The tulips were snuggled all tight in their beds...

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday morning, there were beautiful frost flowers and ice crystals festooning the car, when I came out to go to Halifax and pick up my son...


The sunrise over the sleeping, snow-covered Annapolis Valley and Minas Basin was glorious. The day was wonderful...and then sometime, overnight, the rain and mild temperatures came...

AND I GOT THOSE DARN BULBS PLANTED THIS MORNING!
Yes, Christmas Eve, and I was finishing the bulb planting; about 3 dozen tulips, 15 or so large alliums, and somewhere around 150 snowdrops, iris reticulata, small allium, crocus, leucojum and species tulips...these were the leftovers from when I started the bulb-planting, some weeks ago. I waded through water on the lawn, battled gale-force winds, rain and fog, and dealt with frozen ground in most places and muck in a few other spots...but it's all done. and I hurt all over, of course. But now let the weather do whatever it wishes!

So we're officially ready for Christmas, although we've started assorted revelries already, what with family here yesterday for my birthday. Since my son had only a couple days off and needs to split it between various parts of the family, we did some of Christmas unwrapping this morning before he went back to be with his Dad tonight in Halifax.

Meanwhile, the catchildren are on their very best behaviour as they wait for Santy Claws to come. As much as I love amaryllis, I think Toby Soprano is even more delightful...and he was very glad to use this recycled bulb box for a place to sit.


Mungus, of course, is the only catchild who would try to peek at presents, though they all enjoy chasing bows.


Simon Q likes to sleep with his feet in the kleenex box, for reasons only known to him. But at least he's not into anything!


Tigger, tired out from watching that darn squirrel outside, is catching up on his midday nap before getting ready to sleep after supper...


And Spunky Boomerang is taking the afternoon to also indulge in a little napping in his favourite chair, even though his favourite lap (mine) is busy doing other things.
The rest of the cat-children were busy avoiding the camera and either sleeping or hunting for voles in the basement. They haven't brought up any 'gifts' from there--so far, anyway.


From our house to yours, a merry, bountiful, and peaceful Christmas!

A Holiday Checklist

(mist and ice on the tidal Habitant River, near Canning, NS)

I just missed out on being a solstice baby, and came a bit too early for Christmas too...but since today is my Blogger Bloom Day (so to speak), I thought I'd give a gift to others!

It probably won't surprise regular readers that some of my closest friends are other writers. A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine from Montreal, Heather Grace Stewart, sent me this wonderful poem she had written. She gave me permission to post it here, and given that this can be a stressful season, I hope you'll all enjoy it and take it to heart (men can tell their inner Super Dads to leave the building, lest you feel neglected). Enjoy!

Holiday Checklist


This Christmas, I am telling
my inner Super Mom to
leave the building.

In the pre-Christmas chaos
I will remember to breathe
while juggling the buying
flying shopping shipping
put-it-on-plastic
happy hoopla
pot luck and good luck
trying to squeeze into
last year’s
little black dress.

Multi-tasking to the point
of burn out will no
longer be my middle name.

I will not apologize
or feel inferior
if the cards are late or
the presents aren’t perfectly
gift-wrapped or
the kids look like
baboons in the family photo.

This Christmas
I won’t trip over my words
when I start to say Merry Christmas
to someone celebrating Hannukah.
Screw political correctness, this year
I will remember what’s truly important:
opening a door for a senior
giving food and clothes to the homeless
teaching the children it’s not all
about that guy in the red suit.

This Christmas
I will put on John and Yoko’s
Happy Christmas (War Is Over)—
And listen.
No. Really, truly listen.

/Another year over
And what have I done?

And so happy Christmas,
for black and for white,
for the yellow and red ones,
Let’s stop all the fight. /


This Christmas
I will be still

between the turkey
and the silly paper hats
between the wine
and the goodnight kisses

I will find my true North star,
make a wish for the world and
count my blessings,
every one.



Heather Grace Stewart
copyright Dec. 2007
--
Heather Grace Stewart
Author; Photojournalist

Catching up and counting down...

