Christmas cake was the traditional Rich Fruit cake with splashes of rum and brandy. The Poinsettias was handmade.

Update for 1 February 2010

Common fence plants adorning many little houses across much of the Tropics are the colourful and no-fuss bougainvillea. This is a woody vine that at times resembles a shrub and grows quite abundantly and needs little care – as it tends itself. It is also hardy against pests like borers and ants and so stays healthy all year round. Although it is a perennial – a plant that does not need any particular season to flower, and in India it prefers the cooler months of January to March to blossom, though it flowers all year round. And as you browse through neighbourhoods of most urban centres, you will not miss the magenta or red blooms and in more tonier neighbourhoods, the colours could be a riot ranging from flaming oranges, burnish yellows to angelic whites and even multicoloured bunched up blossoms that would shame the crepe paper festoons found at birthday parties. These are not aromatic flowers and most of the stems have thorns that keep away common herbivorous predators like goats, sheep or cattle. I too have bougainvilleas adorning our compound wall at home, and am lucky to also have one in a pot on my windowsill. All the plants are in bloom – but on closer inspection, what I thought and described as a flower is indeed not it. The flowers are tiny white tubes with a mere 2-3 millimeter wide five-petalled flower at the top. The colourful riot of three “petals” around each white tube flower is actually a modified leaf, called a bract. It helps attract the very important pollinating agents, and help the plant grow and survive. So next time you pass by the flowering blossom – try and take a closer look, while you admire the butterflies flitting about too.

Today started with fears from across the Atlantic and then spread to fears from the European side of the Atlantic – and like the bougainvilleas in bloom, the D Street was reddened by the negative SENSEX that not only opened negative – but was also 200 points down, until, some D Boyz with a little botany knowledge figured out the difference between petals and leaves, and helped the SENSEX get back on its feet. The abundance of new shiny cars on the roads near D Street also helped – so also the fact that lots of metal went into the manufacture of these vehicles. What could have been a continuing green day on D Street (last Friday ended 50 odd points in the green) actually ended flat on a bougainvillea petal – so instead of ending 0 points up or down, the SENSEX ended 2 points down at 16356.

Another pretty plant that mimics the bougainvillea with bracts is the very Christmassy poinsettia. The upper most leaves start off a deep scarlet surrounding the buds at the top looking like a flaming flower – to subsequently turn green once the flowers have been pollinated.

Cheers…..

Welcome to another Blooming Friday! Not very many blooms in my tiny yard but there’s more colour in the poinsettia now to spread a little winter cheer. We’re still waking up to foggy mornings and I hope it carries on for at least two weeks or so.

The other blooms below are from my sister’s garden. The white jasmine has been blooming for over a month now. And the Sleeping Hibiscus blooms throughout the year. The plant does well in full sun. In partial shade or shady areas, it tends to be spindly and the blooms become fewer.

To see what’s blooming around the world, please visit Katarina.

Have a great weekend everyone!

I’ve got a last few poinsettia photos to share for this holiday season. I photographed both of these types at Longwood Gardens in December. As with everything at Longwood – they were spectacular.

The DaVinci Poinsettias are a beautiful soft pink flowers. The varying shades of pink made it one of my favorite poinsettias to photograph this year.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Renaissance Red is a spectacular smaller blossom poinsettia. The petals are an intense red and have wonderful shapes and curves.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

It’s time to get your outdoor shots together for Outdoor Wednesday hosted by Susan a Southern DayDreamer! Thanks Susan!

It’s great to be in Sunny Southern California again and to resume my walks with Willow! Sheesh, it’s been over 8 weeks since we last walked! The sun peeked over the Santa Monica Mountains as we started out. Willow said “that’s a nice shot”. So I said, “Okay I’ll take a picture.”  When Bloggers walk they are always looking for a great shot.

After we made it up the first hill huffing and puffing a little (remember it’s been awhile since we’ve walked)  we spotted this great Poinsettia plant and I thought of Ruby Tuesday…except it’s almost Wednesday so this will work for O.W.

Hope your week is going well and that you are surviving whatever weather is being thrown at you!!

Was a bit too busy for my own good yesterday, so here’s the make-up.  I LOVE flowers!!

