Everyone I know is headed to a Christmas party or gathering somewhere during December! A Beautiful Christmas Plant makes a Lovely Hostess Gift! Let’s see which ones are some of the best!
Traditionally Christmas time just makes you think of Poinsettias. I don’t know if its the red in the plant or the fact that most greenhouses know it’s one
of the plants that will do fairly well over a long period of time. Either way, you know that if you go anywhere near a greenhouse for a plant or any of the big box stores, there will be poinsettias to be had. With breeding these plants, we can see that a whole array of colors are available. What was once just a red flowering plant, is now creamy white, or creamy white with red flecks in it. You can also get pink ones that are a much lighter color than the red, and even blue ones! My tastes tend to go with the traditional plant in the deepest red I can find.
So our #1 plant is the Poinsettia!
Our # 2 plant has to be The Christmas Cactus.
When you are invited to dinner or a party, it’s always a nice idea to bring along a small hostess gift. Christmas cactus is a great choice. They come in red, pink, white, and a reddish/orange blossom. They have shiny bracts that hang down like a waterfall and during the Christmas season they are not at all hard to find. They are also fairly easy to take care of. Watering them when they are dry will keep the flowers from falling off. If you let this plant dry out completely (like most cactus) the buds will also start to fall off before blooming. So keep this plant watered but not sitting in water! A bright window works well too!
These Christmas cactus are available right here:
So our #3 plant has to be the Cyclamen!
Again this is a houseplant that is available in a variety of colors and color combinations. It is a fairly easy plant to take care of as well, if you know the one rule that makes this plant unhappy! What’s that rule? Never ever water this plant from the top! Cyclamen are grown from a corm and those corms if they are kept wet, will in fact rot out! Then you have one dead Cyclamen. This plant does it’s best when it is sitting on top of a bowl of small rocks, that have water below. This plant will love the humidity that the bowl of pebbles offers and at the same time it will take up water as it needs. Corms have an indentation in their tops and if that fills with water it stagnates. This will be the cause of any Cyclamen’s untimely death. Don’t do that! Water from below and keep that corm nice and clear of any water. They are a beautiful houseplant that can be taken outdoors when all chances of frost have passed. So it will be long lived if you give it what it likes. Available right here:
Our #4 Plant For Holiday Gift Giving is Amaryllis
Just think how lovely it would be to give or receive a lovely Amaryllis. The huge bulbs are usually sold in a kit with everything you need to make the bulb grow. A small pot with some soil is packaged up with the Amaryllis bulb and presented to the hostess. The bulbs already may show signs of growth. You can order yours right here:
Add the soil to the pot and then place the bulb into the soil about 1/3 of the way into the soil. Water and sunlight will help to start it on it’s way to a glorious flower that will thrill the recipient for weeks to come. These bulbs also come in a variety of colors, red, white, white with red veins and more. It is easy to see why this plant garners so much attention! It is spectacular. The bulbs once they are finished blooming, can be left to grow and when fall comes, they can be repotted for another years bloom. These kits are inexpensive and really offer a great bang for the buck! I personally again like the solid red amaryllis, it’s color is just so intense compared to the other varieties. Again though, this is my personal preference. The other’s are just as magnificent.
Last on my list of Christmas Flowers as Hostess gifts are the Phalaenopsis orchids.
These are available all year long and you can find a whole variety of color and sizes around the holidays. Single stemmed orchids will cost you less than multi-stemmed orchids, but both are beautiful. In recent years the propagation of these orchids has become much easier, so the costs of them has dropped considerably. Once this was a plant for the well to do in society. Not anymore, in some box stores these can be purchased for under $30.00.
What makes them great is that they can be very long lived flowers that will last weeks to months if they like their conditions. Taken care of properly, orchids will grow and rebloom on a yearly basis. In my own home I have at least 6 of these orchids and all of them are thriving and bringing me joy every year. Once you have the secrets to keeping an orchid happy, you will have these plants in your home too!
If you are interested in ordering any of these beauties, you can get them delivered to your door from Amazon!
Just one more important point if you are going to be bringing live plants as a Hostess Gift. Wrap your plant well, especially if you live in climates that get really cold (below freezing) in the evenings. A heavy double plastic wrapping would be beneficial. Warm your car before taking the plant outdoors, and once inside again unwrap the plant as soon as possible. This will help keep the plant from suffering the ravages of quick temperature drops and rises. Never ever leave your plants outdoors for longer than you need to. If you can help your hostess with simple instructions in how to keep these plants happy. Most instructions are available on the internet, print up a copy for your hostess.
Happy Holidays from Grammie Knows How!
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