Poinsettia Sales Bolster Greenhouses

With the Christmas shopping season upon us, stores are stocking up on what seems to be America’s favorite holiday plant - the poinsettia.

The festive holiday plants are a seasonal industry in the Walla Walla Valley.

Hamada Brothers Inc. and Jacky & Fiedler Flowers & Greenhouse in Walla Walla, and Barkwell Family Farm & Greenhouse and Zerba Gardens in nearby Milton-Freewater, Ore., are four family-owned growers selling poinsettias this holiday season.

About 20,000 plants are being grown in southeast Washington and northeast Oregon.

Growing poinsettias is a booming business in the United States. The Southern California-based Poinsettia Growers Association estimates 60 million plants were sold nationwide.

The plant, native to Mexico, was introduced to the United States by Joel Robert Poinsett, for whom the plant is named. A Southern plantation owner and botanist, Poinsett served as the first United States ambassador to Mexico, from 1825-1829, and he brought the plants with him upon his return to Greenville, S.C.

Red still ranks as the most-sold color, but hot and pastel pinks, white, and speckled varieties are also grown, in smaller numbers, by area businesses.

At Hamada Bros. Inc., a sea of mainly red poinsettias greets visitors who enter the two greenhouses that owner Joe Hamada and his wife, Barbara, use to grow their crop.

With 15,000 plants this year, Hamada is the largest grower of poinsettias in the Walla Walla area. A fire last April gutted one of Hamada’s greenhouses, which forced him to cut his crop by about 5,000 plants this year, he said.

Poinsettias are grown as a winter fill-in crop, since the majority of Hamada’s business is bedding plants sold in the spring, he said. Hamada wholesales the plants throughout southeastern Washington, parts of northeastern Oregon and Idaho.

The Hamada family started growing poinsettias in 1967 when it purchased Mojonnier’s Greenhouse in College Place. That property is no longer used, Hamada said.

Another established grower, Carl and Doris Jacky, owners of Jacky’s on Second Avenue, started this year’s crop with 1-inch poinsettia cuttings in July.

Once the plants were large enough, three to four plants were placed in pots and allowed to mature. The majority of the 700 plants will be retailed out of the store, said supervisor Blake Bartlett. Only a small percentage of their business is wholesale, he said.

At Zerba Gardens off Highway 11 in Milton-Freewater, about 2,000 plants were grown this year, said owner Cecil Zerba. Zerba and his wife, Marilyn, have been growing poinsettias for about 12 years, he said. About 25 percent of the plants will be wholesaled and the rest sold retail this year.

Barkwell Family Farm & Greenhouse on Crockett Road in Milton-Freewater is a newcomer to the poinsettia market.

Steve Barkwell worked as a grower for the Paul Ecke Ranch - the world’s largest grower of poinsettias - in the San Diego-area for 13 years.

Steve and his wife, Donna, moved to Milton-Freewater three years ago. The Barkwells moved their wholesale plant business from Guadalajara, Mexico, because of unsteady economic conditions there, Steve Barkwell said.

While most growers sell plants with large blooms, Barkwell said he “pinches” the plants, which creates smaller, multiple flowers.

“What we’ve found is (women) like to see healthy plants with lots of flowers and they like to see the leaves,” Barkwell said. Women account for the majority of poinsettia buyers, he said.

This season, the Barkwells estimate they have about 2,500 plants, which were grown in their 3,000-square-foot greenhouse.

Their business is strictly retail with an average 6-1/2-inch pot selling for $7, Donna Barkwell said.

While the Barkwells grow flowers and fruit during the spring and summer, poinsettias account for the majority of their profits.

“It’s our Super Bowl crop of the year,” Donna Barkwell said.