There's still time to start seeds for warm-season flowers. It's best to plant poinsettias next to a south-facing wall, in a location where they won't have a bright artificial light on them at night. They need direct sun during the day and long nights of darkness to force them to turn red and flower. When planting seasonal plants, prune back any dead material and water the plant well for at least the first week. For poinsettias and chrysanthemums especially, pinch off spent flowers and keep the plants pinched back for several more months, so they'll remain lush and compact rather than becoming spindly.
Some people put their cold-sensitive seasonal plants into the ground still in their pots.
This makes it easier to dig up the plant and bring it back indoors when next year's cold weather arrives. If you plan to do this, it's probably a good idea to first repot the plant into a somewhat larger container with fresh soil. THE TIME, THE TIME, to plant your warm-season vegetables. The time from planting seeds to harvesting corn, beans, watermelons is typically 80 to 100 days, which comes in around mid-July. If you have limited space for a vegetable garden, tomatoes and peppers can be grown in containers.