Have you seen the new Poinsettias?

I saw all different color Poinsettias this year. They had blue, purple, peach, and glistering silver. I was wondering if they just took the white ones and sprayed them with a paint and then glitter. They're pretty, but they don't look real- even though they are. I was trying to decide which one to get--(too many choices now), then decide to wait to see if they go on sale.

Yes, I saw the purple ones at the garden center. I thought perhaps they were silk or paper or something. Very strange looking...they are definitely 'enhanced' somehow, but I thought maybe they were radioactive so I stayed away from them!

Lowe's has a bunch of colors. Some are tinted and all gittered up. Some are not even nice looking IMO. More interesting are the prices. They have their smallest nine or ten inch diameter display leaves at $1.75 up to their largest 15" plants at $14.95. There were a few even larger. The larger sizes were to large for the average home display IMO.

Just another example how the big box store can literally wipe out any local grower with mass growing and merchandising. The only local grown plants are in hobby greenhouses. God only knows where the Lowe's crop was grown. Some of the colors were flat out ugly.

They trained us well. Shoppers were going out with shopping carts full. I saw lots of ugly plants headed for the check out areas. Guess my opinion holds no water. :)

LOL -Docgipe and Tabasco, I guess you don't like them. The ones I saw were only medium size at Shopko for $11.99. Sounds like Lowes has a better deal. And you are right --people were buying them, I may go back to find they are all gone. I kinda liked the dark blue with the silver glitter. If they are gone I'll settle for an old fashion deep red one.

Be careful at Lowes. I was given a poinsettia from there. When I took it out of its plastic sack, it was covered with mealey bugs.

One should be aware that imported insects may be hitch hiking on any purchased plant from any source.

My practice is to isolate any new incoming plant for at least a week. If trouble shows up out comes the Neem Oil. Two applications a week apart will flat out stop most insect problems.

Hi;, the florists have special sprays for real flowers, thus the colors. My floral magazine showed one with psychadelic (sp?) colors-not what would match my theme.
I think I saw the spray at Michaels-but at this time of the year my focus is a bit scattered.
Thanks for warning about the bugs. I haven't checked the plants that I have brought in lately (or rather before the Artic front came) . It would be a disaster here!

The 'colorful' ones seem to be everywhere. Novelty sells. I'll be looking for a nice white one, or pink, 'traditional' non-sparkly, for Mom. I'm seeing the 'rose'c curly flowered ones too, but I personally want a poinsettia to be pretty much what it is, not something else!

I gotta say, that the new ones caught my eye. Some were gaudy, but I liked a couple of them, sparkles and all.
I left them at the store though.

I was in Lowe's last Friday and bought two of the gaudy ones. ha-ha I bought a purple sparkled one and a deep blue sparkled one. I bought to give as gifts to two of the older ladies that I have on my list. I thought they would get a kick out of seeing what the world is coming to.

So far I haven't delivered them yet and have them sitting in my front bay window with some of my other plants. I also have my beautifully blooming fuscia colored Christmas Cactus that I also bought at Lowe's last year. I have been very happy with the way that it has performed.

Lowe's is actually the place that I spend most of my gardening dollars. For some reason I always find a need for a new houseplant when shopping there.

Ruby

Good call, Ruby.
I bet they will love them.

Yes Ruby.........Lowe's has merchandising down to a science. I too find it hard to not stop and shop in the live plant display area. Their products always look nice and in this area at least carry competitive pricing. To boot they have sales ladies that are both good looking gals and quite well schooled in gardening. That is the one two punch for an old goat like me. Hey they do know what they have and how to care for it. I might be attracted to them because they really work and seem to enjoy what they are doing. That is great for a big box store.

I'll second that I think the personnel at Lowe's is better than at H D

They're nice as a novelty but the old fashioned reds can't be beat IMHO.

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/798183/
That link is to a poinsettia show in Baltimore. You might change your mind about good old Red. I'll be going to my local nursery soon to decide, not sure what they'll have, but Mom wanted white last year.

We do not wish to go to the physical truths within the words Christmas Tree. We love a tree but age and health issues have caught up with us.

Now we take a grouping of collected toys and build a Christmas theme display. To frame it for our photo Christmas Card we need some of those inexpensive Lowe's poinsettias. As an artist of sorts we just make a big toy arrangement filled in and fronted by flowers. This year there are five of the two dollar plants using three whites to pinks and two reds. This supports out taller Meyer lemon, lower Christmas Cactus and two or three violets.

