The vivid red display of poinsettias has been a holiday tradition for nearly a century. They were introduced into the United States from southern Mexico, where they are native, in 1825 and have steadily grown in popularity. The common name honors Joel Roberts Poinsett, our first minister to Mexico.
In its native range in southern Mexico and possibly Central America, the wild version of our domesticated poinsettia, Euphorbia pulcherrima, is actually a woody plant growing into a large shrub or small tree that can reach 12 feet or more in height. The vivid color results from photoperiodism, requiring long periods of darkness and periods of bright light (which is what they experience in their native range).
Two important points should be made about poinsettias. First, the colored parts are leaves, not flowers. The flowers are the little yellow things in the center. Second, they are not particularly poisonous. In the grouping of plants as food — edible, inedible, poisonous — they are actually inedible, producing mild gastrointestinal symptoms when eaten. So don’t eat them and teach your toddlers not to eat them, but don’t panic if someone does a bit of experimental light munching — they will learn not to do it again, but not horrifically.
Like many native plants, one leaf or flower color is most common, but variations exist in the wild. As the commercial propagation of poinsettias has become a greased skid, the orange, pale green, creamy white, pink and pure white colors have been isolated and propagated. Moreover, marbled, spotted and other variegated patterns have been captured and entered commercial production. A greenhouse or florist with a wide representation of these traditional plants will have a large number of not-very-traditional looking colors to add variety to holiday decorating. I should mention that the blue poinsettias of the past were achieved with a botanically compatible dye and were not natural. Likewise, poinsettias do not produce their own sequins, obviously!
The commercialization of poinsettias as the holiday plant required the development of techniques to produce them in large numbers and to improve the somewhat leggy growth habit typical of early poinsettias in the marketplace. A German immigrant, Albert Ecke, settled in the Los Angeles area and was selling them in street stands shortly after 1900. His son, Paul Ecke, developed the grafting technique that produces “blooms” on every stem of a compact plant. His grandson, Paul Ecke, Jr., is mainly responsible for advancing the association between Christmas and poinsettias, largely via television.
At one point, the Ecke ranch produced about 70 percent or the poinsettias sold in the U.S. In 1991, a university researcher discovered the grafting technique and published it. This made it easy for many horticultural producers to grow perfect poinsettias and to move production offshore where labor costs were less.
In the northeast, poinsettias are most often either locally grown by producers with greenhouses or imported from nearby Ontario, Canada, where enormous numbers of these holiday plants are grown. Even now, the Ecke ranch provides many of the grafted cuttings that are grown on. When you can get a respectable red poinsettia on Black Friday for less than $1, you know there is a more than adequate supply.
My whole life, keeping poinsettias for a year and getting them to bloom the next year has been a pursuit of marginally obsessed lovers of houseplants and gardeners. Both my grandmothers played with this. “Stevie, don’t disturb the poinsettias in the front room.” We have tried it with plants in the bathtub, etc. The problem is that without re-grafting them, they get leggy and increasingly ugly. The holiday poinsettias you buy are not normal; they have been altered to have a more pleasing form. Besides, they are now so inexpensive, everyone can buy them, enjoy them and recycle them. Except in the tropics, they don’t thrive in the earth.
