Poinsetta Grower Readies for Christmas

Jennifer Merritt
Virginia Correspondent

BEDFORD Co., Va. — December 12th is National Poinsettia Day, admittedly a somewhat obscure holiday. It shouldn’t, however, be surprising. Poinsettias are the best selling flowering potted plant and the most popular Christmas plant in the United States with over $220 million of the plants sold almost entirely during the six week holiday season.

Bill Kennedy is doing his part to meet market demand. Along with his grown son Billy, Kennedy raises 14,000 poinsettias in his green houses in Bedford County, Virginia.

“I’ve been in business for 35 years,” said Kennedy. “I started working for my aunt in her flower shop in Bedford when I was in high school.”

He went on to take over the shop before finally deciding he preferred growing the flowers to selling them. Today Kennedy’s entire business is wholesale. A sign at the bottom of the road leading to Turkey Mountain Farms warns customers without a tax ID number to “turn around here.”

“We just don’t have time to deal with (retail) customers,” said Kennedy.

Instead he wholesales his annuals, vegetable plants, mums and fall pansies to area nurseries and garden centers. By the middle of August, Kennedy is planting rooted cuttings of poinsettias for the holiday season. This year he is growing six colors in four different pot sizes. He sells most of them to churches and organizations for fundraisers.

Poinsettias are native to Mexico and were used by the Aztecs for dye and to reduce fevers. The plant was brought to North America in the mid-1820s by the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Joel Poinsett who grew the plants in his South Carolina greenhouse. Eventually the plants, which are part of the Euphorbiaceae family, were named after Poinsett and his death is commerated on December 12th.

Poinsettas get their color from their bracts, actually leaves, and not from petals. The plant’s flower is the clump of yellow cyathia tucked away in the center of the colored bracts. The original plants from Mexico were red. Today there are over a hundred varieties in a multitude of colors almost all of which were developed by the Paul Ecke Ranch in California.

“The single biggest challenge to getting rid of all the poinsettias is growing the correct color,” said Kennedy.

It’s not something a grower can learn. Color choice is dictated by public preference and is often in direct response to Christmas layouts in magazines like Southern Living or Better Homes and Gardens.

“They guard the Christmas issues like fashion designers,” said Kennedy. “If you knew what was going to be in the (magazines) you would know what to grow. By Christmas day we’ll know what we’ll grow next year, but it’s a guess. It’s not predictable.”

Picking the correct colors and varieties, however, isn’t enough. Kennedy needs to count on a certain percentage of loss and then hope his estimates are correct. Poinsettias face the normal challenges of pests and diseases, but some varieties also want to revert back to their original colors. Kennedy grows a popular variety known as “Jingle Bells” with predominantly red bracts speckled with white splashes. A percentage of the plants will have white, marbled or red “flowers” — sometimes all on the same plant. Those plants are left on the growing table.

“We say they don’t jingle,” said Kennedy.

The plants are also very responsive. “Anything you do to them will show up in two to three days,” said Kennedy. Growing conditions have to be constantly monitored to makes sure the poinsettias are ready when the market is ready for them.

“It’s a one shot deal aimed at Christmas,” said Kennedy. “It’s the riskiest thing we grow.”

Often the challenge to growing the plants isn’t getting them to grow; it’s getting them to slow down. In nature, poinsettias are bushes that can grow to be ten feet tall.

“They are so vigorous,” said Kennedy. “They grow too tall. One of the hardest things is to keep them short enough.”

Some varieties need to be sprayed with growth retardant every month, a costly and labor intensive prospect, to keep them from getting too “leggy.” Kennedy changed varieties to avoid all the spraying, but every variety has its own challenges.

That said, Kennedy is right where he wants to be.

“I enjoy it,” said Kennedy. “There’s nothing I’d rather do than grow the plants.”