Tis the season to be very busy, as we all know...here in beautiful upper Scotts Bay, we've been doing the usual pre-Christmas things, like a little decorating...


...and after the most recent snowstorm, a little shovelling, a little plowing (well, longsuffering spouse does these things, I stay inside and handle the decorating!


Because the prevailing storm wind blows out of the west in the winter, we bank the west side of the house with straw or hay (which makes a dandy bottom layer for a new bed next spring). The hay stops the drafts into our rock-wall basement quite admirably.


In the fields next door to our property, there is grass showing through in places. Around our place, the drifts range from nearly bare ground (between barn and pasture) to three feet deep. As a friend of mine who owns a nursery and I were laughing today, "snow cover is currently NOT a problem" for finicky plants! My heathers and heaths are snuggled under a thick white blanket...and of course, those bulbs that aren't yet planted...aren't about to be planted in the next day or so.


Putting up the Christmas tree generally means I'll have help of the feline kind. Simon celebrated the tree being in the house by swinging around on their cat house, and waited patiently for us to put the tree into the tub that we use (and tying it up to the woodwork) before he could begin 'helping' me with decorating. Or undecorating, as the case may be.


I like colour on my tree (surprise surprise!) so we use coloured minilights, and a lot of gold ribbon and bows rather than tinsel and icicles, neither of which are a good idea to use around cats, who can be naughty and decide these items are something they'd like to play with...and ingest.


I have a thing about penguins, and have some quite nice blown-glass ones..which are fastened securely near the top of the tree. The catchildren play bad kitty tag under the tree, but they don't try to climb it now that they are supposedly mature...

My philosophy around getting ready for Christmas is "it'll all happen, and whatever doesn't happen doesn't matter." It's supposed to be a fun time, not a stressful time. I do have postings ready to pop up over the next few days, and now it's time to catch up on my reading.
How are YOU doing with snow and Christmas preparations?

Sources: Where to get those items.

(thanks to Kylee at Our Little Acre for cleaning up this image for me!)


For those of you who read my column in the Halifax Herald, The Real Dirt, you may well wonder where to get the items I mentioned in my most recent column. A few of these items aren't available locally yet, to the best of my knowledge. I do find that some garden centre stores and related businesses get into a rut of carrying the same items year after year without too much foray into new territory, but maybe with the improvement in the dollar they'll be more inclined to order from companies in the States and elsewhere.

Gloves: I recommend West County Gardeners Gloves, both the regular landscape ones and the waterproof ones; I see now they have a new, classic style, which is very funky, and I’m sure they’re as durable as the others. I haven’t lost my landscape gloves in three years, and I haven’t worn them out either.

Watering Cans: You can get Haws brand watering cans from various outlets, but I’ve bought several different styles at Lee Valley (one of my favourite places to dispose of the grocery money disposable income). The new slim design is on my Want list!



Tools: I’m a fan of local company TrailBlazer Products’ line of garden tools, which range from a set of hand tools that are threaded for use with a universal pole, to the pruning saws, secateurs, loppers and clippers. A company that has a lifetime, no-hassle guarantee is my kind of company.

Firefly Florals solar garden lights: I usually don’t like most solar garden lights, but I’m smitten with Allsop Home and Garden’s designs, featuring blown glass globes or unique flowers for shades.


Stoneleaf Lamps: Anna Spooner is one talented artisan from Grand Pré, Nova Scotia (where the site of the Acadien Expulsion of 1755 took place). Anna unites Bay of Fundy rocks with handmade lampshades featuring a variety of botanicals, from leaves and flowers to twigs, lichens and seaweeds. I adore her lamps; we have two, and I'd dearly love to have more...

Copper Meadow fountains and jewelry. Marie Jardine lives in the nearby community of Canning, and she is one talented metalworker. I’m besotted with her fountains, her home décor items, and of course, her jewelry, featuring earings and pendants cast in copper from real leaves. I have the oak and the ginkgo leaves—so far. (Hint to spouse…I’d like the beech leaves, next!) Marie’s site is under construction, but her email works just fine!

