Howdyall:

Below is a picture of my oversized Poinsettia, which gets almost no water and grew to 8 feet (2.66 m) tall in a couple of months after I hacked it to pieces . . . . .

Hmm. A brainstorm!

I want to use it to replace my Lavatera hedge.

I've been advised that cuttings root easily . . . .

Take the cuttings, let them dry so "skin" forms over cut area (roots grow out of there) and stick in pots of dryish soil and wait.

Hmm. For how long?

Any other thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Close up with the Mitt for scale.

Dave you might want to try some rooting hormone on the cuttings, might help with success.

I've planted a few Christmas poinsettias, the bronze variety from Ecke, and they grow like weeds.

A shame to just dump in the trash after the season. The leaves are oval though not the traditional

ivy shaped like yours. Yours looks good, like a small tree, They bloom like crazy at Christmas and I

prune them back after the season, they tend to lose their shape. Sorta like me as I get older.

Pardon me for hijacking your post, but here's a couple of pics.

See Bill, I've got weeds too!

If your hedge will receive light at night (street light, security, porch etc.) after about the 1st of October, you'll get no color during the Holiday Season.

I have a large Snowflake Euphorbia (same genus as Poinsettia) that is covered every winter with tiny white bracts on only one side. The other side sees a street light all night and stays green. Daytime drive-by folks want to know how I made the tree do that.

If your hedge will receive light at night (street light, security, porch etc.) after about the 1st of October, you'll get no color during the Holiday Season.

I have a large Snowflake Euphorbia (same genus as Poinsettia) that is covered every winter with tiny white bracts on only one side. The other side sees a street light all night and stays green. Daytime drive-by folks want to know how I made the tree do that.

No problem here, in the wild and wooly unincorpoarated area around my home.

No streetlights, just darkness.

Also, some strains appear more tolerant of excess light than others . . .

Dave, I have done tons of cuttings-but never poinsettias, but I imagine that the process would be similiar-although I would never have known to let the stem dry out some (I am assuming that they meant the hardwood part of the stem?)

Cuttings are very easy to do-the keys are warm enough soil temps while the cutting is rooting ( and I think you are ok right now for that) and enough moisture to allow the new roots to form, but not so much water that the stem rots, and then backing off the water as the roots are growing to encourage more root growth.

Usually the tip roots the fastest, but I would go right down the branch that you cut off the plant and try to root it all. I don't know what you have to root them in ( I am assuming that you want to do a lot of them), but cellpacks are good -anything that has holes in the bottom and is a somewhat small of a space per cutting. Or you could use a seed flat that is open-just place them so that when they root, that you can get them apart w/out damaging the roots a lot.

Looking at the pict (with your hand in it), I would cut them so that you have one node (and an inch below that) in the soil and one to two nodes above the soil. I would cut off all the leaves except at the very top and maybe cut off half of the leaves there. With the tips, I would cut off all but maybe 4 leaves, and again-cut off half of the leaves of the bottom layer that you do leave on.

I never use rooting hormones, I don't find that they speed up the rooting process of the cuttings that I do, but it may help with poinsettias. I would do the cuttings as soon as you cut the branch-aside from the hardwood ones that you are going to let dry out. After you get them in the soil, I would water them in, and if you have a grhouse-stick them in there-in the sun, or outside under dappled sun, adn just make sure that the soil stays moist until they start to root and then slowly let the soil dry out some. If they do start easily from cuttings, then I imagine that they should root within 2 wks. You will see the new leaves start to come out. The leaves may go into shock and go limp for a day or so in the beginning-but then they should regain their turgidity.

Hope this helps, Terry