my wife drives me insane with these things ...

outdoors AFTER all chance of frost is done ...

hers do just fine in full bright shade on the north side of the house ...

the media in the pot is specific to greenhouse growing.. so repotting to a better media might help ...

dont tell her.. but they all die in the first frost.. because she forgets to bring them in.. and i refuse to have them back in the house.. so i forget to remind her ...

they can be re-forced to bloom next xmas... but frankly .. they will never be a lush and gorgeous as the pro's make them ..

but it can be fun .. so go for it ... just remember they are a warm tropical ... and need temps consistent with that ...

ken

This comes up like clockwork - usually about this time of year when the once beautiful holiday plant has dropped is last crispy leaf on the carpet.

After I say the plants are inexpensive and isn't it nice to buy a fresh new one every year and how much trouble it can be to try and hold it over with marginal results, the next few posters will tell you that it's no trouble at all and throwing out a perfectly good plant is a waste of money and that theirs comes back year after year better than ever...

If I could stand to look at mine for another six weeks or so (until the last of the snow goes), I could put it outside - but it would be on the north side by my compost pile because that's where it would ultimately end up. :-)

mine gets crispy and nasty a few weeks after X-mas. The housekeeper here at work has managed to keep mine alive this year - and has started to throw new green shoots! We'll see what happens with it!

In 1960 I bought a house close to the Monterey Bay in California. On the south side of the house was a poinsettia that the previous owner said she planted from a Christmas about 20 years earlier. When we sold the house in 1998 the poinsettia was was still blooming every year. It always was frosted back, sometimes before the holidays, but never before it bloomed. From a bloom height of about six feet I would cut it back to about 18 inches. In July it would be four feet high and I cut it again to about two feet. This cause it to have many more stems which equals many more red bracts which we call blooms. Al

Realistically, Al, do you think the OP can expect the same results outside in New Hampshire?

But if the OP is still here and wants to try: After all danger of frost and even cool weather has passed, move the plant outdoors. Bring the plants back indoors before temperatures drop into the 40Âs in the fall.

Poinsettias are short-day plants. They set flower buds under conditions where the nights are longer than the days. If the plant receives natural light and dark cycles through October, it will bloom for Christmas. But, during this time the plants are indoors because of cold weather, and in most homes they are illuminated well into the night by household lights.

To force blooming indoors in time for Christmas put the plant in a little used room with a sunny window and no extraneous light at night. Or, find a place where the plant can be kept in absolute darkness for 12 to 14 hours every day starting in the beginning of October. In a closet or under a box will do. (From UCC Biology Dept. Cranford, NJ)

For a ridiculous amount of ongoing information, see this thread.

I hadn't thought about bringing them outside. In my zone? I bought a sickly looking feller on Black Friday for 97 cents at Lowes last year, and that little plant took off in my breakfast nook & is still blooming its head off. Everyone thinks it's silk. I figure at this point, I have to keep it going for next Christmas. I have no idea what I've done to keep it so happy. I've been treating it like a geranium and basically ignoring it until it's real dry.