Fresh and Festive Ways to Display Poinsettias

Foil-wrapped poinsettias are a holiday fixture. Traditional red is still the most popular, of course, but modern breeders have developed new color options including pink, yellow, white, or even orange. Watch for unusual poinsettias like bright pink ‘Sparkling Punch’, white ‘Jack Frost’, and bright yellow ‘Golden Glo’ at holiday plant shows and well-stocked nurseries and garden centers. Then show off the poinsettia of your choice with a fun display.

Create a Mantel of Color

If you’ve never seen an orange—or green or yellow—poinsettia before, that’s because they’ve only recently become available in nurseries. Here peach and pink poinsettias inspired a mantel display in a fresh holiday palette. (Some are just individual bracts trimmed from plants and placed in water in petite vases.) Gold and champagne-color decorations complement the plants’ hot colors. For a display that has a sense of movement and doesn’t look too stiff, mix plants in different sizes.

Pro Tip: Display poinsettias in bright but indirect light away from drafts (but don’t let them touch cold windows). The ideal temperature range is 65 to 70 degrees. Water well (until the water drains all the way through) every five to seven days—or whenever the soil feels dry.

Repurpose Bags for a Color Pop

Those old paper grocery bags are destined for greater things than the recycling bin. This bright, shimmery pot is made by first cutting out a section of a bag, crinkling it for texture, then applying craft paint and gold luster to it. The bag is folded and glued to create a vessel, and a crepe paper lining forms a contrasting cuff when you roll down the top.

Pro Tip: In keeping with the holiday spirit, poinsettia plants are pretty forgiving. The main reasons they might look weak are standing water and too-cool room temps. Healthy leaves should face up (not curl inward), and healthy roots should be white.

Hang Your Plant High

Hanging poinsettias lets you fill an empty corner with color—and keeps the plant leaves out of your pets’ paws (nibbling on them can irritate pets’ stomachs). To get a pot holiday-ready for a quick-and-easy display, coat it with a metallic spray paint. Fill it with as many plants as space will allow for an abundant display.

Accent with Gold Leaf

These artisanal-looking pots are made by painting the inside of a clear glass vase with craft paint—the goal isn’t precision but an Impressionistic effect—then applying gold leaf to the outside. To prevent paint from wearing off, use a plant liner.

Reuse Terra Cotta

Chances are you’ve got a couple (or a dozen) unused clay pots stashed away. Dust them off and give them a glitzy new life. After spray-painting a pot in the color of your choice, create an interesting crosshatch design by spraying gold paint through a piece of burlap pressed onto the pot. Finish with a homemade metallic felt bow.

Make a Petite Display

Poinsettia leaves become real nature-inspired showstoppers when cut for petite displays. Place them in little glasses, but first dab away sap and burn the ends with a lighter; this keeps the water clear and makes bracts last longer (about two or three days). To glam up your containers, brush glue onto small vases or votive holders, then sprinkle with fine glitter.

Decorate Twice by Using Cuttings

For the display at left, place the plant in its nursery pot inside a decorative container; remove it to water. Then to make one poinsettia plant work harder, take cuttings of the bracts (the plant’s “flower”), to dress up a table, mantel, or vanity.

Pro Tip: Poinsettias may start dropping bracts and looking sparse soon after the holidays, but they can hold onto their hues for weeks. When a plant outgrows its pot, transplant it into a larger one, using fresh, well-draining potting soil, and organic matter.

Fill a Fireplace

Have a nonworking fireplace? Fill it with a collection of potted poinsettias, varying the height.