Indoors
Poinsettia
Euphorbia pulcherrima
- Cat: mildly toxic
- Dog: mildly toxic
- Light: bright, no harsh sun
About the plant
The poinsettia comes from Mexico, where it grows as a shrub several metres tall. What looks like red flowers are bracts around tiny yellow flowers. Sold before the holidays, indoors it most often dies of cold on the way from the shop or of overwatering.
Poinsettia and pets
- Cat
- mildly toxic
- Dog
- mildly toxic
- Signs
- irritating milky sap: irritation of the mouth and stomach, sometimes vomiting; the ASPCA calls its toxicity over-rated
If a cat or a dog ate this plant and shows signs, contact a vet straight away.
Instead: safe for cats and dogs
Care
- Watering
- about every 5 days in summer (April to September), every 7 in winter
- Light
- bright, no harsh sun
- Air humidity
- normal
- Temperature
- 15–22 °C
- Feeding
- April to September, every 4 weeks
- Repotting
- every 1 years, in spring
- Grown
- in a pot
Buy it well wrapped: cold under 10 °C on the way home makes it drop its leaves. The red "flowers" are bracts; to color again for the next holidays it needs 14 hours of darkness a day from October.
This is a rough guide for a flat in Poland. In flowers every plant also has its own watering interval, which learns from how the soil was.