Cosman and Whidden Honey Botanical Beeswax candles: Beeswax candles are awesome! They smell wonderful whether lit or not, they burn slowly and cleanly, and they’re all natural. Mary Ann Whidden recently purchased three unique botanical moulds to add to her collection of other interesting candle moulds; she and her family also sell their products at the Halifax Farmers Market as well as from their home and other selected markets.

Allan Banks of Harbour Breeze Daylilies doesn’t have a website, which is a pity because I think his porcelain tiles, done with photos of his daylilies on them, are wonderfully unique. His contact information is Allan Banks & Shane Doucette
10099 #7 Highway, Salmon River Bridge (902) 889 3179

I didn’t mention this shop by name in my column, but one of the great places to buy bird feeders and other birding supplies is For The Birds Nature Shop in Mahone Bay. Last year I bought binoculars for my dearly beloved from there; the shipping was free and darn near instantaneous, and the service excellent. Another great location is Topiary, the unique store for gardeners in Halifax.

The brightly coloured garden tools that caught my eye were at Lee Valley, ideal for small hands; but I’ve seen other equally interesting sets of colourful tools at the Blomidon Inn House of Gifts in Wolfville.

My family should have stock in Naturally Nancy’s Protective Cream, because we use it daily—and recommend it to everyone we know. Made with pure beeswax and no preservatives, it’s excellent for those coping with eczema, psoriasis, burns, and other skin conditions as well as the basic ‘dry skin’ that we gardeners and other outdoorsy types live with. Nancy is a landscaper as well as a dairy farmer's wife,(and the daughter and sister of beekeepers) so she is very well acquainted with dry skin and the merits of beeswax.

And of course, many nurseries offer gift certificates or gift cards, which I think is one of the best inventions ever; instead of having to go return that rooster-shaped syrup pourer that your aunt gave you, you can purchase something you really want. Like Echinacea ‘Green Envy’. Or a Haws watering can. Or more amaryllis.

But definitely not goutweed/bishop's weed!

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day--December, indoors

Well, there aren't going to be to many blooms outdoors in my garden for this December issue of Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, created and encouraged by Carol of May Dreams Garden. No, not with more than a foot fo snow covering all of the garden, and more soon to come. Or was that rain? Or both? Weather in Nova Scotia can be entertaining, if nothing else.
I still have plenty of plants in bloom in the house. You've seen the first of the amaryllis (which has another bloom opening today) and of course last week we explored the joys of poinsettias. Like many other gardeners, I find solace in cyclamen at this time of the year, because they do so well in my office.


The Blue Haze evolvolus is still tossing up flowers (and still festooned with cat hair), and provides a cool blue tone for the season. But I'm not having a blue Christmas here.


It's true that Christmas cactus are kind of uninteresting for most of the year, and they can also be decidedly hard to photograph. But Once they get around to flowering, all is forgiven. Although I have the traditional red and fuchsia pink types, I'm quite fond of unusual coloured varieties.


I had to have this yellowish-apricot variety when I saw its buds at my local nursery, and it's been a joyful addition to our livingroom window. I'm happy to report that there has been no bud drop on any of my cacti this year, which has been a surprise to me. The fuchsia and scarlet ones aren't in bloom yet, but they're developing buds nicely and they might bloom by Christmas...or they might be 'after Christmas' cacti!


Still flowering, my beautiful phalaenopsis orchid has been such a star despite my best efforts to try killing it earlier in the summer and fall. And since it still has buds forming, it may well be the ONLY thing in bloom for Garden Blogger's Bloom Day in January...


Oh, there ARE still blooms outside...mind you, they're of the dried variety! A woman I know makes the most beautiful wreaths, and since tis the season to be busy...I bought one from her for beside our front door. And tomorrow, the outside should 'bloom' in our Christmas lights...if it's not snowing or raining, that is.

Amazing amaryllis

Just over a month ago, I wrote a post about amaryllis, the same day I planted two new bulbs. I've long been besotted by these fabulous,. showy plants, and even though there are plenty of other things in bloom in the house at present, I've been wanting to see these blossom. So I left them in the kitchen where the warmth prompted them to get growing fairly quickly.


