At this time of
year, growers all around the world are preparing poinsettias
(botanical name Euphorbia pulcherrima) for the
Christmas holiday. Poinsettias are interesting in that their
flowers are actually the yellow centers, or cyathia. The showy
parts of the plant are called "bracts" which turn to
the red, white, and other colors during bloom. In fact, this
is an interesting characteristic of all Euphorbia, including
the perennial E. epithymoides (Cushion Spurge) and the
annual E. marginata (annual Snow-on-the-Mountain) that
many gardeners include in their borders.
The poinsettia is also a photoperiodic plant, which like
holiday cacti and kalanchoe, require substantial periods of
continuous darkness each day to set their buds and produce
flowers. To produce blooms on time for the Christmas holiday,
growers must provide 14 continuous hours of darkness each
night starting around October 1. (Consumers who wish to have
their poinsettia rebloom next holiday season can follow this
same regimen by covering plants overnight with a box or moving
them to a dark room.)
While traditional red poinsettias are still the most
popular plant of the Christmas season, breeders are
continually coming up with exciting new cultivars. Solid,
marbled, and speckled colors are now available and include
red, white, cream, pink, and coral. Eckespoint®
Plum PuddingTM, features distinct purple bracts with bright green
foliage. Eckespoint® Holly PointTM is
a smaller poinsettia featuring unique gold and green
variegated foliage with intense bright red bracts. Other
breeders have produced cultivars like Fischer’s Carousel®
which have unique bract shapes that are ruffled.
For people interested in searching out some of these new
varieties, poinsettia breeders like Paul Ecke Ranch (www.ecke.com)
and Fischer USA (www.fischerusa.com)
have internet web sights that provide detailed information on
the latest cultivars they are making available to wholesalers
and greenhouses. To find out what varieties you’ll be able
to find this holiday season, check your local greenhouses.
Many will be growing some of the new varieties in addition to
the always popular traditional red and white colors.
