Poinsettias: 'A beautiful plant, but you have to work for it'

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at All Seasons Garden Center, but the vibrant red and white poinsettias that now line the greenhouse were nothing more than short, green stems when they were shipped from a California farm in July.

A crew of greenthumbs soon started the delicate task of transforming these 4,500 "cuttings" into the flowering plants synonymous with the holiday season.

"It's a beautiful plant, but we have to work for it," greenhouse grower Jolene Schmitz said.

The process required adding just the right amount of fertilizer and "pinching" the poinsettias early on to get them ready to display in homes, churches and offices around the Grand Forks area.

But Schmitz said a big part of the plant's metamorphosis into the familiar, brightly colored array of leaves is just a matter of letting nature take its course.

"You can't rush it," she said. "You can't accelerate that process. It will happen naturally over a number of weeks."

The poinsettia, a subtropical plant native to Mexico and Central America, got its name from Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first U.S. Minister to Mexico who brought the plant to America in 1828.

Theresa Helgeson, the University of Minnesota-Crookston's lab services coordinator who manages the campus greenhouse, said there are some common misconceptions about the plant -- including the belief that it's toxic.

She pointed out poinsettias are not edible and can cause stomach irritation if eaten, but the plant isn't poisonous. Still, she said it's a good idea to keep them out of reach of children and pets.

While they do flower, the colorful "bracts" that adorn the tops of poinsettias are actually a group of leaves. The flowers can be seen on a mature plant, but she said they're "very insignificant" yellow bunches known as cyathia.

"It's just this itty-bitty, tiny, little flower that's right in the center of that bract," she said. "It's smaller than the size of a dime. Poinsettias are not grown for the flower whatsoever."

And there are many more varieties of the plant than the standard red color. Helgeson said the different breeds have bracts that range from orange and pink to white or marbled.

"There's even one that's called Plum Pudding," she said. "Depending on the lighting in your home, it can kind of look like a mauve color."

Retailers sometimes offer purple, blue or yellow poinsettias, but Helgeson said those are most likely white poinsettias dyed with floral spray to get a unique color.

Regardless of variety, all poinsettias start off as bunches of green leaves that don't turn into their eventual color until the amount of daylight they get is reduced. That process, known as photoperiodism, can happen naturally outdoors as the days get shorter.

But seven students at the university who grew hundreds of poinsettias this semester had to mimic that natural process inside the greenhouse to get the plants ready for the holiday season. Beginning in October, the plants were covered with a dark cloth from 4 p.m. to 8 a.m. each day to regulate the amount of light they received.

Schmitz said the transformation into a brightly colored plant happens gradually, and the poinsettias at All Seasons go through a phase each fall "when they really look kind of ugly" because the colors are just starting to show.

But it isn't long until they're ready to make the holiday season a little more festive, she said.

"I think, 'Oh my gosh, they're never going to look like anything,' and all of a sudden, you'll come in a week later and they're all done," she said.

Schmitz said the traditional red poinsettias are still the best selling variety each year. But she's noticed that churches in the area "are getting a little funky" and are increasingly choosing the marbled or pink novelty varieties instead of the standard white or red breeds.

While it takes a lot of work to get the poinsettias looking their best, Schmitz said she likes watching customers "ooh and ah" when they walk into the greenhouse and see the fruits of the staff's labor.

"If I see a poinsettia that's absolutely gorgeous, it makes me feel very good because I know that it's something that can bring joy to somebody."

Reach Johnson at (701) 780-1105; (800) 477-6572, ext. 105; or send e-mail to rjohnson@gfherald.com .