What always amazes me is how fast an amaryllis can go from bud to flower. Just a few days ago, the shoot of one bulb elongated, and the buds began to swell. This shot was taken Tuesday afternoon....


This one Wednesday morning...I'm getting excited now because I can see the colour and patterning, and I love what I see.


This one in the afternoon (notice the watercolour background of the sky as the sun went down)


And this one later in the evening.


And then this morning I was greeted by the big smiles of two open flowers, with three more to come. A bit of an early Christmas present, but a nice addition to the poinsettias, cyclamen, and Christmas cacti that are blooming their heads off in various parts of the house.

Interestingly, the other bulb has just barely started poking its flower bud shoot up from the bulb. And I haven't planted my bulbs from the summer yet, because I was late bringing them in this fall, and they need at least 6-8 weeks resting before I replant them.

And so this one will last longer, I'll move it into the living room, which is cooler, so I can enjoy its perfection for a couple of weeks.
I almost forgot (it's been one of those weeks). If you seriously want to learn all the nuances about growing amaryllis, including how to pot them properly, propagate them, and more...check out Mr. Brown Thumb's site about amaryllis bulbs. This guy is becoming one of my hort heros, not only for the information he shares about gardening, seed collecting and propagating, but for the other generous things he does, like explaining the nuances of blogs, domains, and more. So here's two thumbs and an amaryllis up for Mr. Brown Thumb's public spiritedness (and his wicked sense of humour, too!

Eight happy things!

Eight things that make me happy…Stuart of Gardening Tips n Ideas tagged me to play the ‘things I’m grateful for’ meme, so I’ve been mulling over this for a few days, in between sneezing, coughing, and generally being a bit blah. So here they are, not in any particular order.

1. Living where I do. Our house is not perfect, or new. It’s about a hundred years old, with a rock-wall basement, a spring that runs through that basement, uneven floors, interesting drafts here and there…and a ghost named Henry Thorpe, who the cats see and we hear on a regular basis. Yes, really. But he’s rather like the ghost of my grandfather Charlie, who still walks through the house HE built and lived in all his adult life. According to the people who own that house now, “Charlie must like what we’ve done in caring for his house, because he doesn’t make a fuss.” Neither does Henry. Our house has no plastic siding on it, no plastic wrap suffocating it, lots of windows, and looks down at the upper Bay of Fundy, where race the world’s highest tides. Yes, we get a lot of wind. But that keeps the bugs down.


2. Doing what I do. While the road to becoming a freelance writer was circuitous and challenging, there is nothing else in the world I would rather do. I’m very blessed to be able to share information, tell other peoples’ stories, and create portraits in words, in a number of great publications where I get to work with terrific editors and designers.

3. The cat-children. I could not imagine living without cats, and it would have to be multiple cats, at least two. They ask so little of us, and they bring us such joy, amusement, entertainment, and love. Yes, love. Only people who don’t know or understand cats think they are aloof, unfriendly, unloyal and not loving.

4. My office. I used to work in a little room upstairs, with a wide doorway but no doors (ever since I slammed the double louvered doors (like you have on closets) one time in a fit of artistic pique…and they fell off the hinges. Writers need—no, we crave—privacy when we’re working. Last year, I asked my longsuffering spouse if it would be possible to partition off part of our L-shaped living room and make me a real office, with more space and a door. He, man of many talents, said of course…did a huge chunk of it while I was away in Nfld for a few days, and I moved into the office about two weeks after the initial conversation. It’s cluttered, chaotic, I could use more room… and certainly more bookcases...but it’s bright, cool, and mostly contains my resources—and it’s private when I need to be undisturbed. Except there is ALWAYS a cat on the wrong side of the door.


5. Coneflowers. Yes, most plants give me joy, but coneflowers especially do it for me. They’re so tidy and symmetrical in their form, they grow politely, even joyously, in our garden, and they are always playing host to bees, butterflies, other visitors…and they just invite artistic photography.