And I’ve been dying to take a picture of my favorite rock of all time.  I love the lacy look of the stripes, and I’ve never seen anything quite like it.  I found it on the shore of Lake Superior and it’s polished like that naturally from the waves.  It feels amazingly smooth and cool, and the stripes go all the way around it.  I love my rock!!

As previously mentioned, I’m into a very big nativity set.  Not as in “collecting many sets”, but as in a sprawling one that takes over a sizable chunk of the kitchen counter.

It starts out a little sparse...

I made most of the buildings out of salt dough or scrap wood and sticks from the yard.  The mountain is double-sided, with a cave for the shepherds on the back, and a large stable space on the front.  There’s also space for a couple of goats and a flat spot to stand an angel right above the stable.  Most of the “ground” is various pieces of fabric: burlap for the dirt of the town, various green bits for the countryside (including some worn-out pants legs), and a weird striped green from the remnant bin at the fabric store that’s being used as a plowed field.  Storage boxes that protect the buildings are used to make the hills.

Mary and Joseph (lower left) on the way through the countryside...

Years ago, in French class, as a comprehension exercise, we watched a news report on one town’s nativity scene.  Typical of the region (and also common in areas of Italy), the scene had an entire room of its own in the town hall.  Mountains stretched to the ceiling, bustling streets were crowded with people, bakers bring bread, weavers bring cloth, shepherds bring lambs, and, finally, at the end, was the stable and the Holy Family.  The idea was to make people think about what it would’ve been like to be there, in Bethlehem, all those years ago, and to remind us that Christ is still in our midst.  Traditionally, the figures of the townsfolk were all dressed in local costume of the time, while only the Holy Family was in more historically appropriate robes.  (If you’re familiar with Provencal santons, that’s what they are: figures originally meant for Nativity scenes.)

Finally, around the third week of Advent, they reach the stable.

Would you have noticed this poor baby, born in a corner of the inn’s stable?  What would you have brought as a gift?

A farmhouse, with an open upper level for eating and work. Wood was only used where absolutely necessary.

We each have something different to offer, and it is not always the gift itself, but the giving in faith that is the important thing.  We read this recently in the Gospel about the widow’s mite; she gave what little she had, in the faith that God would do something with her tiny gift and also continue to support her.  This is also the lesson in Tommie diPaola’s The Legend of the Poinsettia, a lovely book describing a girl’s prayerful offering of weeds when she had nothing else to donate on Christmas Eve.  She gave in faith, and the plain weeds suddenly blazed at their tips with gorgeous red flowers.  Great book.

The magi, in their tent, sit down to a meal.

Wow, I thought; what a cool idea.  What a great way to focus your celebration of Christmas on Jesus.

The marketplace gets crowded.

 I am indebted to Mrs. O at A Fine Mess for posting this great video about the Nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square.  I had seen it before, but it never really registered that it is gradually getting bigger nor that the building changed drastically each year.  Very cool.

A close-up of the standing loom (notice the shed stick and weights) on the farmhouse roof (for all you fiber-arts people out there).

 Very useful for this level of detail (my husband usually mutters something about “obsessiveness”) is the book People of the Bible: Life and Customs by Silvia Gastaldi and Claire Musatti.  (Yes, the loom works; I wove about six inches of fabric on it, just to roll it up on the top beam.)

Finally, on Christmas Eve, the angels are hung from the arch over the mountain.

Every day of Advent, each child gets to pick out a figure to put out (until we run out of figures).  My kids think it’s a hugely big deal when the baby Jesus finally gets put out in the stable.

I had to pop in to town to pick up some staples (bread, milk, etc) from the grocery store yesterday. Inevitably when I go into the store I have to swing by their flower section, just to peruse what’s there, admire the plants, think of what I’d like to buy if I was rolling in cash. In this store it’s right by the front doors, so it’s easy to just park the cart a moment and have a quick walk through. Yesterday they were selling off their Christmas poinsettias, marked down to a mere 99c, from the regular price of $10. I just couldn’t resist picking one up, for that price! I ended up getting three, because I couldn’t decide which one I liked best. And it would only cost me $3, instead of the $30 it might have before Christmas. They’re such lovely plants. And if you take care of them over the summer, and then put them into a strict lighting regimen next fall, they’ll bloom again for the holidays next year.

