Southern Perspective: Pondering poinsettias at holidays

Linda A. B. Davis
News Journal correspondent
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It turns out there's a day for almost everything, and that includes National Poinsettia Day, when we celebrate the botanical beauty whose leaves far eclipse its actual flower in majesty and size. Even those who don't know much about plants know a poinsettia when they see one, no matter the leaf color. Of course, the most popular color for the holiday season is overwhelmingly red, even though more than 100 colors are grown.

In 2002, the House of Representatives designated Dec. 12 to honor Paul Ecke Jr., who's considered the father of the poinsettia industry. He discovered a technique to allow seedlings to branch, which helps control adult plant height and thereby makes it suitable as a potted plant. With more than $250 million in annual sales, the poinsettia is now the best-selling potted plant in America. Ecke and his father are credited with the campaign to see the poinsettia associated with Christmas.

ARC Gateway client Barbara Collier helps to organize a delivery of Poinsettias just in time for the holidays at the organization's nursery on 10th Avenue. Dec. 12 is National Poinsettia Day.

Dec. 12 also marks the death of Joel Roberts Poinsett, an American Minister to Mexico, but also a physician and amateur botanist. In 1828, he sent shrub cuttings to his home in South Carolina from Southern Mexico. Since it blooms near the holidays, Mexicans have used it to decorate their churches for centuries. Their translation of the plant's name is "Flower of the Holy Night."

With the winter holidays upon us, we'll be saying "poinsettia" more often. We need to decide how to pronounce it. Do we go with poin-SET-ee-ah or poin-SET-ah? The Merriam-Webster and websites list both pronunciations as valid options. I usually go with the second option simply because it's got fewer syllables and is easier to say.

I adore poinsettias, but I don't buy them because I've heard they're poisonous to pets. My three cats are jerks in the way all cats can be, with their hairballs and bad attitudes, but they're my jerks, so I try to protect them from themselves.

Come to find out in my research that poinsettias get a bad rap. No, we still don't want to offer them up, since their sap is irritating to the mouth and esophagus, but we don't have to worry about fatally poisoning our pets with one. The articles I read all agreed that vomiting upon accidental ingestion is the most likely outcome.

With that said, we'll still buy more than 70 million poinsettias within these last six weeks of 2015. That's quite a lot of holiday spirit being spread through greenery. Or should I say red and greenery? Oh, no matter. It's all pretty.

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