We like this because everything lives on for months of enjoyment. The majority of the plants are full time year around indoor plants.

This takes us through the winter with blooms until spring desides to get sprung.

Ruby- That's sounds like a lovely gift !
Sally- Beautiful pictures--I wish I could go to that show !
Docgipe- Sounds like a great Christmas display and I love the fact that it will last so long !

Just a note I wanted to add about this beautiful plants: I work at a day center that supports folks with all kinds of mental and physical disabilities. One of our staff left not long ago to take a teaching position at the local highschool. On Fri he called and said that the local ag class had raised poinsettias to sell and with it being the last day of school they were just going to throw them out. SO........Imagine the faces on our clients when they saw 300+ pots of red flowers!! Everyone took home at least 1 some 3-4. It was a beautiful Christmas sight!

Tina

Oh how wonderful Tina!!!

i just bought the lowes colorful pointsettas with the glitter and all for a dollar each the day after christmas--got 5 and they added so much color to my atrium--plus i will be planting them outside come spring--of course they will never bloom to those same colors but thats ok--the only one i did not want was the blue--the others were pretty

Heads up.......All the big box stores are knocking down tons of goodies for after Christmas sales. I just raided the pots department at Wally World.

Ha ha Linda. I bought a blue one a few weeks back. I did like it and thought that my elderly aunt would like it too when I gave it to her.

I have tried to stay out of the stores. I had so much stuff that I have bought in the past at after the holiday sales, that I am set for a very good while. I won't need wrapping paper for years.

Anyone else gotten any goodies this past week?

Ruby

Yep...........got a couple of huge pots to help dress up my new patio when the weather breaks.
Empty pots are not photogenic. :)

This message was edited Dec 31, 2007 9:19 AM

LOL
DH had the week off that included Christmas. We had company here for the holidays and didn't even start the car for 7 days.
We didn't even pay attention to the fact that we never left home.
We enjoy the snow and woods, there is no place else we would rather be, and sure saves mula too.

no snow or cold to keep texans in!! but i grew up in chicago and do remember staying in and keeping warm!!

We enjoy the outside with the snow and cold, but there is quite a degree of comfort wearing flannel pants, a cup of hot choc and a woodstove with homemade soup simmering on it.

oh so true! i am glad we still get a short mild winter because i would miss not having soup weather!! and chili weather! and change of clothes weather! but i do not miss the bitter cold at all--------and when we do get some very cold weather i am not happy about it!

Very cold for us is -20'
What do you call very cold? Probably 25', that is what it is right now and it is really nice out.
It is all what you get used to I guess. I think anytime you get stuck indoors is bad, regardless.

cold is below 50 now! very cold is freezing temps--funny huh!? yes--being "stuck" is the pits--while staying in because you choose to is great!! we get very little snow here-about once or twice a year and it is a major occasion!! school kids get to run outdoors and look at the snow- folks get nervous about roads and stocking up on food! and of course it all melts the next day!!! you would be amazed at how little snow it takes to make a snowman!!! but they are some pretty sad snowmen!!

LOL,
I had a friend that used to live in the UP (upper peninsula of Michigan) She used to laugh that our schools would be closed if we got 6-8" of snow. Up there they never close school. Kids use snowmobiles or something I guess.

She sent me pictures once of the vacant house across the street and all you could see was the chimney. They measure their snowfalls in feet not inches. I hear they had 3 feet on the ground before last week when it snowed.
We have about a foot on the level. That is pretty manageable, pretty too. You could make a great snowman here.

our snow days are really ice days! if it is icy the night before school it is called off! don't want the buses to go out on the ice--which makes sense but sometimes come morning the ice is gone but school was already called off! we had lots of snow in chicago--one year there was so much snow they had no where to put it! snow plows went down streets and made walls on either side --where the cars are meant to park--they dumped a lot in the river but it just kept snowing--the people got mad and they say that is why the mayor didn't get re elected that year--they were mad he didn't take care of the snow!! people shoveled out a space to park in front of the house and put a lawn chair to save the spot--things got ugly when someone parked in someones shoveled space!!

Wow, that is crazy. I know in just our little town, they have to come and scoop the snow out of the middle lane.
It is hard to know where to put it after all winter. I don't know what they do in the UP. Maybe they tunnel through it.