I'm not terribly good at introductions, but I'll try. My name's Amanda and I'm 20 years old. I've been taking care of houseplants for maybe ten years now. Yeah, I was pretty young. I learned quickly that my mom couldn't be trusted with plants. I claimed responsibility of her peace lily when I was probably 11 because she would unintentionally neglect it. These past three years, however, my depression kind of affected how involved I was with my plants, so I was less aware of them for awhile, but after rescuing one of my African violets this last November (which is now very happy and also starting its bloom), its recovery really helped me to bond with my plants again, which in turn has also helped with my depression. Now, counting three violet leaves I just potted after propagating them, I have 14 houseplants, including my mom's peace lilies. I'm also babysitting my sister's new succulent that she got for her dorm because it's too cold this time of year in her dorm for it to stay happy.

Over time, I have become more proactive about consulting the internet regarding concerns of mine. I'm generally pretty aware of changes in my plants, and I usually can tell when one isn't happy very early on, but I'm not always too great at finding the cause. But, because my care techniques are probably not the norm, it's a little difficult to find information about plants specific to my plants' circumstances, so I've been contemplating joining a plant-oriented message board this past week, and came across this one. I'll probably be making a thread about my poinsettia here soon. I've had mine for three years now and I never groomed it or cut it back so it's about two feet tall. I like it leafy and tall like it is (from what I understand the only reason people do cut them back is for the bloom and because it's "unsightly," not because leaving it tall is bad for it), but it's very difficult to find anything about poinsettia care for people who aren't adamant on getting them to bloom again.

But, back to me. Aside from plants, some of my other interests include, drawing (digitally & traditionally), music, video games, and web design. I'm self-taught in most of what I do, so joining up here is a little out of my comfort zone. But, regardless, I hope to see you guys around.

Hi bouncyshamrocks! I love your user name, very cute!

We have a wonderful group of members here, both novice growers as well as more experienced plant people who are knowledgeable about many different types of plants so please stick around and don't hesitate to ask questions and join in the chat! We love talking about our favorite plants, learning from each other and sharing photos of the plants we love.

Again, Welcome!
Lin

edited to add: Poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) is a beautiful plant. I live in Florida where some people grow them as landscape plants so it really surprised me the first time I heard that they were popular as houseplants. Kudos for keeping your plant happy and healthy! I don't think it's necessary to cut them back to get them to bloom again, blooming occurs when days get shorter and nights longer ... the reason we always hear about September or October that they should be placed in a dark closet or room for 12 to 14 hours or so.

My aunt in SoCal had great tall poinsettias in front of her house and they had no problem blooming. Congrats on keeping yours happy.

Hi bouncyshamrocks! This is a great site for gleaning information on plants and lots of other stuff. Enjoy the site.

Thanks for the welcome, everyone. =) I know poinsettias in their native environment grow to be more tree-like, so pinching them back shouldn't be too significant for their blooms, but that always seems to be the most common suggestion. I'm not too worried about getting it to bloom again, but I'm always a little uncomfortable cutting off healthy plant tissue, especially if its where the new shoots are. Since poinsettias are kind of tree-like as a plant--mine is starting to get woody at its base--cutting off the shoots concerns me with how that may affect its growth. I hope to figure some more out regarding their potting needs with the relation to its height and everything. I don't want to put any strain on it. Mine came in some of that florist foam, and it's still in it (there's potting soil around it), and I'm not sure if that will eventually do harm to the plant, especially as its roots grow. I probably want to figure out what to do about the foam sooner or later.

I'm still figuring out navigating this site; I'm not familiar with this forum software--it seems to be some version of MyBB but I'm not entirely sure. Either way, I've been spending my time playing around with this plant list thing as I'm learning my way around. I hope to be of help to other people regarding some of my experiences in the meantime.

@plantladylin thank you! I couldn't think of a good username for this site, so bouncyshamrocks it is! My shamrock plant bounces in the summertime while the ceiling fan runs and it's adorable (I was gonna link a video of this but I guess there's a spam control thing so maybe some other time, haha). Maybe after my shamrocks' new shoots mature, I'll upload a picture to its entry in the plant database since the current picture is just of the plant's bulbs.

You can post a link to a video so we can see the shamrocks in action. There is an anti-spam feature in place but after you have been here a few days you should be able to post links.