Poinsettia harvests down 30% ahead of Christmas

With Christmas approaching, farmers have begun selling festive poinsettias. However, they said production of the plants this year was down by 30 percent due to a warm winter and pests. Tainan Gueiren District Farmer Association member Huang Yi-pin last week said multiple poinsettia cultivars have become available over the past few years, giving buyers more choices. The price of poinsettias has been stable, he added.

One of the newest cultivars this year is “Red Princess,” a single-color cultivar with multiple bracts that is more resistant to heat, Huang said, adding that a well-tended Red Princess could live up to the Lunar New Year in February next year. The cultivar “Watercolors” has large, lemon-yellow bracts, which makes it stand out from other poinsettias, he said.

Huang recommended the “White Christmas” cultivar for those who have gardens with plenty of sunlight, saying that the plant’s dense white bracts made it a striking sight.

Poinsettias are not native to Taiwan, but thanks to the hard work of local botanists, there are now many cultivars better suited to the local climate, although one downside is that they have few bracts, so they could be less visually pleasing, he said.