We tend to think of the showy red or yellow displays as the poinsettia flowers, but they’re actually just coloured leaves, usually referred to as bracts, that serve the same purpose as petals in a traditional flower. The actual flower structures are at the centre of all those red leaves, and can be easily seen with a closer look. They don’t look like traditional flowers, either (so we’re excused for thinking the red bracts are the flowers). The bulbous base to each flower is a structure called a cyathium, and is unique to the genus Euphorbia (which includes the poinsettia, E. pulcherima, as well as many smaller and less showy native species). This structure contains both the pollen-bearing stamens and the female pistil. Technically, the male and female parts (one female surrounded by many male) within the cyathium are all considered their own individual flowers, as opposed to parts of a greater whole. It appears that the female flower in the poinsettia cyathium matures later than the males, or at least it didn’t seem to be visible on any of my plants. When it matures, it looks like a ball on a stem, flopped over the side of the cyathium. On my pale plant some of the flowers are still maturing and are still green, so I’ll have to watch how they develop.

Is it just me, or do the flowers look like a bunch of baby birds, muppet-style with their big yellow beaks and furry topknots, clustered together and begging for food? The fleshy “beaks” are actually nectar glands that produce the reward for pollinators, since the actual flowers themselves are far too minimalist to be able to accomplish that.

We usually see poinsettias as small bushy plants appropriate for the table-top, but in the wild they are woody shrubs that can actually grow quite large. In the store I saw one potted poinsettia that had been grown for a while longer and its lower branches clipped so it had developed into a tree. It would have made a lovely floor plant, but it was considerably more than the discount 99c plants.

Poinsettias also have an interesting history of use by humans. To learn a bit more about that side of things, visit posts at my mom’s blog, or my aunt’s.

Hello everyone, and welcome to Good to Grow’s Ask the Experts, the best, funniest, smartest and only plant blog panel of experts on the web.

Today we have a special Thursday holiday version of Ask the Experts to celebrate the new year, 2010, which starts tomorrow. Woohoo!

Those high-end graphics kill me every time.

For those of you new to Good to Grow, each Friday (except when it’s a Thursday), I gather my panel of experts and ask them a plant-related question. Hopefully they can answer it. Thing is, I never said they were a panel of plant experts. Of course, I also never said what constitutes a winning answer. That’s solely my discretion! Hahahahaha! It’s great fun, I promise.

Want to meet the panel? (Counts nodding heads.) Ok! First up is Tina Quintana!

Tina’s an expert on plants, both indoor and outdoor, as well as a great friend. She and I both started small plant care businesses in Albuquerque after Conroy’s shut its doors abruptly and left us both unemployed. We’ve pooled our resources, time and friendship ever since. Thanks for being here girl!

Ok, now it’s time to meet EZ Ed Johnson!

EZ is not an expert in houseplants, but he is an expert in lots of other areas, like sports, films, books. He’s the sports editor for the Albuquerque Journal – we became friends when I worked there years ago. He gets his nickname because he’s so laid back. Except when he talks about his Jayhawks, then he gets excited. And why not? They reign supreme over college hoops right now. Thanks for being here EZ!

Next up is the lovely and talented Dottie Correll!

Gosh I will never tire of looking at that sunflower head – she’s just adorable, isn’t she? Dottie’s 83, and has spent most of her life dedicated to making the world a better place, by volunteering with the Red Cross (since 1963), by being patriotic, by being a Mom and Grandma to bright, compassionate kids. I’ve said it once, I’ll say it a thousand times – she should be declared a National Treasure. Thanks for being here Dottie! Glad you’re feeling better!

Rounding out the panel is expert Lewis Casey!

Lewis and I both volunteer for the Mid-Rio Grande Chapter of the American Red Cross. He’s much more devoted than me – he’s a Disaster Action Team Captain (I’m a mere DAT member), meaning he’s the one who gets the call when there’s a natural disaster and people need help. He’s also the Director of Safety for the New Mexico Department of Health. He’s looking out for all of us, thanks Lewis!

Hi, I’m Liza the moderator for Ask the Experts and the author of this blog. Thanks for reading, and thanks again to all our panelists.

