THE POINSETTIA: MEXICO’S CHRISTMAS MIRACLE
No matter how you choose to use them — in combination with Red Delicious and Granny Smith apples, festively arranged on the hearth and fireplace mantel or around the tree — the poinsettia is one of the most treasured Christmas traditions.
It started long ago in Mexico, where they are called las flores de Nochebuena (flowers of the holy night, Christmas Eve). The story told is that a little girl named Pepita and her cousin, Pedro, were on their way to church in honor of the Christ child. Pepita was poor and had no money for gifts.
On the way to church she picked a bouquet of wildflowers, and as she laid them lovingly on the altar, they turned into beautiful poinsettias.
Joel Roberts Poinsett, our first ambassador to Mexico and an avid botanist, is credited with first bringing them into the United States in 1828.
The colorful parts of a poinsettia are actually modified leaves known as bracts. The true flowers are the small, yellow buttons in the centers of the bracts. The traditional color may be red, but colors and varieties today have reached staggering numbers — over 200.
The Aztecs used an extract from the plant’s bracts for dye for use in textiles and its milky white sap to treat fevers. But they also used the plant for
decorative purposes.
When it comes to poinsettias, I’m like a kid in a candy store: I love them all and need three of each. Give me some “Monet,” “Ice Punch,” ooh, and that elegant “Vision of Grandeur” — and then I need seven of the Carousel and five of the Winter Rose.
Poinsettias can hold their color way past Christmas if you shop wisely. Look for plants with fully mature, thoroughly colored and expanded bracts and small green flower buds. Select plants with dark-green foliage down to the soil line. This indicates a healthy root system. As a rule of thumb, poinsettias should be 2½ times bigger than their pots. In other words, a 15- to 18-inch-tall plant looks best in a 6-inch container.
Durable plants promise weeks of enjoyment. Look for strong, stiff stems, good leaf and bract retention, and no signs of wilting, breaking or drooping. Carefully inspect packaged poinsettias before purchasing them. With the busy holiday season, forgetting to water can be disastrous for a poinsettia. Feel the soil, and water when it is dry to the touch.
Use poinsettias throughout the home, and don’t be surprised when the family says, “This is the prettiest Christmas ever.”