After the plants are brought indoors you have to give them total darkness for about 14 hours a day for a 6-week period - I just leave the pot on a window sill and cover it with a black garbage bag in late afternoon, then remove the bag the next morning.

Begin this treatment about the 1st week of October through to November 15th. Then stop and treat as a regular houseplant. The plant should eventually send up small leaflets in the centre which will eventually get bigger & turn red (the bracts), followed by buds which are the true flowers.

Keep in mind that this method is far short of the commercial poinsettia culture, so there will be fewer & smaller red bracts. But it's kinda fun to get the results at home. BTW I've tried storing the poinsettia in a closet for the entire period and the plant died.

Thanks for the info! Marg

The poinsettas do make a nice foliage plant. The garden I had them in was shaded. I haven't tried over wintering them. It seemed like a lot of trouble and I didn't have the space.