These tips will help you buy the best poinsettias for your Christmas holiday season.

This picture is a nearly perfect example of a poinsettia from Bloomdepot.com.
Click below to buy poinsettias from Bloomdepot.com.
Red Christmas Poinsettia	Pink Christmas Poinsettia	White Christmas Poinsettia

Buy these Poinsettias:

• Choose a poinsettia plant with dark green foliage down to the soil line.
• Choose poinsettia plants with bracts (modified leaves) that are completely colored.
• The poinsettia should look full, balanced and attractive from all sides.
• The poinsettia plant should be 2 1/2 times taller than the diameter of the container.
• Check the poinsettia's maturity. Check the true flowers which are located at the base of the colored bracts. If the flowers are green or red-tipped and fresh looking the bloom will "hold" longer than if yellow pollen is covering the flowers.

The site contains recomendations for growing poinsettia cultivars useful to large commercial growers as well as small specialty growers and home gardeners.

The research is the result of efforts by:

• Universities:
• Purdue University
• University of Florida - Gainesville
• North Carolina State University
• Commercial Site:
• Homewood Nursery, NC
• Commercial Breeders:
• Paul Ecke Ranch
• Oglevee, Ltd.
• Fischer USA
• Selecta First Class
• Dummen

If you have a large greenhouse full of poinsettias growing and reflowering can be tricky. However, if you only have a few plants in your home it is easy.

Fortunately, there is plenty of information available on how to control these conditions properly.

The main conditions for growing poinsettias:

• Night temperatures above 50 F.
• Daytime temperatures below 70 F.
• A period of uninterrupted long, dark nights for about 2 months in the fall.

The ideal is to have a temperature of about 69 F all the time.

This is true of growing new plants or to get a plant to reflower in subsequent years.

How to make poinsettias flower or reflower:

• Light your poinsettia plants with grow lights until 2 a.m. until Sept. 25. Then cover with a black cloth from 5 p.m. until 8 a.m. until Oct. 15, followed with natural day lengths.
• Keep the temperature at 69F all the time.

Legend has it that poinsettias have been involved in Christmas miracles. One especially charming one involves a poor child who gave weeds from the side of the road as a gift to his church suddenly springing to full scarlet red poinsettias.

Poinsettias will make people or pets ill if they are eaten.

Individuals allergic to latex might have an allergic reaction to poinsettias since the plant produces a similar substance.

Poinsettia plants have brightly colored leaves (bracts) that are often mistaken for flowers. The poinsettia true flowers are small yellow or green structures at the base of the bracts.

This familiar form of poinsettias are due to careful breeding, cultivation and harvesting. In the wild, poinsettias are a shrub or small tree. Poinsettias are originally from Mexico and Central America.

Poinsettias are named after Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first United States ambassador to Mexico, who introduced the plant in the U.S. in 1825.

Paul Ecke of Encinitas, California was responsible for the technological advance that made poinsettias a successful commercial plant. One key to poinsettia profits is getting the plants to grow so that multiple branches come off one stem, creating a fuller, more colorful plant.

The Eckes' technique, which involved grafting two varieties of poinsettia together, made it possible to get every seedling to branch. Ecke had perfected this poinsettia secret before 1910 and his family had a virtual poinsettia monopoly for about 80 years. Around 1996 a university researcher made the same discovery and made the technique public.

Since then the Eckes Poinsettia Ranch has adapted and now is a great source of technical assistance and research funding for both commercial growers and consumers.

Image by Old Shoe Woman.

The photo below is a great closeup shot of the true flowers of a poinsettia plant. The poinsettia true flowers in this picture are just opening. Unopened true flowers is one important sign that the poinsettia blooms will last a long time. This is an important tip when buying poinsettias.

Image by Tzatziki.

The cornucopia or Horn of Plenty is a traditional floral arrangement for a Thanksgiving table. A traditional cornucopia is abundant with the rich colors of the Thanksgiving season. Warm orange Gerbera daisies, yellow alstroemeria, and bronze pompons flow from the basket, accented with hypericum, solidago, and yarrow.

Growers provide you with a product, the flowers and materials to arrange them. Delivery is done by a shipping company such as FedEx. Delivering with a shipping service means a much wider coverage area for grower direct deliveries than traditional florists.

The comparison chart below should help decide which is best for you.

Here are some reasons to buy grower direct flowers:

• Grower direct flowers save you money
• Grower direct flowers are fresher on average
• Grower direct flowers have a wider delivery area than traditional florists

• You are pressed for time
• You want an artistic and appropriate arrangement for the occasion
• Online florists rank high for reliability and customer satisfaction
• The online florist's covarage area includes the delivery address

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The main dangers to natural areas are invasive plants and human development.

Many of us seek wooded areas in which to live because of their beauty and serenity or because of a love for wildlife and nature. However, managing a woodland is much different than for a typical suburban yard. To keep it healthy and functioning properly there are different responsibilities. A common mistake is to clear all the understory plants (shrubs and groundcovers) and replace it with lawn. Not only is this practice costly and high in maintenance, but the grass normally grows poorly and many of the environmental benefits of the forest are destroyed. Here are some tips for responsible woodland management.

Controlling invasive plants is a part of integrated lawn and garden pest management.

Removing invasive plants is a good example when it is environmentally responsible to use a herbicide. Invasive plants species can cause much more damage to an ecosystem than properly used herbicides.

However, resist the temptation to buy a shelf full of chemicals and use them all on one type of plant. Your local extension agent or the epa link below can help you find best way to control invasive species and other weeds in your lawn or garden.