6. Family. My family isn’t large, and we don’t always get along, especially in the past when my sister and I were growing up. What family does, truthfully? But the people who matter most to me are my family—and they aren’t just family that I love, they’re also friends who I enjoy spending time with. We generally laugh a lot when we’re together, and we support each other through rough times and celebrate through good times. And I’ve got the bestest long-suffering spouse on the planet, because it isn’t easy living with a writer.

7. The ocean. We all came out of the sea, or so many cultures and science believes, and some of us feel closer to it than others. I have lived most of my life not far from the mighty Atlantic or the Bay of Fundy/Minas Basin, and I’ve been out on it in some rather bombastic weather. But I find it intensely soothing and inspiring, and healing, no matter what it’s doing. My longsuffering spouse, a retired commercial fisherman, gets up every morning, and looks out the back window down at the Bay. He says he has to make eye contact with the water before he can get on with his day. I perfectly understand.


8. Sunlight on flowers, caught with a good camera. It’s perfect for chasing away the coldest and bleakest of midwinter nights. Actually, there's two things here, because like Stuart with his choices, I love my Canon Rebel XT digital SLR camera, (and its lens, and my tripod, and my strobe flash) and I love even more that I had a good teacher recently show me all kinds of things that I didn't know how to do. I may yet become as good a photographer as some of my heros. Well, maybe not in this lifetime...but a girl must aspire, mustn't she?


Normally, others are tagged in these sorts of memes. But we’re two weeks from Christmas, and people are busy….so I’ll do an open house tag. Feel free to write about eight things that you are grateful for, and if you want, come back and leave a comment here. No pressure, however. I believe in stress-less Christmas seasons.

Gardener's Library: Playing in the Sandbox

Tis the season to be really, really busy, both with deadlines and with other obligations leading up to Christmas. And wouldn't you know it, tis also the season to get clobbered with a cold or flu or somesuch crud. So because we're in the Christmas shopping mode, I've decided to run a few reviews of books I particularly like and recommend.

Among the bookshelf full of garden writers I consider both informative and inspiring, Mark Cullen is near the top. Although I’ve never met him, and would probably fall down murmuring, “I’m not worthy” at his feet, I feel like I’ve talked with a good friend whenever I read anything he’s written. Pithy, funny, wise and pragmatic, Cullen loves gardening, and loves being a garden communicator, a person who encourages others to bloom where they are planted.

With A Sandbox of a Different Kind, his latest book, Cullen takes a departure from his usual ‘how to garden’ volumes. This little book holds 52 short essays—one for every week of the year—essays that are less about how to garden than about the wherefore and why of gardening. Cullen calls them lessons learned from family, friends and other gardeners over his 25-year career. He calls it a celebration of our collective horticultural history, a way to look back at the past and consider the future.

In numerousreviews over the years, I’ve made mention of the style of garden writing that most appeals to me; the down-to-earth (pun intentional), easy-going conversational type that encourages others, and doesn’t talk down to them. Mark Cullen has perfected this style, and though I don’t see him on television or hear him on radio, I ‘hear’ his voice as I read the short essays.

The essay topics are many and varied. One muses on the gift of sharing perennials with others. Another talks about using apples to create “green energy”, while another stresses that there is no such thing as failure in the garden, “just good composting opportunities.” Some chapters are poignant to the point of making the reader a bit weepy, as with his story about a favourite shovel given to him by his father. Others will make readers chuckle, and all are pretty much guaranteed to make us think about the joys of gardening. As he observes in quoting another writer, one of the reasons gardening continues to become more popular is that “Hope is in insufficient supply these days.”

Not all the pieces are philosophical: some are very practical, whether discussing how to go on an open garden tour (or to host one), enlightening the reader about that living concoction known as soil, or contemplating the value of native plants in the garden.

One of my favourite chapters talks about being a small-O organic gardener. Cullen does use some synthetic garden products to control weeds, and a type of non-organic lawn fertilizer that he really likes for being organic-based and very slow-release. He reminds us that just because something is “natural”, that doesn’t mean that it’s safe, offering as examples several poisonous plants as well as the natural—but very toxic—nicotine sulphate, a formerly-used pesticide.

