As a native of south Florida, I grew up surrounded by poinsettias that GREW IN THE GROUND!! Amazing!!! I in no way actually appreciated that until I moved farther north exactly where poinsettias have been bought in pots through the Christmas season and carefully nurtured indoors.
The ancient Aztecs regarded as the poinsettia to be a symbol of purity. Montezuma, the last Aztec king, had poinsettias brought into Mexico City by caravan due to the fact the poinsettia would not develop inside the high altitude.
I have two really distinct memories of poinsettias from my childhood, other than just taking them for granted. Although we were living in West Palm Beach, Florida, we had a hedge, separating our home from your one particular next door, of tall white hibiscus using a thick row of what we referred to as “fireball” poinsettias in front. It was evidently breathtaking. Strangers, possibly tourists, would stop in front of the residence and question us about the poinsettias.
The bright petals of poinsettias are really leaves or bracts, and the flowers themselves are quite tiny and yellow. The Mexican poinsettia is bright red, but poinsettias also come in cream, yellow, pink and peach. Poinsettias can develop to a height of 16′ and thrive in climates in which the temperature remains between 50 and 70F.
My second memory of poinsettias was helping my mother make fresh-cut poinsettia arrangements for our home, church and friends. She would send me out early inside morning to cut the poinsettias (from the hedge), burn the cut stems which includes a match to seal them off and stop the flow in the “milk”, then submerge them in h2o for several hours. We had a big wash tub that we would fill with drinking water and then weight the poinsettias down inside the h2o which has a brick or rock. The poinsettias supposedly soaked up the drinking water through their leaves which kept them fresh indefinitely.
As an adult, I had the privilege of studying Spanish in a language school in Cuernavaca, Mexico. I learned there that the “poinsettia” was not a “poinsettia” at all but a Nochebuena-or Christmas Eve flower. After inquiring, it seems that the Nochebuena is native to Cuernavaca and was cultivated by the Aztecs. Since the Aztecs preceded the Spanish in Mexico, their name for the flower-cuetlaxochitl-should possibly be considered to be its “official” name. But the conquering Spanish right away renamed everything in Spanish, including the “poinsettia”.
According to legend, 1 day near Christmas a Mexican child who was too poor to purchase a present for your Christ kid picked a bouquet of weeds in the side with the road to provide like a gift. When she reached the church, she went to the altar to provide you with the bouquet.
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