The other day we heard on National Public Radio that southern California was being hit by a “major winter storm”. “Some areas had received as much as an inch of rain,” they reported, “and another inch of rain is possible.” A major winter storm? Oh come on now! Just the day before we had 2 inches of rain, and no one even blinked. It takes rain amounts in the double digits to be significant around here. A couple of years ago the nearby town of San Marcos received 24 inches in one day. Now that’s rain! As we have said before, Texas is a land of perpetual drought – with intermittent flooding.

In spite of this unusually violent weather they’ve been having, southern California’s climate makes it a mecca of cut flower production. (The ASCFG will be holding its annual conference in San Diego this fall – don’t miss it). 100 years ago, the area was well known as the heart of cut flower poinsettia production. That’s right, cut flower poinsettias. Until the development of compact, potted varieties, poinsettias were grown outdoors in large fields, and shipped back east as cut flowers. But the potted varieties took over the market and poinsettias were forgotten as cuts.

Until now, that is. The cut flower poinsettia is back. We tried some this Christmas and they were a smash hit. The new cut varieties are called “Winter Rose.” They are not actually rose-colored. They are named for their novel bract form that curls under and forms what could be considered a large rose (kinda-sorta). A type of winter rose poinsettia was released several years ago for the pot crop trade, but this is a different story completely. These new poinsettias have thick, strong stems that can grow up to 4 feet tall. They grow like oak trees! The leaves are really dark green, and are shaped a bit like holly, and each long stem is topped with a large ruffled bloom. Most potted poinsettias have tender bracts and weak stems that easily break, but these things have stems made of steel!

There are two colors in the series so far – ‘Crimson’ and ‘Pink Chiffon’. There is also a white, but there are some production problems with the white that are still being worked out. The Crimson is a deep red with dark leaves. The Pink Chiffon is a unique soft salmon pink with lighter green leaves. Soft salmon is not exactly the first color that comes to mind at Christmas, but the staff at the floral department where we delivered them couldn’t get enough.

How to grow them
Entire books have been written on poinsettia culture, and we can’t possibly cover all aspects here. But we can give you the specifics of our crop. For a good overview , look up poinsettias in the Ball Redbook (Ball bookshelf. 888-888-0013 or www.ballbookshelf.com).

Poinsettias are a greenhouse crop, of course. We received our cuttings the week of June 26. We immediately potted them in 10-inch pots, 3 cuttings to a pot. We used a standard Peat-Lite soil mix (Sunshine Mix #1). The pots need to be protected from the sun for the first week or two until the cuttings are established. Put them in about 50% shade, and keep them cool. We spray our cuttings 2 or 3 times a day with a mister until they catch. After that they like full sun. Once the cuttings were actively growing and were about 6 inches tall, we gave them a hard pinch. Winter Rose cut poinsettias don’t branch well, so expect about 3 stems per plant. After the pots filled out they were spaced on the bench about 1 foot apart in all directions. We wanted to grow them as close together as possible to encourage upright growth.
Poinsettias like warm conditions and good fertility. We keep our poinsettia greenhouse about 60-64 degrees, although some manuals recommend 67-70 degrees. We used a standard soluble fertilizer (20-10-20 peat-lite mix) at 250 ppm nitrogen constant feed with a shot of epsom salt two or three times (2 oz. of epsom salts per 100 gallons of water, in a 1:100 ratio injector). The magnesium in epsom salts will make the leaves really dark green.

Like the mums we mentioned a couple of months ago, poinsettias are short day plants, and there are 8, 9, and 10 week varieties. Winter Rose is a 10 week variety, so that makes it somewhat late. Most poinsettias will bloom in time for Christmas with natural daylength conditions, but we gave ours a week of “darkcloth” treatment, starting one week before the fall equinox. At 6 p.m. we would cover the crop with black plastic and at 8 a.m. the next morning we removed it. We used wires over the crop to keep the plastic from resting on the tips of the stems. One day we forgot to remove the plastic until noon. Don’t do that.

The real key to blooming poinsettias of any type is to lower the night temperature to the mid-to-upper 50s for two weeks, starting on the first day of fall. This will really set the buds. Be sure to raise the temperature back up in two weeks or the crop will be delayed.

