CUTTINGS: THIS WEEK; Holiday Poinsettia

If you saved last year's poinsettia and expect the bracts to develop color for the holidays, give it 14 hours of darkness and 10 hours of bright light every day. That means put it in a dark closet for 14 hours and do not open the door or turn on the closet light.

Continue to root cuttings of tender plants for wintering indoors. Replace spent annuals with cool-weather pansies and snapdragons, and divide perennials.

Make bold arrangements with highly cultivated flowers like dahlias mixed with branches of turning leaves and stems of colorful roadside plants like native pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) and goldenrod (Solidago species). Dahlias will last longer in arrangements if stem ends are singed and plunged in water a few hours before arranging; pokeweed and goldenrod last longest when cut before fully open. PATRICIA JONAS