12/6/06 Poinsettia`s for the Holidays

Poinsettias for the holidays. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Mid American Growers has 63 acres of greenhouses nestled in the heart of Illinois farm country. During the fall - about half of those sunshine filled acres under glass are primed for Christmas. Monte Flack is in charge of about 150-thousand of the more than one-million poinsettias - which will be shipped by Mid American between Thanksgiving and Christmas. FLACK: There's 130-thousand out here and they got started the end of June, the first part of July and there's three plants per pot. About 65-70% of it is going to go to Wal-Mart and we have a certain percentage that's going to go to Sam's Club, Lowes, Home Depot, Aldi's, small independent garden centers. In this area September 25th is a very important date for poinsettia growers because that's 11 hours and 50 minutes of daylight, naturally. And that is a signal for the poinsettia to start coming into flower at 11 hours and 50 minutes of daylight. And then it takes the poinsettia from that date to really start coming into color and then it takes another month for the start of the color till it's in full bloom. Mid American Growers in Granville, Illinois puts about one-million poinsettias in pots and ships them between Thanksgiving and Christmas. And there`s a crew that paints them. Flack says they'll put about 125-thousand on the marketplace that have been glittered and colored. FLACK: After 9/11 we painted several thousand poinsettia's blue and them it's just expanded ever since that time. Last year we did 35-thousand, this year our target goal is 70-thousand. We're going to see what happens. When we get these 70-thousand sold we'll see how the market can take it. It's just a value added product. People like to come out here and see them change from green to red or white or pink. The Poinsettia is the number one selling potted plant in America. And then there's the pronunciation. Poinsettia or poinsetta. According the Merriam-Webster dictionary, it's either one. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.