Saturday 20 December 2008

Poinsettias Are Go In Orange, Peach and Pink,

Poinsettias are normally available at Christmas in bright red, but they are now breeding new colours, Poinsettias are now Britain's second-most popular pot plant, beaten only by the orchid, around five million are bought each year - almost all in the run-up to Christmas, but while most on sale in supermarkets and garden centres are traditional red, cream or white, a host of exotic colours are being bred in vast greenhouses in Germany, ready to hit the UK in a few years, they include deep purple, orange-pink and 'leopard-style' spotted red-and-white plants,

most UK poinsettias originated from experimental greenhouses owned by the breeding company Syngenta outside Frankfurt, it has produced around 40 varieties over the last few years, some are tall, others squat, some have just one branch, others five or six, a spokesman said: 'Britain tends to like taller, red plants while in central Europe they like shorter ones, in Sweden they like small poinsettias, Germans buy a lot of bright colours and the French are the only nation to buy them year-round.'

No comments: