Shelter Island Reporter

Maybe not 5,000 poinsettias but enough to make a trip to the Glass Greenhouse, a Jamesport nursery, worth the effort.

I don't know why red is the official color of Christmas, but obviously it is. Santa's suit could just as well be yellow or orange - except it isn't. Are amaryllis and poinsettias the Christmas choice of flowers because they're red or is it the other way around? I'm actually not going to spend a lot of time trying to find out the answer to that question but if any of you think you know, please get in touch. It is true that many colors look great with the greens of Christmas but it's equally true that probably only red is the exact opposite of the grey of these December late afternoons.

When I lived in Westchester I had a small garden business, only two or three clients each spring for design and installation. One side benefit of the business, however, was the several accounts I had with wholesale nurseries and the price discounts involved, although neither of these advantages could touch the pleasure of seeing 5,000 poinsettias all in bloom at the same time in one place. That was a moment that I savored for at least several weeks ahead of time and as many afterwards.

Over 85 percent of potted plant sales during the holiday season are poinsettias and most are grown in California; over 100 varieties are available. The plants were introduced into the United States in 1825 by Joel Poinsett. It's often assumed that the showy colored parts of the plant are the flowers but they actually are bracts or modified leaves. The flowers are to be found in the full center of the bract and are quite small. A poinsettia plant with little or no yellow pollen apparent on the flower clusters in the center of the bracts is the freshest, and is the one you want to buy. If the plant has shed its pollen, the bracts will soon follow suit.

The plant does give off a milky sap, which is believed by some to be poisonous, but is not. It can irritate the skin but would have to be consumed in massive quantities to cause even a stomach ache.

Amaryllis, like poinsettias, are almost always red but again, like poinsettias, there are pink and cream varieties available. If you know someone who likes them, they make an excellent Christmas gift since amaryllis fanciers take good care of their bulbs, carrying them over from one year to the next. A really good bulb, fully prepared at the right temperature, will usually produce two stems, each with four or more flowers. Good quality bare root bulbs, require only warm air, bright light and water to put on quite a show 8 to 10 weeks after planting. If preferred, the bulbs can be grown in pebbles and water. The bulbs range in price, but a large variety is available for less than $30 each.

White Flower Farm sells the widest range of choices that I'm familiar with and in addition, they sell some really beautiful containers, made especially for amaryllis bulbs, which are, to be truthful, somewhat ungainly. In fact, whenever I've grown them, I've succumbed to the impulse to treat them as cut flowers. A number of stems in an attractive glass pitcher easily overcomes the usual gawky, just-landed-from-another-planet impression. White Flower Farm can be reached at 800-503-9624 or on line at whiteflowerfarm.com.

Tip of the week: It's always worth noticing what's in bloom, either very early or very late in a given season. On December 5, the long display of geraniums in front of the Hallocksville Homestead on the north road was still going strong, as were the petunias in one of my window boxes.