Poinsettias Bid Farewell to the Year

And Leon bids farewell to a beloved column

LEON: Back in 2003, Ed and I wrote our Christmas article about Poinsettias. This year I want to repeat the article with some additions that we couldn’t include last year—you will soon see why.

Back in the nineteenth century, Joel Poinsett, American ambassador to Mexico, was impressed by the beauty of a native plant with a botanical name that meant “beautiful euphorbia” and a common Aztec name that no Gringo could pronounce. He brought some specimens home and modestly named them Poinsettias. Because they were not winter hardy, he gave some to a few growers in southern California, where they could be field grown. One grower began shipping dormant plants that had been field-grown, harvested, and dried down until they looked like sweet potatoes. The roots were then sent by rail during the winter to nursery operators in the far north. These operators would pot the plants and keep them in greenhouses until the weather warmed up. When the stock plants produced shoots, cuttings were rooted and used as additional stock plants. In August, larger numbers of cuttings were rooted and potted out for use in Christmas sales.

As public taste developed for poinsettias as Christmas decorations, the market increased; but the plants were expensive because of production costs. Then came air transport, rooting hormones, and improved mist propagation methods. Field producers in California could send bundles of short stem cuttings overnight. Nursery operators would dip them in a rooting hormone powder, and put them under mist for about a week. They then had a plant ready to be potted and grown out for Christmas. This was much more labor efficient for the northeastern growers because it eliminated the need for field growing new plants each year.

The larger market and lower labor costs created a demand for better varieties. Those early poinsettia varieties were pretty sad when compared with the ones on the market today. They had narrow bracts, with an open arrangement of those bracts. Also, the normal leaves tended to drop when the pots were moved from the greenhouse into the reduced light of a home. Some of you may remember that the early potted poinsettias had ferns placed around the base—this was to hide the bare stems where leaves had fallen off.

For reasons that I don’t remember, one of the Southern California growers began to dominate the poinsettia industry. Popularity for poinsettias mushroomed, both in the U.S. and in Europe, but the big man in California kept his dominance by requiring that every grower sign a contract, agreeing to pay a royalty for each cutting received and promising not to produce any more plants than the number paid for.

There were plant patent laws back then but, before widespread use of DNA, they were hard to enforce. Big Daddy had his own method of enforcement. He had a crew of poinsettia experts who would pay unannounced visits to each grower, supposedly to offer help with any problems they might be having. In fact the expert would identify each variety and count the number of plants being grown. This was a strong monitoring system, and any grower who had more plants than his contract specified would be blacklisted and would never be allowed to purchase cuttings again.

This system worked pretty well until the Hegg Nursery in Norway discovered that one of their cuttings produced a mutation that made a beautiful new variety. Hegg began reproducing it through cuttings and developed a large European following. The California Big Daddy filed suit against Hegg, saying that the mutation variety belonged to them because it came from their cutting. Hegg stood fast, saying that the mutation occurred in his nursery and it belonged to him. The suit dragged on for several years and the expensive lawyers won their case. Any mutations still belonged to the Godfather. Ed used to enjoy telling this story, but we couldn’t put it in our article because the California man would have cut LSU from its customer list.

Well, times have changed. Big Daddy has gone out of business and a large number of plant nurseries are producing beautiful new varieties through cross breeding and from mutations. New plant patent laws are in effect. If you buy a variety you can propagate it for your own use, but you must pay a royalty if you sell the new plants.

The diversity of bract colors, shape, and arrangement is amazing. Each year our floriculture team, Wanda Ellis and Jeff Kuehny, receives cuttings of new varieties that the breeders will have available for the next season. Wanda and Jeff then grow the cuttings out for evaluation and research. Every December they hold a show to help state growers decide what should be ordered for the 2014 Christmas season. This year the show will be held on December 6 and will be on display from 8 am until noon. The plants will be on sale to the public at very reasonable prices.

The display will be held at what we still call the Burden Research Center, but Burden is growing into something bigger and better: The Botanic Gardens. Burden maintains the long-term research projects such as citrus, figs, and pecans, but now has started a true botanic garden. There is a children’s garden, displays of beautiful ornamentals, a great collection of camellia varieties, walking trails through the woods, and docents to explain what you are seeing. In conjunction with the Rural Life Museum Burden has small plantings of traditional Louisiana crops such as cotton, figs, pecans, and sugar cane. This combination has produced The Burden Museum and Gardens, a gift from the Burden Family and LSU to the people of Louisiana.

Maybe Christmas is a good time for the Burden family, LSU, Ed, and me to revive an old rural life Christmas greeting: Chrismas Gif, all Ya’ll.    

ANNE: Blessed as we were from this past year’s partnership with Leon, my husband and I took the news of Leon’s retirement hard. The gardening guidance represents only a fraction of what we gained from our relationship with Leon. Each visit that Leon made to our home and garden this past year was a gift. He is the model of good humor and light-heartedness; this from a veteran who saw (and vividly remembers) very ugly things while fighting for his country in World War II. He is a true scholar and conversationalist, a superlative example of what happens when someone pursues lifelong learning. Go ahead and bring up any topic, and Leon will have some light to shed on the subject. He always manages to share his thoughts with a spirit of humility and open-mindedness, rather than the hardened matter-of-fact tone that one so often encounters.

My husband and I will never forget Leon’s kindness towards our young daughter, Julia, who is always toddling around during his visits. She has a habit now of flipping through issues of Country Roads to find photos of her friend, “Mr. Leon.” As a family, we insist that our friendship with Leon will extend beyond the end of this gardening column—sorry, Leon, you’re stuck with us!

By the time you read this, the Craven family will be in hibernation with a newborn, and it’s quite possible that our backyard citrus and the greens Leon told us to plant this season will be our only source of nourishment for a while. Not too shabby. Happy holidays and happy gardening from us to you!

Details. Details. Details.

Poinsettia Open House & Sale

Friday, December 06, 2013

8 am–noon

5640 Essen Lane • Baton Rouge, La.

(225) 763-3990

Burden Center presides over this

sale offering more than a

thousand poinsettia plants on

display and for sale.

Prices range from $6 to $8.

Proceeds support Burden Center research projects.