Poinsettias

Over 25 different varieties of Poinsettias are available at Dan Schantz Greenhouse. You’ll find all the traditional colors of red, white and pink but you’ll also find blue, yellow and even gold! We use a special paint to create beautiful colors to match any décor and to add a contemporary touch to the holidays! Our customers love the painted poinsettias because they can choose colors to match their holiday decorations. Some groups choose school colors for holiday dinners to complete a theme. They are very versatile for holiday decorating. Whatever you choose for your decorating it is worth it to just walk through our greenhouses during the holidays…it’s a Christmas Flower Show!

The poinsettia was originally cultivated by the Aztecs in Mexico. Because of its brilliant color, the flower was a symbol of purity and was highly prized by the kings of the time. The Indians also had practical uses for the plant, the bracts were used to make a reddish-purple dye and the latex was made into a medicinal preparation used to counteract fever. Poinsettias came to the United States in 1825 via Joel Robert Poinsett, the first US Ambassador to Mexico. A noted botanist he had some plants sent to his home in South Carolina and then shared them with some botanical gardens and his horticultural friends.


 

In 1906 Albert Ecke, a recent German immigrant, began growing field flowers for the Hollywood California cut -flower market. Initially he grew gladioli, chrysanthemums and poinsettias. Around 1909 Ecke and sons directed their efforts exclusively to poinsettias but still as a cut flower. In the late 1920's the greenhouse flowering potted plant business gained popularity and the Eckes began producing the poinsettia mother plants and shipping them to greenhouse growers all over the country. They also traveled the country promoting the poinsettia as a necessary part of the Christmas holiday. Today the poinsettia is considered the Christmas Flower and comes in a wide variety of colors.

Poinsettia Care

With care, poinsettias should retain their beauty for weeks and some varieties will stay attractive for months.

After you have made your poinsettia selection, make sure it is wrapped properly because exposure to low temperatures even for a few minutes can damage the bracts and leaves.

Unwrap your poinsettia carefully and place in a sunny window. It should receive about 6 hours of bright daylight. Keep the plant from touching cold windows.

Keep poinsettias away from warm or cold drafts from radiators, air registers, fire places or open doors and windows.

Ideally poinsettias require daytime temperatures of 60° to 70°F and night time temperatures around 55°F. High temperatures will shorten the plant’s life. Move the plant to a cooler room at night, if possible.

Check the soil daily. Be sure to punch holes in foil so water can drain into a saucer. Water when soil is dry. Allow water to drain into the saucer and discard excess water. They don't like to get their feet wet!

Fertilize the poinsettia if you keep it past the holiday season. Apply a house plant fertilizer once a month.

Poinsettia Facts

• In nature, poinsettias are a perennial flowering shrub that can grow to ten feet tall.
• The showy colored part of poinsettias that most people think are the flowers are actually colored bracts (modified leaves).
• The flowers or cyathia of the poinsettia are in the center of the colorful bracts.
• Poinsettias are not poisonous. A study at Ohio State University showed that a 50 pound child who ate 500 bracts might have a slight tummy ache.
• Poinsettias represent over 85 percent of the potted plant sales during the holiday season.
• 90% of all poinsettias are exported from the US.
• Poinsettias are commercially grown in all 50 states with California as the top producing state.
• December 12 is National Poinsettia Day.
• 90% of all the flowering poinsettias in the world got their start at the Paul Ecke Ranch.
• $220 million worth of poinsettias are sold during the holiday season.
• Seventy-four percent of Americans still prefer red poinsettias; 8% prefer white and 6% pink.
• 80%of poinsettias are purchased by women.
• Poinsettias are the best selling potted plant in the United States.
• Poinsettias are the most popular Christmas plant even though most are sold in a 6 week period.
• Sixty million pots of poinsettias were grown in 1997.