Once again, this week’s question comes from me. One day, people will actually read this blog, and hopefully then they’ll submit their burning plant questions. Until then, it’s all me. And I’m still not asking EZ a sports question (maybe next week buddy!).

So this week’s question is, “What should I do with my Poinsettia after the holidays?”

CHUCK IT! Oops, sorry for blurting that out. I am not fond of Poinsettias. They’re beautiful, yes, but they’re also extremely high-maintenance. They’re like the prom queens of the plant world.

But that’s just me. Let’s see what the panel thinks. Tina, the question goes to you first!

Q. What should I do with my Poinsettia after the holidays?

A. My first instinct was to say throw it away, but I won’t. If you have a Poinsettia in your house, cut it back after the blooms fall off. About 4 inches. Then you put it in a bright spot and fertilize it to grow it out for the next season. If you make it that far. Lol!

Dingdingdingdingding! That sounds so believable, I’m not even going to fact check you. Good job, Tina. Next time, though, go with your gut!

Ok, EZ Ed Johnson is up next. Hey EZ, before we get to the Poinsettia question, do you think you could use your contacts to get legendary men’s basketball coach Bob Knight to be a guest expert on this blog one day?

A. No.

Really? Because I’d be super hospitable. I could throw him a softball question, or maybe just ask him to share a funny story. I’m a big fan, and he might enjoy it.

A. Um, no.

Drat. Well, ya can’t blame a girl for trying. And believe you me, I’m going to keep trying! Ok, back to business. EZ, here’s your question.

Q. What should I do with my Poinsettia after the holidays?

A. Poinsettias? Aren’t the leaves supposed to be poisionous? I guess that rules out making a salad. I guess just toss it with the Christmas wrapping, credit card bills and old fruit cake.

Dingdingdingdingding! That’s correct, throw it away, that’s what I’ve been saying all along. However, EZ you won’t be earning any points for your correct answer until you agree to help me get Bob Knight as a guest expert one day. Hah! Sole discretion baby!

Dottie, you’re up next.

Q. What should I do with my Poinsettia after the holidays?

A. What kind of a question is that? You put it in the safe until the next appropriate holiday!!!  Of course the initial selection from a well known “gardener”  is essential. Oh ladies, make sure you take your very own “care taker” along when making the selection. My very favorite “nursery” is Mason Metal Design.  They offer poinsiettas with a 5-leaf sterling silver design with a 5 mm diamond center; artist signed and quality stamped. Guaranteed to keep that sparkling bloom and last forever.

Hahahahahaha! You are one funny lady, Dottie! Do you know Bob Knight by any chance? No? Ok. I’m still calling that a correct answer. Good job!

Ok Lewis, here’s the question to you my friend.

Q. What should I do with my Poinsettia after the holidays?

A. What to do with a Poinsettia after Christmas is an age old question,

Besides bringing it into our safe and happy home in the first place

We have not done it any favors by bestowing it a place to languish

Its good health away in our home

Poor, poor poinsettias, we invite them in, give them a place of honor

To bring us a measure of good cheer,

To brighten and color our humble hovel, Reds, Pinks, faded Yellow

And a horde of spotted, splashed and dappled mixes, and

Don’t forget the Have we no shame Blues.

So after we have taken our pleasures from them and the day of Peace is past

Off to the side they are shuffle

To stand next to our eternal Aloe, our perpetual Spider Plant,

Our faithful Boston fern,

Our stoic Jade and Philodendron

There is last summer’s Cherry Tomato pretending to be happy,

A sad looking Amaryllis sharing a spotlight in the sun

With an overgrown Geranium yearning to be free

Now our variegated pink poinsettia is relegated to thrive, enjoy life,

Live long and prosper on a sun-baked

cramped and dingy window shelf we proudly call our Green Space.

After a few months of special treatment by our wondrous hands most of

its leaves have the color of baked sand or have fallen off, it is tall and spindly

looking just like all of our other poor victims/plants

But still we love them so, as we boastfully tell our friends “Oh how pretty plant are cleaning

the air and adding oxygen to our homes”. What joy they give us, as we over water them because

Of the four week of desertification we imposed (forgot to water)

So when someone asks what to do with a Poinsettia after Christmas

I say that “I just love them to death” not far from the truth is it

Peace and Happy annual rotation around the Sun

Lewis

Wow! What an answer! You are an amazing person, Lewis Casey, amazing. But you realize I’m going to have to call that INCORRECT because even though you are elegant with your words and have an obvious love of plants, you’re still promoting keeping the Poinsettia in your home. You know how I feel about that [insert buzzer sound].

