Horticulture Club sells poinsettias

The club has grown more than 200 flowering plants for its sale.

By Jess Camp

Published Dec. 8, 2006

Plants with red leaves surrounding little yellow flowers inevitably appear as the winter season begins. They abound in churches, in shops and as holiday decorations just about everywhere. These seasonal plants, of course, are poinsettias.

The Horticulture Club is concluding its poinsettia sale today in the Anheuser-Busch Natural Resources Building to begin the holiday season. The club holds this fundraiser every year.

"We use the money we raise to be able to buy supplies for other plant sales," Horticulture Club Vice President Heather Mino said. "We have a Valentine's Day rose sale in February, and we have a bedding rose sale in April."

The club has between 200 and 300 plants for sale, Mino said.

The members of the club plant and grow these flowers themselves.

By noon on Thursday, more than half of the plants had already been sold. The group began the sale at 9 a.m. and ended at 5 p.m.

Sociology Professor Michele Martindill was among the people browsing through the plants. She said she likes poinsettias because they make her remember her home in California.

"They grow in California year round," she said. "They grow as tall as some of the houses. It seems a shame that we can only get them at Christmas time around here."

Horticulture Club member Tracie Zimmerman said this time of year is a great time to have a poinsettia sale.

"Poinsettias are normally a holiday plant, so this is a good time to see them," she said. "Poinsettias make people happy because they bring memories of Christmas to mind."

This plant has an interesting legend, according to The Poinsettia Pages. A young poor girl, Papita, who lived in Mexico, had no gift to offer God at Christmastime, but she was told God would be happy by even the most humble gift. So she went to the street and made a bundle of weeds. She then put them at the foot of the nativity scene. According to the legend, the weeds suddenly bloomed into the red plants that are known today as poinsettias.

The plant blooms every Christmas season, which is the reason it is known as a Christmas plant.

But these plants sometimes have a bad reputation. People are warned to keep them out of reach of babies and pets due to the poinsettias' toxicity. But this is just a rumor. Though it is not advised to eat one, Mino said they are not at all poisonous.

An Ohio State University study showed that if a 50-pound child ate 500 poinsettia leaves, he or she would only have a slight stomachache.

Although poinsettias come in a variety of bright colors, red is still the most popular. According to The Poinsettia Pages by the University of Illinois Extension, 74 percent of Americans prefer red poinsettias, 8 percent prefer white and 6 percent prefer pink.