The Yellow Farmhouse Garden

It’s been a while since I last posted an article here, but that doesn’t mean that things have slowed down in the garden and greenhouse.

Christmas is just around the corner, so for us that means Poinsettias are the focus of our work.  Actually, the poinsettias have been in the greenhouse since September.  As a result, here in the greenhouse, Christmas has slowly crept up since that time. We’ve watched them grow from small, green cuttings to full colorful plants.

We’ve been so used to the greenhouse being full of Poinsettias, that it’s hard to believe that they will all be gone soon.

Some of the plants have already been given away last week.

Many people are not aware that there are different Poinsettia varieties, just like there are different varieties of tomatoes.  Through the years, plant breeders have developed varieties for not only color, but, also growth habit (short or tall), leaf shape (smooth or lobed), maturity date (early, mid, or late) and other characteristics.

One very important development in  Poinsettia breeding is the ease of production.  The old varieties needed to be covered with a black shade cloth during a period of their life cycle.  Any light, even from street lamps at night, could cause the crop to fail to bloom.

Fortunatly, this is not as critical anymore.

This year, we are growing three varieties of Poinsettias.

Premium Red is our main crop, we have about 150 of those.

Sonora is our white variety, there’s about 40 of them.

Marblestar is a pink and white variety.  We have about 50 of those.

  of Almost all of our Poinsettias are grown in 6″ pots, except for a couple  dozen 10″ pots.

In two weeks time the greenhouse will be empty of Poinsettias except for a few that we will continue to grow. A couple will be saved for taking cuttings for next year’s crop, while a few more will be left to grow into larger plants for Christmas of 2008.

Bob