Hahahahaha! I’m drunk with power!

Let’s give a round of applause to our panel of experts, everyone! We never know how they’re going to answer the question, but it’s always entertaining. Well, I’m entertained, anyway, and since I’m the author of this blog, I’m the only one whose entertainment really matters. Still, I hope you enjoy it, too.

Name that Plant Problem!

Last week, I asked you what was wrong with this plant, a Pothos in the kitchen of a mortgage company client of mine.

There were multiple correct answers, and multiple correct guesses! Gray.com (my Mom) noticed that it needs trimming, and she was correct. Diane guessed correctly that it had been relocated. But James over at Jamesandthegiantcorn took it to another level by piecing it together correctly.

He guessed, “Is it supposed to be lying on its side? And there are clearly wires for the pot to be hung somewhere, so maybe someone decided it was blocking christmas decorations and stashed it on the shelf. Though I’m not sure that’d even qualify as a plant problem.”

It definitely qualifies as a plant problem if you’re the plant caretaker. James was right – the employees in this office moved the plant in here to make way for the Christmas tree in the lobby.

If you look really closely, you can see the hook from which the plant used to be hanging.

Another reason that it qualifies as a plant problem is because they put it in such a precarious location up on that cabinet mostly sideways. So I took it down, pruned it, and stashed it a safer location.

Congratulations to James, Diane and Mom, and thanks for submitting your guesses. There are no prizes for winning, just my gratitude for playing, and of course, glory. James, you’re now the first ever two-time champ. Everyone else, he’s the man to beat!

We’ll have another installment of Name that Plant Problem when we return to our regular schedule next Friday. Today, I have a new segment specifically designed for the New Year.

GAMES PEOPLE PLAY WITH PLANTS

I went to water the plants in another one of my mortgage company clients in Albuquerque a couple days ago, and found this.

It totally cracked me up. It’s a paper airplane.

The employees in this office definitely know how to have fun while they work (and they do work, really). A few years ago, I went in to water the plants, and I found rubber bands everywhere. I asked, and sure enough, they’d had a huge rubber band war the day before. They’re funny people.

But why do I share that with you? Because a lot of people feel anxious and stressed when a new year rolls around. It’s so easy these days to look around and only see terrible things happening. We are fighting two wars and there seems to be no end in sight for either of them. Our military men and women, and their families, are suffering unimaginable pain and sacrifice. It’s awful.

But even so, there is a lot of hope to be had in the coming year. We live in a beautiful magical world, and 2010 has the potential to help a lot of people look around with wonder and delight at our gorgeous planet.

We have to remember that the most important thing is to help each other. The lessons of the coming years will be about unity and humanity, and our relationships with each other, nature, animals, our whole universe. We would do well to represent, each in our own unique, beautiful way.

You’ll find no doom and gloom from me about 2012 or after. I’m excited to be alive at this most interesting point in history. I plan on spending the rest of my life dedicated to making the world a better place in any and all ways I can. If that’s through revealing the secret magical life of houseplants to people who haven’t yet been exposed, or rejuvenating the love others already have for nature, well, I think that’s pretty good.

Happy New Year to you all. And I sincerely hope 2010 is the best year of your life.

I’ll be back on Monday with a post about my own houseplants. Until then, happy indoor gardening, all! Here’s to peace on Earth.

On my recent to Longwood Gardens I had the chance to photograph some of their spectacular poinsettias. The varieties on display this year were spectacular. I hadn’t seen anything like some of them before.

Here are some photos of the Ice Punch Poinsettia. I really liked the red and white patterns in the petals of these flowers. Ice Punch Poinsettia is a new poinsettia this year - bred originally at the Paul Ecke Ranch in California.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Another variety I photographed was the Monet Twilight Poinsettia. This is another poinsettia developed at Paul Ecke. The varying shades of red to white in the petals make for a beautiful flower.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

I have a few more poinsettia photos to share. I’ll try to post them over the weekend.

