The Citizen, 1999-12-22, Page 30PAGE 30. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 22,1999.
Poinsettias holiday tradition
By John Hughes
Greenhouse Crop Advisor
Ontario's most popular Christmas
flower is the colourful poinsettia
that has been synonymous with the
festive season since its introduction
in the early 1900s.
For Ontario's greenhouse
growers, the poinsettia is a major
crop valued at about $20 million at
the farm (greenhouse) gate. We
grow about eight million plants in
Ontario!
For the consumer, there has been
many changes in the varieties now
available to them.
You'd be interested to know that
the poinsettia you pick up this
Christmas season actually came
from Mother Plants in either
California, Colorado, Mexico or the
Canary Islands. These cuttings
were shipped by air to one of
Ontario's many poinsettia
propagators in early April of 1998
and were carefully developed into
Mother plants.
The poinsettia sitting on your
kitchen/living room table was
started as a short (seven to eight
cm.) cutting in mid-August and
nurtured through the fall to its
present form.
There are two natural phases to
the poinsettia's life cycle. The
initial vegetative or growth stage
that occurs from planting up to
around Sept. 20 and then the
reproductive or flower stage that
happens after that date. The
poinsettia is a "short-day" plant that
naturally begins flower initiation
once daylight is less than 12 hours.
This occurs naturally in Ontario
around Sept. 20 and explains why
attempts to reflower last year's
plant in your home are usually not
successful.
The actual poinsettia "flower" is
the small berry formation (called
cyathia) in the centre of the
colourful bract.
There are some wonderful "new"
cultivars to choose from in addition
to the most popular reds. You will
see an increasing number of
varieties at the retail outlets . . .
wonderful names and more
importantly wonder plants such as
Freedom, Celebrate, Monet, Jingle
Bells, Lilo, Red Sails, Cortez,
Blyth wins
Continued from page 30
second when he got a pass from
Steve Van Amersfoort and Salver-
da.
Clinton got on the board at 6:03
to narrow the gap, but Blyth
stretched it out just 30 seconds later
when Cole Stewart got it by past
the netminder.
Todd McCann did a good job in
net for Blyth in the 4-1 win.
ENVIRONMENTALLY-
FRIENDLY
GIFT IDEAS
• long distance telephone certifi
cates
• gift certificates for a movie,
play, concert or sporting event
• membership to a local museum
or art gallery
• shovel snow
• house-sit, dog-sit or baby-sit
• cook a gourmet meal
• organize a child's birthday party
• water saving shower head
• backyard compos ter
• thermostat timer
• rechargeable batteries
• fluorescent or low-voltage lights
• reusable shopping bags
Marble Star, Nutcracker, Pueblo,
Peterstar and Supjibi. Each has
their own special characteristics
relative to bract size, tone of colour
and time to flower. Marblestar and
Monet are two personal favourites
with their combination of white and
pastel pink bracts.
These are "long lasting"
poinsettias, much different I gather
from the early introductions in the
1940s - 50s. In fact most
consumers find they last nicely up
to the Easter season.
You will find that if the
poinsettia gets wide fluctuations in
temperature, light, relative
humidity or water it will tend to
close its lower foliage and fade
bract colour.
Certainly from a keeping quality
point of view, the poinsettia is a
terrific buy for providing colour
during the winter season.
Showing off the winnings
Harold Martin of Wingham was the lucky winner of an
autographed Wayne Gretzky hockey jersey in the Blyth
Bulldogs sweepstakes.
SEASON'S GREETINGS
NESBITT CONSTRUCTION INC.
Gary, Rod & Dan Merner & Staff
R.R. #3 Clinton
482-3232
Thanks for being a part
of our lives this year.
Christmas is starting to
take shape, and we'd
like to wish all our loyal
customers the happiest
holidays ever.
With warm regards
from all of us at
McDonald Home Hardware
& Building Centre
Brussels y