beautifully outdoors. I don't know the temps where you live, but I am in zone 9 and they occasionally grow IN THE GROUND and bloom whenever we have a very mild winter....the books say that the temps can't get below 55 in this article.....

Change the pot to a place that its dark at night, no light at all. You will see the differences, in a couple of days. Good luck.