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Story and photos by Vivienne Mackie
But the poinsettia is a much newer addition, the New World's contribution to Christmas. In 1825 Joel Roberts Poinsett of South Carolina, a diplomat who was the first American minister to Mexico, was intrigued with the brilliant red "flowers" topping spindly shrubs all over the country. (The "flowers" are actually brightly-colored bracts which attract pollinating insects to the hidden, tiny green flowers). The local people called them "flame flowers" or "flowers of the Holy Night" because they were used as decorations in Mexican Nativity processions.
About a hundred years later, Paul Ecke of California saw these plants and began to cultivate, interbreed, and experiment with them. The Ecke family built up a thriving business which supplies thousands of growers around the world with cuttings that produce millions of holiday plants each year. We can now enjoy red, pink, white, yellow, and marbled colors to brighten the holiday season. Poinsettias can range from miniatures in pots, to eight-foot trees in tropical and sub-tropical countries. |
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JustSayGO Travel Show
Most flowers, herbs, and plants used at Christmas are
associated with
very ancient celebrations. In those years before blooms could be
airlifted to brighten our bleak mid-winters, the presence of a colorful, growing plant in dark December seemed positively miraculous, and so
many stories and tales grew up around these plants. 
Dr. Poinsett was an enthusiastic botanist and he sent cuttings home for
his greenhouse and to share with friends.
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