Day 12 – Poinsettias at Christmas
“…all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:” Isaiah 40:6
Poinsettia plants are native to Central America, especially an area of southern Mexico known as ‘Taxco del Alarcon’.
They flower during the winter. The ancient Aztecs had many uses for them including using the flowers to make a purple dye for clothes and cosmetics and the milky white sap was made into a medicine to treat fevers.
The poinsettia was made widely known because of a man called Joel Roberts Poinset. He was the first Ambassador from the USA to Mexico in 1825. Poinsett had some greenhouses on his plantations in South Carolina, and while visiting the Taxco area in 1828, he became very interested in the plants. He immediately sent some of the plants back to South Carolina, where he began growing the plants and sending them to friends and botanical gardens.
One of the friends he sent plants to was John Bartram of Philadelphia. They were first sold as cut flowers. It was only in the early 1900s that they were sold as whole plants for landscaping and pot plants. The Ecke family from Southern California were one of, if not, the first to sell them as whole plants and they’re still the main producer of the plants in the USA. It is thought that they became known as Poinsettia in the mid- 1830s when people found out who had first brought them to America from Mexico.
And today is actually “Day of the Poinsettia” to honor Mr. Joel Roberts Poinset for his efforts in bringing the plants to America. Why was this day chosen? This is the day of his death: December 12, 1851. Pick up some poinsettias today to warm up your home but remember they say poinsettias are mildly toxic to our pets.
I hope you’re enjoying these advent articles as we progress towards the birth of Christ soon.