Poinsettias bring seasonal color, cheer
By Heidi Bornhorst
Poinsettias are native to Mexico and Guatemala, but they grow well and wildly in Hawai'i and in other warm, subtropical places.
The normal blooming season is from November to March, and they come in shades of red, pink and white. Poinsettias planted in the ground will flower beautifully
during these months unless they are too close to a street or house light. These are the hedge or tree type varieties, and are very different from the potted varieties produced in abundance by Hawai'i's nurseries just for us plant lovers and Christmas decorating artists.
Poinsettias bloom during the Christmas holiday season for a reason. They are what horticulturists call a "short-day plant" — they bloom naturally in the winter when the nights are long and the days are short. Nurseries can make them bloom anytime by duplicating winter day-length conditions.
Is it a flower or a leaf? Botanists do not refer to the "bloom" as a flower. The colorful bracts are actually modified leaves, and the flowers are the tinier things in the center. The bracts evolved to attract pollinating insects to the inconspicuous flowers that might otherwise be missed by a busy bug. Bracts, those color modified leaves, are found on other plants like bougainvillea and mussaenda.
Mostly everyone knows and loves poinsettias and associates them with the Christmas season. Hawai'i nurseries have been growing, grooming and babying this plant for months so you can have it for your holiday decor and gifts. Red is the original and most popular color, but plant breeders are constantly coming up with new varieties in other colors, shapes and sizes. (Red is still my favorite and the classic color of the plant.)
Poinsettias are easy to care for if you follow a few simple rules:
• Water one to three times a week, depending on the dryness of the environment.
• Let water flow through the pot, draining each time you water so your poinsettia is not sitting in water
• Place it in bright light, but not direct sunlight.
• Keep it protected from the wind.
If you stick to these simple steps your plant should last several months.
Also, there is no need to toss out your poinsettia right after Christmas. If cared for properly, the plant will last. Besides, red is still a fantastic color. Make your plant last through the new year and even Chinese new year, which comes early in 2002.
The newer hybrid floral types, which most Hawai'i nurseries now grow and sell, are not really worth keeping after February or March. If you want one to grow in the ground, get one of the old hedge varieties. If you look around older neighborhoods, you will find these big, bushy plants growing in the ground. They are easy to grow from cuttings.
I got some a few years back from a friend, May Moir, who had taken cuttings from an old hedge up in Nu'uanu. Foster Village has several yards with gorgeous hedge-type poinsettias.
Old-timers may remember the famous hedge that grew along the Board of Water Supply's nursery up in Nu'uanu. This was a famous sight for many years but the street lights and soil fungus finally did them in.
Do not plant your poinsettias where they may get light at night. I have one in front of my house where the branches exposed to the street lights are still green. The ones shaded from the glare of the night lamps have colored up nice and red.
Another fabulous poinsettia is the white variety, snowflake poinsettia or snow on the mountain. Scientists call it Euphorbia leucocephala. (leucocephala means white head). This is a great plant to grow in the garden. Nurseries are now selling dwarf varieties of these plants for pots during the holiday season. It also makes a great cut flower, perfect for holiday decor or a winter wedding. The dry branches are nice in ikebana-type flower arrangements.
We bought some potted ones for the Hale Koa hotel one year. Our decor was green Christmas trees, big, red gorgeous poinsettias, surrounded by the white ones.
The white poinsettia has lacy flowers that, with a good imagination, can look like snowflakes. An added bonus is that they are fragrant!
You will see the white snowflake poinsettia in more gardens than you will the red ones. They are about 3- to 4-feet tall and are rounded shrubs. Like most flowering plants they need good sunlight to bloom well. They are easy to propagate from cuttings and are very pretty single or as part of a grouping or hedge. They also do well in large or small pots and make good gifts.
The fragrance is enchanting. I still marvel at how great they smell each time I catch a whiff of poinsettia scent as I roam the garden. I often forget where it's coming from — that it is that pretty and seasonal Euphorbia leucocephala.
Cheap aromatherapy, I tell you.