]]> http://darrellharden.com/2009/12/28/my-college-bowl-picks-so-far/ Tue, 29 Dec 2009 02:09:59 +0000 Darrell http://darrellharden.com/2009/12/28/my-college-bowl-picks-so-far/

Just as I did last year, I will report to you my picks in the college bowl games. I’ll report them along with the results, however unpleasant they might be. This entry will cover bowls through Monday, 28 December 2009. My pick is in color. If I got it right, it’s in green; if it’s in red, I botched it. I’m also reporting the number of points I assigned to each game in the Yahoo! College Bowl Pick’em contest.

19 December

New Mexico Bowl: Fresno State 28 – 35 Wyoming (0-1, 33 points lost, 0/33 total points)

That wasn’t such a great way to start. I gave Fresno State credit for being a consistently decent team. Apparently, Wyoming didn’t care about Fresno State’s consistent decency.

St. Petersburg Bowl: Rutgers 45 – 24 Central Florida (0-2, 9 points lost, 0/42 total points)

Rutgers were on-again, off-again all season. Apparently, they were on form for this game.

20 December

New Orleans Bowl: Southern Mississippi 32 – 42 Middle Tennessee State (1-2, 4 points won, 4/46 total points)

It’s always nice to get that first correct pick out of the way.

22 December

Las Vegas Bowl: Oregon State 20 – 42 BYU (2-2, 16 points won, 20/62 total points)

The BYU offense made an appearance and delivered my second correct pick of the bowl season.

23 December

Poinsettia Bowl: California 27 – 37 Utah (3-2, 6 points won, 26/68 total points)

I’m not sure I was ever over .500 in picking last season’s bowl games.

24 December

Hawai’i Bowl: Nevada 10 – 45 SMU (3-3, 7 points lost, 26/75 total points)

As quickly as I got above .500, I dropped back to an even record.

26 December

Little Caesars Bowl: Ohio 17 – 21 Marshall (3-4, 8 points lost, 26/83 total points)

Once again, I fell back into the red. That’s what I get for picking a MAC school.

Meineke Car Care Bowl: Pittsburgh 19 – 17 North Carolina (4-4, 21 points won, 47/104 total points)

That one felt good. It was nice to pick up a close contest.

Emerald Bowl: USC 24 – 13 Boston College (4-5, 19 points lost, 47/123 total points)

I thought USC would win, but I picked BC to cover the spread (9 points). Oh, well.

27 December

Music City Bowl: Clemson 21 – 13 Kentucky (5-5, 10 points won, 57/133 total points)

Former Alabama wide receiver and position coach Dabo Swinney won his first bowl game as Clemson’s head coach. SEC teams are now 0-1 this bowl season

28 December

Independence Bowl: Georgia 44 – 20 Texas A&M (6-5, 17 points won, 74/150 total points)

This game sounded way cooler when it was the Poulan Weed Eater Independence Bowl. SEC teams are now 1-1 this bowl season

Happy Holidays to everyone!

Merry Christmas!
The Joy of Microsoft Paint is that I was able to crop a poinsettia to the flag replacing the usual maple leaf on the centre, giving this Canadian icon an extra Christmas touch.
Have a great holiday everyone!

FOR TODAY… It’s Christmas Eve.

Outside my window… A couple inches of the big, fluffy Christmas kind of snow that fell last night.

I am thinking… that December 26th is almost here. I’m looking forward to the New Year.

I am thankful for… my husband doing well. Last year around this time, he was headed for a 45 day hospital stay.

I am wearing… green sweatshirt, black jeans, my Crocs

I am remembering… how much I loved it when my daughter and her family lived here instead of in Florida. I miss them SO much.

I am going… to get back on the weight loss wagon BEFORE January 1st.

I am currently reading… blogs of other artists I’ve met on Flickr

I am hoping… that our country will turn back to a fear of God, and following the Constitution. It’s not looking good, but I still hope.

On my mind…so many things…
From the kitchen… lots of freshly baked cookies, now working on refreshments for tonight, and the food I need to bring with us to dinner tomorrow.

Around the house… I’m making sure everything is tidy before our guests arrive tonight.

