In Mexico, during the holiday season, a story is told about a poor young girl who was embarrassed and sad that she could only bring a bouquet of simple weeds to church for her Christmas offering. Her young brother tried to comfort her, saying, “Even the most humble gift, if given in love, will be acceptable in His eyes.” It is told that when the girl placed her offering on the church altar Christmas Eve night, the humble bouquet burst into a brilliant display of beautiful red flowers.\u00a0In Mexico, the poinsettia plant is known as Flores de Noche Buena, Flowers of the Holy Night. A native of Mexico, the poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) was cultivated and used by the Aztecs for dyes and as a medicinal plant to bring down fevers.\u00a0The plant was introduced to the United States by our first ambassador to Mexico, Joel Roberts Poinsett, in 1825 and since its introduction it has become an American holiday tradition. The beautiful red petals of the poinsettia are not the plant\u2019s flower but its leaves.\u00a0The plant\u2019s flower, or cyathia, is the small yellow and green berry-like center portion of the plant. In the 1980s, I had the privilege of meeting local horticulturist Milton Sessions, the nephew of Kate Sessions.\u00a0I enjoyed my conversations with Milton, especially his stories about “Aunt Kate.”\u00a0One story he told was about the Sessions family\u2019s poinsettia business in the 1920s, and how they sold them as cut flowers, not potted plants. This puzzled me because every time I\u2019ve placed a broken poinsettia branch in water, it would wither and dye. Milton explained that the family had large cauldrons of boiling water in which they would dip the cut branches of the poinsettias.\u00a0By doing this, the plant\u2019s white milky sap becomes cauterized and will allow the branches to live in water for about a week without wilting \u2014 it definitely works! Every holiday season when I bring home a poinsettia plant, I fondly remember Milton, who passed away in the early \u201990s. Poinsettias are the number-one selling potted plant sold in the United States, with approximately 70 million sold each year.\u00a0When selecting your poinsettia, choose a plant that has green foliage to its soil line.\u00a0Plants that have a more “naked” bottom may tend to be older or overly exposed to elements and that will shorten their life span.\u00a0Besides traditional red, you can choose poinsettias in white, pink, peach and yellow, and there always seem to be new hybrids that are marbled and speckled with different colors. Know for their fabulous poinsettias for the past 75 years, Encinitas-based Paul Ecke Ranch is now run by the family\u2019s third generation.\u00a0Paul Ecke Sr. is responsible for introducing the first potted poinsettia plant in the United States and today, 75 percent of the poinsettias sold in North America get their start with the Ecke family. \u00a0 Here are a few do\u2019s and don\u2019ts on poinsettia care from the experts at Paul Ecke Ranch: \u2022 Do place your plant in indirect sunlight for at least six hours per day \u2022 Do provide room temperatures between 68 and 70 degrees F\u00a0 \u2022 Do water your plant when the soil feels dry to the touch \u2022 Do fertilize after the blooming season with a balanced fertilizer \u2022 Don\u2019t place plants near cold drafts or excessive heat \u2014 fireplaces, heat ducts \u2022 Don\u2019t expose plants to temperatures below 50 degrees F \u2022 Don\u2019t over-water your plant, or allow it to sit in a pot in standing water \u2022 Don\u2019t expose your plant to chilling winds \u2022 Don\u2019t fertilize your plant when it is in bloom Contrary to popular myth, Paul Ecke Ranch says the poinsettia is not poisonous. To bring your plants back into bloom the following season, place them outdoors in the spring or summer, when temperatures do not go below 55 degrees.\u00a0In March or April, cut the plants back to approximately 8 inches.\u00a0Begin to fertilize with an all-purpose, well-balanced fertilizer about every two to three weeks, and by May you should begin to see vigorous new growth.\u00a0Continue feeding your plant through the fall. Photoperiodic in nature, poinsettia plants require long fall nights to set their buds.\u00a0If you can give the plants complete darkness for 14 hours per night, beginning in October, and six to eight hours of bright sun during the day, your plants should bloom for the holiday season. \u00a0 \u2014 The owner of a historic home and garden, Linda is a local Realtor with Coldwell Banker who specializes in historic and architecturally designed homes. Take a tour of her garden on www.LindaMarrone.com.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In Mexico, during the holiday season, a story is told about a poor young girl who was embarrassed and sad that she could only bring a bouquet of simple weeds to church for her Christmas offering. Her young brother tried to comfort her, saying, “Even the most humble gift, if given in love, will be […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":284135,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"Christmas poinsettias: Flores de Noche Buena","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11560,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-284134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-la-jolla-village-news","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}