Saturday, December 24, 2011

poinsettia ~ 12/24/11 ~ Monterey

poinsettia / flor de nochebuena
Euphorbia pulcherrima
Euphorbiaceae

Have you ever seen a 2-story tall poinsettia? While several neighborhood yards have blooming poinsettias that are the size of bushes, this is the tallest one I've found. Poinsettias originate from Mexico. Today we went for a sunny afternoon walk just so I could take a picture for Nature ID. Wishing everyone a very merry Christmas!

8 comments:

Carol said...

Dear Katie, That is amazing to see! Quite beautiful!
Wishing you a Merry Merry Christmas!

Jeannette said...

Last year I was given some stick cuttings and they have all turned into rather long legged plants.
Joyous Christmas.

Anonymous said...

And a Merry Christmas from me too, Katie.

Katie (Nature ID) said...

Dear Carol, Jeannette, and Dean - a sincere thank you!

Carol, wishing you a healthy New Year!

Jeannette, wishing you a new discovery of our local, beautiful places.

Dean, wishing you good luck with your teenage daughters (haha!).

Murr Brewster said...

Not only have I not seen a two-story poinsettia, I always thought they only grew out of bright red tin foil.

Queer by Choice said...

Wow! What a gigantic poinsettia!

Diana Studer said...

The Christmas pots are deliberately selected as dwarves? Had a straggly plant like that in my parents gardens. Left me with an abiding dislike of the plants. Bah Humbug.

Happy New Year!

Katie (Nature ID) said...

Murr, leave it to you to be funny. It's like my aunt always jokingly said tuna fish were shaped like round cans.

Gayle, wow, what a colorful blog!

Diana, the Christmas decoration poinsettias in the US are 2 varieties grafted together to keep them compact. They seem to take more care than I would be willing to do. The folks who have the poinsettia pictured above are fanatical about pruning in the spring and I'm sure they fertilize like crazy. In past years it has been taller and more lush looking.