One of my favorite things…my art groups on Flickr

From my picture journal…the poinsettia on my table. This was a few days ago. I have a Christmas tablecloth under it today.

Merry Christmas to all.

At this time of year, poinsettias are everywhere, it seems. I need go no further than my local grocery store to purchase an inexpensive plant, chosen from a beautiful display. A poinsettia, (Euphorbia pulcherrima- meaning the most beautiful Euphorbia) these days, cannot claim to be exceptional nor unique. Rather, it has come to be ubiquitous. That hasn’t dimmed the plant’s appeal for me though. Those bright red leaves! So lovely in the dark days of winter. So perfect for the Chrismas season. Decorating for the holidays wouldn’t be complete without a poinsettia.

Poinsettias have an interesting history. Native to Mexico, they were used by the Aztecs, who extracted a purplish dye from the bracts for use in textiles and cosmetics. (The red “flowers” are actually coloured leaves, or bracts, while the flowers are the small yellow buds in the centre, called cyathias.) They also used the white sap, now known to be latex, in a preparation to treat fevers. Joel Roberts Poinsett (1779 – 1851) was appointed the first American minister to Mexico in 1825. An avid amateur botanist, Poinsett was charmed by the plant and in 1828, he sent samples back to his South Carolina hothouses on his Greenville plantation.

Although the poinsettia owes its common name to Mr. Poinsett, it owes its popularity to the Ecke family. Albert Ecke, a German immigrant, arrived in the Hollywood, California area in 1900. It had been his intention to move on to Fiji to open a health spa, but he settled in California instead. Around 1911, he established a fruit orchard and dairy farm, but his real interest was flowers. He and his son Paul saw that the bright red poinsettia had potential as a holiday plant and began the production of field-grown plants. The operation was eventually moved to Encinitas, 2 hours south of Los Angeles, and until the mid 1960s, poinsettias continued to be field-grown. In 1963, developments in poinsettia breeding produced a plant appropriate for greenhouse cultivation and a new era of greenhouse-grown potted plants began.

Owing to a technological secret, which involved grafting two varieties of poinsettia together to get a bushier plant, the Ecke family had a virtual monopoly on poinsettias until the 1990s. Close to 100 percent of all poinsettias sold were Eckes’ plants until the secret was discovered by a researcher. During the 1960s, Paul Ecke Jr. promoted the plants very successfully. He sent free plants to television stations for them to display on air from Thanksgiving to Christmas, and he also appeared on television programs like The Tonight Show and Bob Hope’s Christmas specials to market the plants. In 1997, the Ecke Ranch began growing poinsettias in Guatemala, and today it is the largest poinsettia stock production facility in the world, employing over 700 people.

Poinsettias have been developed in many colours and forms, but it’s still hard to beat that bright red when it comes to Christmas decorating.

Merry Christmas!!

Click pic for pattern at planetjune.com

]]> http://closenature.wordpress.com/2009/12/24/merry-christmas/ Wed, 23 Dec 2009 22:13:50 +0000 Tomas Turecek http://closenature.wordpress.com/2009/12/24/merry-christmas/ http://awesomeave.wordpress.com/2009/12/22/merry-christmas/ Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:03:10 +0000 tnemily http://awesomeave.wordpress.com/2009/12/22/merry-christmas/

We’re going to be busy with holiday merriment, so I won’t be blogging for the rest of this week. I wish you a merry Christmas or, if you’re not into Christmas, hope you’re enjoying the winter holiday. And I leave you with this little poinsettia I finished up yesterday:

This year I’ve hung my baubles on glittery gold branches. My boyfriend refuses to acknowledge my version of a Christmas tree, and cheerfully refers to it as ‘the twigs’. I suspect he may be the grinch.

