Not simply red
Poinsettia is a favourite Christmas plant, but did you know it comes in a range of appealing colours?
Every December, pots of poinsettias appear for sale in florist shops, garden centres and chain stores, and are featured among the tinsel and glittering decorations in retail outlets. With its vibrant red blooms, the poinsettia has become the universal flower of Christmas, and therefore big business for the nursery industry. But there’s more to the poinsettia’s hold on Christmas than the traditional red colour of its flowers.
Native to Mexico, poinsettias bloom in winter, which is when Christmas falls in the Northern Hemisphere. But they also check another box, which makes them such a darling for nurseries: poinsettias flower in response to short day length. While the shortening of daylight hours (and lengthening of nights) happens naturally in the lead-up to winter, it can also be brought about artificially to control the peak flowering time of poinsettias.
In the Southern Hemisphere, where the days naturally get longer as Christmas approaches, poinsettias are raised to think it’s winter – not by exposing them to an icy blast, but by growing them in glasshouses or shadehouses fitted with blackout curtains. The grower can bring on night-time early by drawing the heavy black curtains, and then let the plants ‘sleep in’ by leaving the curtains closed after the sun has risen.
Adding more pluses, poinsettias look good in pots, they can be kept compact, they grow easily from cuttings, and they flower on young plants, with blooms that last for many weeks indoors. It all adds up to the ideal decorative and gift plant.
BEYOND RED
The large, coloured heads of poinsettias that we call flowers are not true flowers. These plants of the Euphorbia genus have colourful bracts around clusters of small, insignificant, greenish flowers. Over time, the red bracts may turn green, revealing their affinity with leaves rather than flowers.
Red is the original colour of poinsettia flowers, but plant breeding and selection has introduced other colours and double blooms. Move over, red – today there are also poinsettias with big white, cream, yellow or pink flowers.
The Ecke family in the US undertook early work in commercial breeding and development, so some of the popular varieties are named for family members, including E. pulcherrima ‘Henrietta Ecke’, which has deep red, double flowers.
Paul Ecke (1895–1991) started the boom in poinsettias in the early 20th century at his nursery, Paul Ecke Ranch, in Southern California. The business first grew poinsettias for cut flowers, and then as potted plants. The operation continued and expanded under three generations of the Ecke family until it was sold in 2012. Today, the farm still produces poinsettias, but is owned by international nursery business Dümmen Orange.
AFTER-CHRISTMAS CARE
If you buy a poinsettia to add festive colour to your home, or receive a pot as a gift, you may be wondering what to do with it when Christmas is over. Kept in a well lit position, and watered sparingly, it will continue to look good for up to six weeks.
A poinsettia can be considered a disposable plant – the potted equivalent of a bunch of flowers – but if you want to give it a chance to grow, and you have a warm, frost-free climate, it’s possible your decorative plant will survive outside. After flowering, prune the plant and then put it outside in a well lit spot. Note the stems contain milky sap, so avoid getting the sap on your skin or in your eyes.
If the plant survives and begins to regrow, move it into a larger container, or plant it in the garden. Without the grower manipulating the plant, it will soon return to its normal flowering season and growth habit. Poinsettias can reach 2–3m high, with lots of cane-like growth and large, green leaves. Expect flowers in winter, but don’t expect it to bloom again next Christmas. To maintain the plant, cut it back after it flowers each winter.