While poinsettias are generally easy to grow, they are susceptible to several diseases and insects that you will have to control. Pythium and Phytopthora are the two worst root diseases. Pythium will cause the feeder roots to die and turn dark. If the skin of the dead root pulls off, leaving the thin core, you have pythium. Low level infection with pythium will inhibit nutrient uptake, resulting in deficiency symptoms. Phytopthora, on the other hand, attacks the plant right where the stem meets the soil. The stem will turn brown and mushy, and the plant will turn yellow, wilt and die. For the past two seasons we have used Rootshield bio-fungicide with excellent results–better than any chemical control. Rootshield is a natural fungus (Trichoderma) that colonizes the roots and inhibits these diseases.

We used Rootshield for soil pathogens, but we’ll tell you right up front that you probably aren’t going to grow poinsettias organically. Silverleaf whitefly is sure to give you problems. They are smaller than the common greenhouse whitefly, and poinsettias are their preferred host. This whitefly became a pest of poinsettias about 10 years ago, and at the time it was referred to as the “Superbug”. None of the conventional chemicals had any effect on it. In the past we have had success controlling them with beneficial lacewing larva and Botanigard (beauvardia fungus), but now there is a new insecticide called Marathon. It is a systemic that is applied once at the beginning of the crop. It is relatively mild compared to the old poinsettia pesticides, and it eliminates a lot of late season sprays, but it is definitely a synthetic, so don’t use it if your greenhouse is certified organic. When we used lacewings, we got them from M&R Durango, a bio-control company in Colorado. (They are the same company that makes Nolo Bait grasshopper spore. 800-526-4075) They will work with you in monitoring pest and predator populations, and make weekly recommendations and shipments of lacewings.

Botrytis is probably the worst foliar disease you’ll run into. Botrytis spores can germinate on the tender bracts and cause spotting. The key here is sanitation. Because we grew these cutting poinsettias so close, they tended to shed a lot of lower leaves. This is no problem as far as quality, because you’ll remove these leaves anyway, but the shed leaves collected under the bench and were a source of Botrytis infection . We had to clean out the leaves regularly. We also installed two cheap window fans in opposite corners of the greenhouse to keep the air moving. These fans run all winter.

The post-harvest handling couldn’t be easier. Cut the stems when the bracts are filled out, but before all the little yellow buds in the center have bloomed. Vicki Stamback at Bear Creek Farms in Oklahoma recommends cutting them into warm (100-105 degree) water and she says they do better with no preservative. We have heard reports of 3 week vase life, and the ones that we cut for our house easily lasted 2 weeks before we got tired of them and tossed them out.

Cut poinsettias are still a real novelty, and these flowers are still scarce in the market. This is a flower that is perfect for those florists that do the big four-star hotel arrangements. Growers were selling stems from 2 to 5 dollars per stem, depending on the market. This looks like a good crop for local markets, and it is easy to do a small amount – just enough for your best customers . We expect that the premium price will stay high for quality stems.

Winter Rose poinsettias were bred by Paul Ecke Ranch Poinsettias (800-468-3253). Cuttings are available from most major brokers. Call Ecke for a list of brokers. Be sure to order your cuttings early. We like to get our orders placed by February to insure cutting availability.

These poinsettias were a great item to surprise folks with and make some brownie points. People had never seen these before, so a big arrangement dropped off unexpectedly would really turn some heads. We have always used flowers as our goodwill ambassadors, and in the past we have donated a lot of flowers for events and fundraisers. One year we were able to go out to the field and cut everything out there the day before the first freeze, and donate it all to a big party at the Governor’s mansion. The flowers were spectacular, and they got us an invitation to that very party. Since then the Gov has sent us a Christmas card every year. But last week we received the piece de resistance: an invitation to the Inaugural Ball in Washington D.C.! Lawdy. Lawdy. I guess they don’t know we’re Democrats! But that notwithstanding, we’re going to go. Just imagine the floral arrangements! We’ll give y’all a full report next month. Of course y’all know that y’all are going to have to start saying “Y’all” now instead of “you guys”, now that we have a Texan in the White House!