Spring Break
Gardeners prepare Poinsettia variety for upcoming holiday sale
Noelle Myers
Issue date: 12/2/08 Section: News
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The Master Gardener's have been preparing for this annual event since late July, when they began planting the poinsettias. Master Gardener Roselyn Morris explained how the Master Gardener-training Program offered to the public helps make the event possible.
Morris said there about 80 Master Gardeners currently involved in the poinsettia event.
The gardeners will not only be selling poinsettias, but also handmade wreaths, table centerpieces, sand-cast leaves and St. Nicholas shoes will be available. The St. Nicholas shoes are pieces that act as a decorative vase for the plants, she said.
Before the sale is open to the public, however, there are two sales that will take place on Thursday and Friday of this week. On Thursday the green industry's local sellers are invited to come and decide which variations of the poinsettia's they feel will be the most popular in their businesses. They measure them and take pictures of the leaves. The green industry then compares the photographs and concludes which poinsettias will be effective in future sales. After they decide which types of poinsettias they want to order, there is a sale for the Master Gardeners only. This second sale will take place on Friday and is open to any Master Gardener.
Finally the sale will be open to the public on Saturday and Morris explains that there is usually plenty left over from the previous two days.
140 poinsettias were sold last year and McVay believes the turnout in sales will be just as good.
Morris said that the event is a fundraiser and the money goes to paying for materials used in the research and the remains help support other master gardener programs.
"We did research on these poinsettias, and because we did, the breeders allow us to sell them to recoup our money for the cost in doing research," said Francine McVay the Master Gardener Poinsettia Project Leader.
