A parade of Christmas poinsettias

LINCOLN?-?

You can call Wayne Kluth a poinsettia purist.

Kluth found himself in a Christmas-plant canopy at a Friday Vineland Research and Innovation Centre public open house.

The leafy selection inside the greenhouse ranged from cream and burnt orange, to foliage with bubble gum-pink streaks.

But the traditional scarlet-and-green was what the retired Lincoln resident rooted for.

?Well, I like the red ones,? Kluth said with conviction. ?And I really didn?t think they came in this many varieties!?

About 110 of the flowers ? more than half of them reds ? were a riot of colour Friday for visitors to the second annual Poinsettia Research Open House.

During a public tour, greenhouse floriculture specialist Wayne Brown said the centre is the only place in Canada that deals with poinsettias at that scale.

Brown ? who works for the provincial ministry of agriculture at Vineland ? is part of North American Poinsettia Trial group, which consists of University of Florida, North Carolina State University and work done at the Lincoln centre.

Breeders support the trials to give them a better handle on how their new varieties respond to various growing conditions.

Friday?s event also followed a previous industry open house featuring flower breeders? selections.

In that showcase for greenhouse growers and wholesale distributors, breeders? plant cuttings are grown under the same conditions and evaluated.

?This helps them decide what they want to encourage their grower-suppliers to (focus on),? Brown said. ?So it has become quite a collaborative project.?

As for standouts, one called Christmas Day by Selecta in Germany is a recent knockout. It boasts intense-red leaves, a tight-green flower and a vase-like body that?s easy to package.

?I?ve suggested to people they should really look at it,? he said. ?In four years, it?s gone from observed here at a trial, to representing probably 45-50% of the reds produced in Ontario.?

Vineland centre research associate Amy Bowen said Friday?s viewing also had the public select their most and least-liked varieties by ballot.

?We also want to the consumer piece of this,? Bowen said. ?They?re the ones that are going into these garden centres and stores and buying them.?

?We?ll look at all the numbers, and pick the favourites and get a sense (of what?s popular or not),? she said. ?It provides some feedback for the breeders and growers.?

don.fraser@sunmedia.ca

Twitter @don_standard

Poinsettia pointers:

Ontario produces about 4.5 million poinsettias a year

That?s about $16.5 million in farm-gate value.

Niagara has about 35 producers, the largest concentration on the continent.

Niagara producers ship out an estimated 3.5 million of the flowers every year.

-from data reported in 2011

?

Source: http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/2012/12/07/a-parade-of-christmas-poinsettias

Colorado Shooting News British Open MC Chris Colorado shooting suspect accuweather Finding Nemo 2 Provigil