1. A very alternative Christmas tree. (Even more alternative than mine.)

2. A flaming Poinsettia (aka ‘the mother-in-law’s tongue’, in Greek).

3. London’s Columbia Road flower market is extra-beautiful at Christmas.

4. The yule log is a strange concept. I mean, it’s a dead-tree-shaped cake.

5. The masterpiece; the highlight of the season.

]]> http://vintagekat.wordpress.com/2009/12/22/christmas-traditions/ Tue, 22 Dec 2009 07:44:56 +0000 vintagekat http://vintagekat.wordpress.com/2009/12/22/christmas-traditions/ http://the44diaries.wordpress.com/2009/12/21/fun-filled-christmas-facts/ Mon, 21 Dec 2009 05:24:14 +0000 audiegrl http://the44diaries.wordpress.com/2009/12/21/fun-filled-christmas-facts/

Enter a word from a Christmas song, like “drummer” and sing along

Each year, 30-35 million real Christmas trees are sold in the United States alone. There are 21,000 Christmas tree growers in the United States, and trees usually grow for about 15 years before they are sold.

Today, in the Greek and Russian orthodox churches, Christmas is celebrated 13 days after the 25th, which is also referred to as the Epiphany or Three Kings Day. This is the day it is believed that the three wise men finally found Jesus in the manger.

In the Middle Ages, Christmas celebrations were rowdy and raucous—a lot like today’s Mardi Gras parties.


From 1659 to 1681, the celebration of Christmas was outlawed in Boston, and law-breakers were fined five shillings.


Christmas wasn’t a holiday in early America—in fact Congress was in session on December 25, 1789, the country’s first Christmas under the new constitution.


Poinsettia plants are named after Joel R. Poinsett, an American minister to Mexico, who brought the red-and-green plant from Mexico to America in 1828.

The first eggnog made in the United States was consumed in Captain John Smith’s 1607 Jamestown settlement.



The Salvation Army has been sending Santa Claus-clad donation collectors into the streets since the 1890s.



Christmas was declared a federal holiday in the United States on June 26, 1870.


Rudolph, “the most famous reindeer of all,” was the product of Robert L. May’s imagination in 1939. The copywriter wrote a poem about the reindeer to help lure customers into the Montgomery Ward department store.


Construction workers started the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree tradition in 1931.

Back to Happy Holidays Main Page

leftover veggie curry and basmati rice tonight with some fresh veggies for… well, freshness.  top section:  broccoli, takuwan sticks, snow peas, blackberries in a heart-shaped cup, teeny tiny grape tomatoes, twist-cut carrot sticks.

poinsettia made of red pepper petals, green pepper leaves, and takuwan center (with yellow heart picks). inspired by pikko’s beautiful bento, as well as hapa’s lovely cupcakes, both featuring this seasonal flower.

prop-wise, we’ve got the new red pencil chopsticks sheri found for me at nyc’s own pearl river mart, a doily, and a candy cane with a bow.

For anyone who grew up in the Americas, more specifically in Mexico, might well recognize the name of Flor de Nochebuena, a plant also well known as Kerstster in The Netherlands. This plant has a long and interesting history. Who would have thought that the charming plant, very popular during the winter holiday season, was once used as a fever remedy!

The plant is native to Mexico and Central America, flourishing for centuries in Taxco de Alarcon, a picturesque town in Southern Mexico. During the Aztecs heyday, the plant was known as Cuetlaxochitl and was used for dying textiles, cosmetics, and the milky white liquid, was made into a preparation to treat fevers.

It was not until the son of a French physician (whose love was botany), when the plant began an amazing journey. Poinsett lived in Mexico when his father was appointed as the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico in 1825. The brilliant red blooms he saw in the plant captivated him.

Since then, the plant has been cultivated in different regions in North America, Europe and the world. Euphorbia pulcherrima (literally meaning “the most beautiful Euphorbia”) is its botanical name. Though later on for obvious reasons, became widely known as Poinsettia in North America.

Whatever you call it, Nochebuena, Kerstster, Cuetlaxochitl, Euphorbia pulcherrima or Poinsettia, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that the plant is certainly a beautiful one and if you happen to receive or give one as a gift, here are some useful tips to keep its beautiful foliage from drying up. “Having two green thumbs, you decide to give it a shot” as per Teresa Kendrick. Here’s how:

Cut back the plant to half its size and keep it cooler, about 12°C. After sometime, new shoots will come out. Then repot and grow warmer. Bring it outside when possible in the summer. Feed once every two weeks with a fertilizer that has micronutrients. To get the plant to bloom a second time, it will need absolute darkness for 14 hours a day, for two months. If you do not give them darkness, the plants will bloom later than Christmas, sometime in the spring.

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