How nice. You must enjoy it very much. I don't see them very often in people's gardens. Sorry you haven't gotten a reply. You can do an Internet search. If you don't have a sunset western garden book, get a copy, often available very inexpensively in library used bookstores.

My sunset book says " Thin branches in summer to produce larger bracts; prune them back at two month intervals for bushy growth but often smaller flowers. To improve red color, feed every two weeks with high nitrogen fertilizer starting when color begins to show."

here in the tropics, I was told to prune them in months beginning with A (April and August) to get Christmas blooms. The general rule about pruning is to trim up to 1/3 of the plant.

Don't think I saw the original post, but we were thinking of taking ours out since it bloomed last month. Now I'll have prune happy DH trim it back!

If you go by books..it should be cut far back "Blooms on new growth"..etc. But,I have seen near tree sized Poinsettia's full of bloom.

I would just cut back for form. If it gets rangy? Cut it back for that reason.

My one Poinsettia which a previous home owner planted from a Christmas potted gift, was very well established and survived yearly frosting back the top foot of foliage. In December 1990 we had what was called 'a hundred year low temperature experience' when the temperature for four nights dropped to 14 degrees. My plant was completely gone. I accepted that, and did nothing with the area. After 2 years of bare ground the Poinsettia broke through the undisturbed ground and quickly grew back to normal size as seen through my bedroom window.

That is a pretty, Calistoga. Sometimes plants can surprise us in a nice way.

Great pic Al.

Funny thing is- we saved our Poinsettia also this year. Looks good right now..very dark green. Compact.

We will see in time if that changes.

Al- What a wonderful story. Nice view too! I remember that 1990 Big Freeze. Lost a lota things, or so I thought. Pipes froze but the ground didn't. It wiped out the top growth of a lot of plants, but tah dah, some of them resprung!

-Babka