Holiday plants keep evolving

When Sheri Hahn was asked what her favorite poinsettia was, she had to think for a minute.

It wasn’t easy. After all, Hahn was standing in the middle of an enormous greenhouse filled with 20,000 plants that represented 30 varieties of the colorful Christmas plant.

For Hahn, greenhouse manager for the Plant Farm, it happens annually. “There’s something new every year,” Hahn said as we talked about new introductions and old favorites. Each year she and her crew grow several new varieties to meet the demand.

Once, not long ago, poinsettias came only in red. Now they come in a dozen shades of red or pink, salmon pink, cream to almost yellow, white, burgundy and even some variegated colors that mixed all these together. They have names like Orion, Winter Rose, Da Vinci, Maren, White Glitter, Jingle Bells, Marbled Star and dozens more.

The poinsettia’s association with Christmas comes from a Mexican folk legend in which Pepita, a poor girl from a small village found herself without a gift for the Christ child on Christmas Eve. Remembering that any gift given in love would be acceptable, she picked a bunch of weeds from the roadside and placed them before the Nativity. The weeds immediately burst into bloom with brilliant red flowers. All who witnessed the sight called it a miracle. The Flores de Noche Buena or Flower of the Holy Night have been a part of the Christmas tradition ever since.

Poinsettias were first brought to this country in the 1820s by Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first U.S. ambassador to Mexico. Ambassador Poinsett gives the plant its common name. In its native habitat in Mexico and Central America, the poinsettia grows as 10- to 12-foot plants with a tuft of red color at the top of the plant.

The bushy potted plant we are familiar with was developed in the 1920s by Paul Ecke, a California horticulturist whose company, Paul Ecke Ranch, is still the world’s leading poinsettia producer.

Along with emergence of new varieties, the traditional use of poinsettias as a Christmas plant is changing.

“The consumer now wants poinsettias before Thanksgiving,” said Hahn. “That way they can decorate for both holidays and enjoy them longer.” As a result plant breeders are now developing new colors like burgundy and a deep cream to reflect traditional Thanksgiving hues.

The term “flowering” needs a little explanation. The poinsettia flower is actually the golden yellow clusters called ‘cyathia’ found in the center of the colored bracts we mistakenly think of as the flower. The bracts are actually modified leaves that change color to attract insects to the true flower.

New colors, or just getting the plants to turn color before Thanksgiving, is a major challenge for growers. Poinsettias need very specific light conditions to imitate the production of the colorful bracts. Flowering is triggered by longer nights after the equinox in late September. After that date, the plants need uninterrupted darkness for 15 hours a day without fail until early December. Even a short period of light at the wrong time can interrupt this cycle.

To adapt to the new market demands, breeders have been tweaking growing methods and developing plants that can produce color in a shorter period of time. “They have some now that will turn in about seven weeks,” said Hahn. That makes plants ready for sale early in November.

So just what are Hahn’s favorites this year?

“My old red favorite variety would be Prestige. It doesn’t turn as early as the rest of them, but that is my very favorite,” she says. “Marble Star is another favorite of mine. They are very hardy and sturdy and go beautifully with my other favorite, Maren. The pink in the Maren is the same as the pink in the cream and pink Marble Star.” Of the new varieties, her favorites are Winter Rose with a rose-shaped bract in several colors, and Cortez Burgundy with deep burgundy colored bracts.