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Poinsettias — one of America's most popular flowers — become more exciting each year. Plant breeders work hard each season to add to the charm of these wonderful flowers.
The earliest records of the plant date to Aztec times. Poinsettias had their beginning in Mexico near present day Taxco. For most of the year, they are nondescript shrubs, but when the days grow shorter, they develop brilliant red flowers.
When days are long, poinsettias display little distinction, but they turn bright red when the days grow short.
The Aztecs called the plant "Cuetlaxochitle," and it was a symbol of purity. King Montezuma imported poinsettias because they could not be grown in the capital city (now Mexico City) due to the high altitude and climate. Aztecs made a reddish-purple dye from the bracts and extracted medicine for fever from the plant's latex.
The association with Christmas, according to legend, comes from a young Mexican girl named Pepita. She was sad because she was poor and had no gift to present to the Christ Child at the church service on Christmas Eve. As she walked sorrowfully to church with her cousin, Pedro, he consoled her by telling her even the most humble gift, given in love, is acceptable.
Pepita gathered a bouquet of "weeds" along the road and entered the church. She approached the altar and placed her gift for the Christ Child. Miraculously, her "weeds" burst into brilliant red blooms they called "Flores de Noche Buena" — or "Flowers of the Holy Night."
Although poinsettias never change color quite that fast, they do "bloom" as the days become shorter.
New research this year sheds additional light on how this plant made it to American and European markets. According to William LeFevre, executive director of the John Bartram Association and America's oldest living botanical garden, the Historic Bartram's Garden, the poinsettia's namesake, Joel Roberts Poinsett, was a plantation owner and botanist from South Carolina.
While serving as the first United States ambassador to Mexico from 1825-1829, he was impressed by the brilliant red flowers he found while visiting Taxco one December. He had plants sent to his home and grown in his greenhouse.
A German taxonomist had already assigned the botanical name — Euphorbia pulcherrima — in 1833. The popular name poinsettia stuck because of the ambassador and remains the accepted common name today. Poinsett sent seeds and plants of early poinsettias to a commercial nursery in Philadelphia. However, these did not go to John Bartram — as most histories record — but to Col. Robert Carr, who was married to Bartram's granddaughter, Ann Bartram Carr.
Carr introduced the poinsettia into commercial trade from Bartram's Garden on June 6, 1829, at "the first semiannual exhibition of fruits, flowers and plants, of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society." This was the inaugural show of the now 175-year-old Philadelphia Flower Show.
The poinsettia's history as a successful cultivated crop goes to Albert Ecke. He emigrated from Germany to Switzerland and then to Southern California and eventually started growing the bright scarlet flowers to sell as cut flowers for Christmas.
When days are long, poinsettias display little distinction, but they turn bright red when the days grow short.
His son, Paul, realized the potential of the plant, and in 1920 developed the first poinsettia cultivar that grew successfully as an indoor potted plant. The Paul Ecke Ranch began breeding poinsettias in 1960.
Prior to that time, Paul would walk through his fields of poinsettias looking for natural mutations (or sports), that he would consider improvements over existing commercial varieties. In 1960, scientists at the ranch started doing specific crosses.
This breeding program used the pollen from a male plant with desired characteristic to the female nectary of another plant. Some crosses eventually yielded seed that were planted.
The breeding staff evaluates the crosses for size, color, lasting ability and form. Each season thousands of crosses are made in the search for a new poinsettia. Workers might save one plant out of a hundred for future tests, and eventually they might get a commercial success out of one in 10,000 crosses.
More than 75 percent of the poinsettias grown in North America and 50 percent of those grown throughout the world get their start at the Paul Ecke Ranch in Encinitas, Calif.
Red poinsettias are the most traditional and the best-selling color, currently taking about 74 percent of the market. But new colors are becoming more popular. One variety that caught my attention has an orange tint. This plant was named after Leonardo da Vinci because of the artistic look of its petals.
Plant forms are also variable. The most common is the traditional, single-stalked, pinched, potted plant, but look for topiary trees, hanging baskets or large potted plants filled to overflowing with multiple plants.
Poinsettia plants can last for several months if you follow simple care instructions. Water them as needed but never let them sit in water. Keep them in bright light and keep them out of cold or hot drafts for a stunning holiday plant.
Larry Sagers Horticulture Specialist Utah State University Extension Thanksgiving Point
