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Pros get peek at next year's poinsettias

By Mary Beth Breckenridge, Akron Beacon Journal, Source: MCT News Service

YORK TOWNSHIP, Ohio _ This Christmas season is old news to the folks in Northeast Ohio's poinsettia business.

They're already focused on determining which types of the favorite holiday plant will grace hallways, tabletops and church altars in 2012.

This month, members of the Greater Cleveland Flower Growers Association gathered to scrutinize 21 poinsettia cultivars during their portion of Ohio's poinsettia trials, a statewide assessment that helps nurseries decide which plants to grow for next year. The event at Barco Sons Inc., a wholesale greenhouse just outside Medina, was one of five such gatherings around the state where professionals and consumers rated poinsettias on their appearance.

The annual trials are put on by Ohio State University and OFA -- the Association of Horticulture Professionals, a trade organization that used to be called the Ohio State Florist Association. Most of the professional participants are greenhouse owners or employees, along with some sales representatives for horticultural companies, said Claudio C. Pasian, an OSU floriculture expert who coordinates the poinsettia trials.

The plants in the Greater Cleveland trial were all grown in one of Barco's greenhouses. The company grew multiple examples of each cultivar, but only one representative plant of each type was chosen for the judging.

The plants were identified only by numbers so the judges wouldn't know their names, although the participants were given that information after they finished their scoring. They were asked to rank each plant on a scale of 1 to 5, choose up to three they considered favorites and provide additional comments -- information that will be compiled and shared with growers to help them decide what to order for next Christmas season.

Pens and scoring sheets in hand, the participants perused a row of poinsettia plants, all of them in identical pots and grown under the same conditions. Periodically, the judges would pause in front of a plant, studying its shape or the color of its bracts, the modified leaves that many people think of as a poinsettia's flower petals.

Pablo Martinez of Green Circle Growers in Oberlin stopped at a rosy pink and cream poinsettia with pronounced red veins and leaned in to peer at the budlike structures at the center of the bloom, which are actually the plant's flowers. Although the plant, called Ruby Frost, had been the top scorer in earlier judging by consumers, Martinez was troubled by evidence that the flowers hadn't opened properly. To him it was a tip-off that the plant might be difficult to grow successfully.

A creamy white poinsettia called Whitestar, however, earned his unqualified admiration. He noted its big leaves and its fullness. "That's a perfect plant," he said.

Ken Swimkosky, a horticultural sales representative with Ball Horticultural Co. who is based near Pittsburgh, liked the dark red foliage of an experimental cultivar from plant breeder Syngenta. He was also pleased to see consistent white speckling on the red bracts of a poinsettia called Sonora White Glitter Early, an indication that breeders are getting closer to producing a stable speckled poinsettia â€" a type that's notorious among growers for producing inconsistent results from plant to plant, he explained.

The 21 poinsettias that were judged this year represented an unusually small field, said Pasian, an associate professor of horticulture and crop science at OSU's Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center in Wooster Township. Some years, close to 50 types of poinsettias are judged, he said.

The majority of this year's cultivars were brand new, while others were already on the market. Almost all were red, although they differed slightly in bract shape, color, fullness or other factors.

That didn't surprise Swimkosky. While some consumers like unusual poinsettias, he said, most still prefer the traditional. "Red is still your key color," he said.

Besides the trial at Barco, judging was conducted at nurseries in Bowling Green, Columbus and Cincinnati. In addition, consumers got a chance to rate the plants during a fundraising poinsettia sale at OSU, Pasian said.

What the trials can't reveal, he said, is how easy or difficult the plants are to grow, or considerations such as their susceptibility to insects or how easily their branches break. All those elements factor into a breeder's decision on whether to continue producing a particular plant, so even poinsettias that rate well in the trials might not make it to stores next Christmas.

But the feedback from the trials will help growers in Ohio choose from what's offered, he said.

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

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POINSETTIA CARE TIPS

Here are tips on caring for poinsettias from the Ohio State University Extension:

_Check the soil daily. When the surface is dry to the touch, water until it runs freely out of the drainage hole in the bottom of the container.

_Don't let the plant sit in water in a saucer.

_Place the poinsettia near a sunny window, but don't let any part of the plant touch the cold panes.

_Keep the plant away from heat and cold drafts. Ideally it should be in a place that's 65 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and moved to a cooler place at night.

Getting a poinsettia to reflower the following Christmas takes vigilance. The OSU Extension offers instructions on its Poinsettia Care in the Home fact sheet, available at http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1248.html.

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     (c)2011 the Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio)
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      PHOTOS (from MCT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): POINSETTIA