Kentucky Growers Color the Season
By
Carol
Spence
 LEXINGTON,
Ky., (Dec. 13, 2006) – They’re everywhere you look this time of
year. Their hues of scarlet, burgundy, pink and white splash
tables and mantels with color. Store displays and hotel lobbies
are brightened by their presence. Church altars are blanketed
with them. Poinsettias are synonymous with the Christmas season
and each year Kentucky growers are eager to supply them.
The Kentucky greenhouse industry produces approximately 600,000
poinsettia plants each year, resulting in seasonal sales of $3
million, said Bob Anderson, University of Kentucky Cooperative
Extension professor in horticulture. The plants arrive as
cuttings around Aug. 15. Many of those cuttings are grown
offshore in Mexico, Central America or as far away as the Canary
Islands. They’re shipped into the United States without roots,
because U.S. Customs regulations prohibit them from being
shipped with soil. Once they’re in the United States, they’re
rooted and distributed to the growers.
Americans were introduced to poinsettias in the early 19th
century by the first U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Joel Roberts
Poinsett. Poinsett, who found them growing as weeds by the side
of a road, sent the plants home to Greenville, S.C. Outside, in
the warm climate zones they prefer, poinsettias will typically
grow 6 to 10 feet tall. The three-month growth period of a
hothouse poinsettia results in the smaller, bushier plants that
people have become accustomed to seeing.
In Mexico, the plants carry with them a legend, told in various
ways with different names and slightly different plot twists.
All the stories, though, center on the plight of a small child
who is too poor to bring a gift to place before the manger in
her church’s nativity scene. One version tells of an angel who
appears to the child and instructs her to bring a weed from the
side of the road. In other versions, the child, or children,
chooses to bring the weed on her own. But in all versions, when
the weed is brought to the manger, its leaves miraculously
become a bright and beautiful swirl of scarlet with clusters of
yellow gold at their center.
What we call “flowers” on a poinsettia are not really flowers at
all. The bracts, or leaves, at the top of each stem turn a vivid
color, making them resemble a blossom. The plant’s flowers are
actually the small yellow clusters found in the center of the
bracts.
 Currently
there are about 150 varieties of the plant on the market,
Anderson said. This year, 30 of those varieties are on display
in Lexington at The Arboretum, the State Botanical Garden of
Kentucky. Grown at the UK Horticulture Research Farm in
Lexington, their colors range from creamy white through pink,
red, and burgundy. Some show off multiple colors in a marbled
pattern. Visitors were asked to rate the plants based on whether
they would purchase such a variety.
“The growers are very interested in what regular folks think is
a great poinsettia,” said Roberta Burnes, education coordinator
at The Arboretum. “Some of them look, at first, like they’re
exactly the same, but if you look closer, you see details and
differences.”
Jan Czochara attended The Arboretum’s Holiday Open House and
took the time to evaluate the plants. Her favorite was a
burgundy-colored variety named “Merlot.”
 “I
like the darker red color and I also like the unusual shape of
leaf,” she said. “See how they almost look more like an oak leaf
versus the usual teardrop?”
Among other varieties on display were Amazing Pink, Santa Claus
White, Cinnamon Candy and a series of poinsettias carrying the
Premium name that included plants in all hues.
The industry is driven by consumer preferences, Anderson said.
Some breeders breed new types to see what the consumer will
like. That’s why every year there are a few “novelty” types in
the stores, just to see if consumers will pick up on them, he
said.
“There were a set of varieties introduced five years ago that
were really quite maroon in color and growers said, ‘I’m not
going to grow those.’ But when they put them out on the market,
the public loved them. So it changed what people (growers)
thought of them,” Anderson said.
Using poinsettias can add instant excitement to a holiday
decorating scheme. With some simple care, they can last beyond
the holidays. Water the plant when it is dry and don’t allow it
to sit in a saucer filled with water. Poinsettias like bright,
natural light with some direct sunlight for at least three hours
a day. Keep them away from drafts and fertilize occasionally
with an ordinary houseplant fertilizer.
And for those who might worry about pets or small children being
around the plants, Anderson says those worries are unfounded.
Poinsettias are not poisonous. Extensive studies conducted at
Ohio State University and at Pittsburgh’s Duquesne University
“showed no toxicity, no changes in behavior and no mortality
even at extremely high dosages,” according to a UK horticulture
publication written by Anderson.
“It’s a matter of the plant being in a family that has poisonous
plants in it, so people sort of assume they (poinsettias) are
poisonous, too,” he said.
Nonetheless, he advises people to be aware that poinsettias,
like other houseplants, are not intended to be eaten and can
cause, in some people, discomfort if consumed.
“Allergies and those kinds of reactions can happen to anyone.
The industry assumes that when we sell it, nobody’s going to eat
it. They’re not thinking that it’s lettuce,” he said, chuckling.
“It’s just something there for the ornamental value.” |