“…Any policy based purely on black-and-white thinking is dangerous,” he says. Given some of the discussion we've seen lately on neighbourhood covenants, native plants, and other hot-trigger topics, I couldn’t agree more.

Cullen is a gardener who cares deeply about the world around him. Even the publishing of this book reflects his caring and commitment. A dollar from the purchase of each book goes to SHARE Agricultural Foundation, a volunteer-driven charity that works in Central and South America to provide “a hand up, not a hand out” to others. The book has been printed on environmentally friendly paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council and created using biogas energy. Cullen even breaks down the results of using this paper:

“Based on a print run of 10,000 books, the following resources were saved… 51 trees, 36 million BTUs of energy, 4, 482 pounds of greenhouse gases, 18,603 gallons of water, 2,389 pounds of solid waste.”

I really like that he doesn’t just play at being green, but actually works at it.

A Sandbox of a Different Kind is the sort of book that we should have several copies of: one for our own library, and a couple to give as gifts to people we care about. It’s a book that I’ll keep near to hand for those days when the goutweed irritates me or a favourite rose has died—to remember that there are no failures in gardening, but there are countless joys.

Gardener's Library: Whiteside's Wisdom

Gardening is meant to be a pleasure, but sometimes, as with anything, we go overboard with it. We fall victim to the notion that we have to change our garden décor around the way vapid fashionistas change their wardrobes, and we set ourselves up for a lot of work, some of it backbreaking. Then we berate ourselves because the rest of our lives are busy and we don’t have all the time we want to work on those garden projects.

Enter Katherine Whiteside. In her recent book, The Way We Garden Now, Katherine takes us back to basics, and reminds us that gardening is meant to be "energizing, inspiring, edible and fun"— not stress-creating and body-aching. She lays out her mantra right from the opening preface.

"This is not your mom’s garden book. Nothing against your mom, but just as we have changed the way we arrange our homes, do our work, cook our meals, imagine our families, get our exercise and spend our spare time, we nesters have changed the way America gardens. The unattainable goal of ‘perfection’ is a relic of the past, and I am here to yell ‘Whoopee!’"

This gardener is yelling "whoopee!" right along with Whiteside. This is not a book of projects that must ALL be completed in order for you to have a paradise in your yard. Rather, as the cover suggests, these are pick-and-choose projects that you can do as you wish — or not at all. But as you read through each chapter, you’re going to find yourself tempted to try many of the projects for yourself.

Why? Because Whiteside is a smart writer and gardener.

At the beginning of each chapter, she answers the question, "What’s the Payoff?" After all, if we’re going to take on a project, whether it’s creating a gardening journal or building our first compost pile, it’s always a good idea to know why we’re launching into this. And Whiteside’s payoff reasons are smart; these are not projects to give ourselves more to do (or more to feel guilty about not doing), but practical, delightful and even fun to begin — and accomplish.

The Way We Garden Now is divided into five sections, each with a catchy title to encourage the reader. First we begin, of course, with the basics, including simplifying and organizing our tool collection (Don’t be a tool fool) and learning the essentials of bed building, fertility, and dealing with both nice garden visitors (birds) and those that are less welcome (weeds, bugs and deer). Next, we foray into the world of garden design. Don’t worry if you always figured garden design was only for professionals. Whiteside tells us "The One Big Design Secret" and presents us with a range of design projects that enhance a yard without overwhelming the gardener/labourer.

Of course, the best part of a garden is choosing the plants and here the author doesn’t disappoint either, giving some excellent suggestions for all kinds of ornamentals. For those who crave produce straight from their own gardens, there’s an entire section devoted to edibles, (including some delectable recipes using those home grown veggies). The final section is entitled "Keep on Going and Never Stop Growing", which is a celebration of the four seasons of gardening.

