Did you know that poinsettias are said to be named after a U.S. congressman, Joel Roberts Poinsett, who was the first ambassador to Mexico? The legend says he discovered the plants in Mexico and brought them back to the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s flower show in 1829 where they were seen by hundreds of people, and the rest is history.
What is known for sure is that these plants were introduced to the United States in 1828. They are native to southern Mexico and northern Guatemala as a winter-flowering shrub that can grow 10 to 15 high!
I saw my first poinsettias of the season in mid-November at a garden center already decked out for Christmas.
I intended to bring one home, but I could not decide on a color, and then I also remembered my indoor black thumb eventually dooms everything that crosses the threshold. Why would I put another houseplant through that misery, haha!
There were dozens of colors available, but the ones that really caught my eye this year were these hot pink poinsettias!
