Magical Poinsettias

from Henlow December 2022

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Garden View Magical Poinsettias

By Rachael Leverton

In the UK, poinsettias have become as entwined with Christmas as holly and mistletoe. Yet poinsettias are actually sub-tropical plants, native to Central America and Mexico, requiring temperatures of between 10 and 21 degrees centigrade to survive. The bright red ‘flowers’ are really bracts, surrounding the real flowers, which are tiny and insignificant. They are notoriously difficult to persuade to flower again so it is with some pride that I tell you my current poinsettia is seven years old, huge, and flowers every year. If you want to try this, fertilize the plant once a month then cut back the stems in February to promote new growth. In May repot it to a larger container. From late September to 1st December cover the plant between 6pm and 8am as poinsettias need long periods of darkness in order to persuade the bracts to turn red. Around December 1st you should have a beautiful flowering poinsettia. But if this sounds too much like hard work...well, you can always buy another one! As it’s the festive season I thought I’d finish with a traditional Christmas story, explaining how the poinsettia came to be associated with this time of year. If you buy a poinsettia for someone this year it might be nice to tell them the story when you give them the plant: In Mexico, there once lived a little girl called Pepita who came from a very poor family. Every year, she and her brother Pablo looked forward to the big Christmas festival in their village. A manger scene would be set up in the church and the days before Christmas were filled with parades and parties. On Christmas Eve the whole village would attend church and all the children would place a gift for the baby Jesus next to the manger. One year Pepita’s family had no money at all to buy such a gift so it was with a sad heart that Pepita walked to the church that Christmas Eve and as they drew closer she began to weep. “Little Pepita, why do you cry?” asked her older brother Pablo. “Because I have no gift for the Christ child,” she answered. “Oh Pepita, even the most humble gift, if given in love, will be accepted by him,” said Pablo, comforting her. Pepita considered this for a while then gathered a handful of weeds from the roadside verge and fashioned them into a small posy. But as she entered the church her heart felt heavier than before. With her head bowed she approached the altar and knelt to lay her posy before the manger. Suddenly the tiny bouquet burst into blooms of brilliant red starry flowers and all who saw them were sure they had witnessed a Christmas miracle. The flowers are known as Flores de Noche Buena in Mexico which translates as Flowers of the Holy Night.

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