The Poinsettia

The past three weeks have kept me quite busy - traveling and then hosting visitors on this sunny island. There's so much to tell but I shall start off with what I had originally intended on posting a few weeks ago. So here's goes....

This is a plant that makes an appearance every Christmas in every household. It's the Poinsettia. The plant is of Mexican origin and the story goes that a poor Mexican girl, inspired by an angel, placed her collection of plants at the church altar as a gift for the celebration of Christ's birthday. The 'weeds' then sprouted beautiful red flowers now known as Poinsettias, which since the 17th century, has been used and associated with Christmas. The Poinsettia is now also available in a beautiful champagne - a perfect choice to tone down the sometimes overwhelming red used in Christmas decor. Once the Christmas season comes to an end and its red or champagne coloured top leaves start to fall off, the Poinsettia can be hard plant to maintain and re flower for next Christmas.

During our India trip a couple of years ago, my mother spotted the poinsettia growing freely at our family plantation. She couldn't believe that there it lay among other tropical plants right under her nose the entire time she was growing up. She had failed to make the connection when she was presented with a poinsettia in Toronto many years later.

Driving by in Bermuda in December, I'd pass by this one house and its beautiful flowering tree. The vivid red flowers were bound to capture any one's attention. I made it a point to go up there and ask if I could capture it on film. The owner was so accommodating and went on to explain that it was a a Poinsettia tree. A tree? I'm sure not many know that the Poinsettia has the potential of maturing into a tree. I certainly didn't. There aren't very many poinsettia trees on the island and none that blooms so profusely as this one. So take a peek. It really is very pretty.