Remember the pretty poinsettia you picked up last winter to make your home or office a little more festive for the holidays? Hopefully you kept watering it and maybe even set it outside for the summer in hopes of a bigger, brighter plant this year. Poinsettias can be kept year-round, but they need a little special treatment in the fall to bloom again.

With the proper care, poinsettias can be kept year-round.

Horticulturists refer to poinsettias as short-day plants. Short-day plants need several weeks with at least 12 hours of complete darkness in a 24 hour cycle for the plant to initiate flowering. Since even the lights in your house can disrupt the plant’s sense of day length, put your poinsettia in a closet or cover it with something light-proof such as a box to initiate flowering. Poinsettias require eight to 10 weeks of short days to flower, so September and early October is the best time to begin short-day treatment to have them at full glory for the holidays.

To avoid moving the plant each morning and evening, leave the it covered or hidden and use a lamp and timer to provide light for part of the day. Poinsettia care guides often recommend lighting the plant from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., leaving it in complete darkness for the remainder of each day.

Once the bracts of the poinsettia begin showing color they will go ahead and develop, so you can move the plant back to sunny window at that point. Bracts typically retain color for four to six weeks after reaching their peak.

Plants should also be watered as needed during the short-day treatment and fertilized weekly. Any houseplant fertilizer will work. Apply according to label instructions.

Based on sales, poinsettias are the most popular potted plant in the United States. This is even more astounding when you consider that almost all of those sales occur in just a few weeks prior to the holiday season in November and December. Many of those plants are discarded after the bracts fade, but they make nice houseplants despite the quirks of getting them to flower.

If you keep a poinsettia for the first time next year, cut stems back to about 6 inches in May. Move it outside to a partially shaded area after average nighttime temperatures are above 60 degrees. Keep the plant watered well over the summer.

You may want to re-pot the plant into a larger container to keep it from drying out so quickly. Fertilize every two to three weeks along with other houseplants. Cutting the top inch off of each stem (pinching) in July will encourage the plant to sprout more lateral branches that give it a fuller appearance.

— Jennifer Smith is a former horticulture extension agent for K-State Research and Extension and horticulturist for Lawrence Parks and Recreation. She is the host of “The Garden Show” and has been a gardener since childhood. Send your gardening questions and feedback to Lawrence Living@ljworld.com.