You didn’t think there were four seasons? Whatever do you call winter, if not the season of dream-gardening? I know that many of you are nodding, understanding that perfectly well; hopefully we're enticing others of you to think the same way about winter, as the snow blows around your dooryard and the wind whispers seductive songs down your chimney.

Christmas plants, part 1: Poinsettias

It's always dangerous for me to walk into local nurseries at this time of year. Not only am I highly susceptible to purchasing presents for family, I might succumb to bringing home something for our home. Today, I just HAPPENED to walk into Blomidon Nurseries just after they'd taken delivery of a shipment of poinsettias in a range of sizes and colours.


Natural colours, that is, through hybridizing, not through spray painting, watering in food colouring, or other demented mangling of these wonderful plants. I had a screaming good tantrum about the travesty of blue poinsettias last year, so I won't trouble you with a repeat performance...although I did manage to get in a shot at them (and black decorations) in my most recent column on plants in the Halifax Herald. (Note that the Herald only keeps articles up for a week, so that particular story will only be up until Saturday night.)
I'll happily embrace poinsettias in most colours that breeders are coming up with, including the bicolour ones, those that are spangled and splashed with a contrasting colour, and those that are more burgundy or even violet than red. But not blue, not when it's as garish as the ones I have seen both in bigbox stores and online.

Okay, enough grumbling, and on with the plant discussion. Poinsettias are euphorbias, and regular readers of bloomingwriter may well remember that I get downright euphoric over euphorbias of all kinds. These natives of Central America and Mexico are perennial and bushy in their native habitat, and also for many in the US with kinder, gentler hardiness zones than we have in most of Canada. Their name comes from an American ambassador to Mexico, Joel Poinsett, in the early 19th century. What we consider flower petals are actually colourful, modified leaves called bracts. (Other euphorbias also have insignificant flowers surrounded by bracts, as do plants such as hellebores.)


Millions of poinsettias are sold each year--more than 65 million in the US alone--but most of us tend to treat the plants as annuals, disposing of them in midwinter and purchasing new plants the following Christmas season. I confess to being in that department, only because I haven't the space to nurture a whole host of extra plants in winter. (the windows are full as it is.) I haven't bought any large plants yet; what I did today was bring home four different coloured cultivars in four separate pots; small plants, easy to arrange on steps or tabletops or in other areas where you want a small, festive burst of colour. I'll bring home several larger plants (in 8 inch pots) in another week or so, after I get the housecleaning out of the way in preparation for Christmas decorating.


A couple of things to remember about poinsettias: choose plants that don't have their flowers yet opened. Those tiny flowers should be closed with only a bit of colour showing, not fully open. They like bright light but not direct sunlight, and not too hot a temperature, which is why they do well at our home, which is quite cool except for the kitchen. Avoid placing the plants in hot windows, or in areas where they will get either cold or warm drafts. It makes me completely NUTS to go into a department store and find a big display of poinsettias by the front door--getting bathed in cold air everytime an eager shopper enters. While the plants require regular watering, they don't want to stand in saucers of water and saturated soil. Allow them to dry out between waterings, but not to the point where the plant is wilting and gasping for water. They don't need to be fertilized while they're in bloom.

Poinsettias get a bit of a bad rep for being toxic, because like many of their relatives, they exude a white, milky sap. While this sap can irritate the eyes or skin, current research indicates that there has never been a death caused by injesting a poinsettia. Animals can exhibit vomiting or diarrhea if they've dined on the plants, so you should put your plants out of reach of naughty noses or paddypaws. Our experience has been that we've only once had a cat get sick from eating poinsettias--and we're not sure that was what she ate. She's still with us and doing fine, years later. The cat children seem to prefer trying to dine on my Ophiopogon (Black Mondo Grass) or Phormium (New Zealand Flax) or those roses my better half gave me last week. (they're also still doing fine. )

If you're really concerned about a pet--or a young child--snacking on poinsettias, you can always go the artificial route. In recent years 'silk' poinsettias and other flowers have become so lifelike that it's hard to tell the difference until you touch one. And you can have fun with decorating with silk flowers on curtains, wreaths across doorways and other places where you can't put a real one and expect it to do well.