Invasive plants are non-native plants that:

• grow aggressively or spread rapidly
• displace or out compete other plants, causing harm to our natural areas
• primarily exotic plants - those that originated in another part of the country or world

Composting waste can not only save you money it can also save you time and work. Allowing some leaves and lawn clippings to compost in place will protect and improve your soil in winter. It also allows species such as butterflies to survive the winter.

Composting can provide the very best possible topsoil for your garden. You control the composition and quality of the soil.

• Leaves, grass clippings and other yard debris clog landfills, taking up 20-40% of landfill space.
• This so-called waste is actually a valuable natural resource. Once decomposed, this organic matter provides a free mulch, soil amendment and even a source of nutrients.

When a plant looks unhealthy or unsightly due to some discoloration or damage, our first impulse is often to apply a pesticide without really knowing what's wrong. This not only wastes time and money but can destroy a pest's natural enemies, which sometimes take care of the problem without any intervention. There's also the potential for greater harm to the environment, including other wildlife and even people and their pets. With Integrated Pest Management or IPM, pesticides are only applied as a last resort.

Principles of Integrated Pest Management :

• look at the total picture
• identify the insect, disease, or growing condition that appears to be causing a problem
• monitor the situation
• if any action needs to be taken, use least toxic alternatives first
• note that only 3% to 5% of insects are harmful and that most species have natural predators such as other insects, birds, bats and toads that keep them in check

No living creature exists alone or is totally unaffected by other organisms living nearby. Plants and animals are dependent upon one another for such things as food, shelter, pollination and other needs. There are many complex and often delicate relationships that tie all organisms in a community together. This interrelated community is called an "ecosystem."

With sprawling development, there has been a significant loss of natural areas. By providing wildlife habitat on your property you are helping to offset the losses and provide a place to view the wonders of nature, especially birds and butterflies, up close.

A common myth is that by providing wildlife habitat you will be inviting unwanted rodents and other pests into your garden. In truth, the worst pests, rats and raccoons, are most attracted to garbage and not natural plantings.

These simple steps will result in a more attractive lawn and garden.

The main things to remember about saving water:

• capture as much rainfall as possible- this can be in a pond or allowing it to soak slowly into a planter or lawn.
• reuse water as much as possible - use runoff from watering plants soak into your lawn, make a small pond to capture runoff from watering lawns
• grow plants that use available water - local plants will be adapted to your conditions, it is difficult to grow rainforest plants in the desert or a cactus outdoors in Seattle.

If you are building a new house or a large garden consider a large garden pond as a feature in your garden.

A garden pond on your property has a variety of benefits:

• A garden pond is an efficient way to store water for watering your lawn and garden.
• A garden pond will capture runnoff from watering your lawn and garden and let you reuse the fertilizer instead of turning it into pollution.
• A the larger the garden pond the less lawn there is to mow. A one acre garden pond will save at least $700 and 40 hours of labor per year compared with a similar sized lawn area.
• A garden pond can double as a geothermal pond. A geothermal heat pump system is the most cost effective way to heat and cool a home. A geothermal pond type geothermal heat pump system is the least expensive method of all. This results in a huge savings over the life of the home.

A garden pond conserves water by capturing runoff from all the impervious surfaces on your property. Efficient, low voltage pumps can then pump the water to planters or for lawn watering.

With a bit of extra planning you can create an efficient lawn and garden.

Efficient lawns and gardens save you:

• Time - large well designed gardens take far less time than a lawn to maintain.
• Money - well designed gardens that make use of local plants cost less to create and less to keep looking great
• Effort - it takes less work to make an efficient garden look great
• Natural resources - efficient gardens use less natural resources and can actually improve the environment.

Most of the steps to make your lawn and garden more efficient are cheap and simple. For example, if you have a lawn with grass in the desert, you are working uphill. By making a bunch of large planters and walkways you decrease the amount of work you have to do and reduce the amount of water used greatly.

Not only can gasoline engines be expensive to maintain they cost you time as well.

More efficient green gardens help reduce the need for power equipment and associated headaches.

Adding a garden or increasing the size of your present garden will reduce these costs and problems.

Natural garden design is more casual than formal landscape design (which has carefully pruned plants arranged in orderly rows or symmetric shapes to achieve visual balance). While there are no hard and fast rules, natural areas can serve as role models. Plants are often randomly placed or clustered and shapes and heights vary widely. Most, if not all of the plants used would be native varieties. Balance is obtained with mass and texture. For example, a large tree might be balanced with a large cluster of shrubs. Man-made ornaments, such as statues and formal pools and fountains, are replaced with natural ones -- rocks, logs, and irregularly-shaped ponds.yard with native plants and pond

Whatever you call it, it's a way of designing and maintaining beautiful yards, gardens, and larger landscapes to:

• reduce harm to the environment from your yard or garden
• save time and money with lower maintenance on your yard or garden
• have healthier places to work and play

What we do in our yards and gardens often affects our neighbors and the environment.

Labor Intensive Yards and Gardens:

A typicial 1-acre lawn costs $700 per year in fuel, fertilizer, pesticides and so forth.

Cost Intensive Yards and Gardens:

A typical 1-acre lawn takes at least 40 hours per year to maintain.

Since time is money this means a typical 1-acre lawn costs about $1500 per year to maintain. Plus you have an initial cost of buying lawn mowers, fertilizer and pesticides and other equipment.

There is plenty you can do to reduce this cost in time and money as well as the environmental impact of your green space.

A traditional wedding is also society's way of teaching a new couple and their families how to deal with a crisis.

The right florist can prevent both emotional and financial turmoil.

Here are some more tips for finding the right wedding florist:

A garden is a home improvement project that can be a significant investment. It is usually a good investment because it adds more value than the cost of the garden.

The tea ceremony, calligraphy and ikebana are the three arts in which Japanese women were traditionally schooled in preparation for marriage. Many modern people still practice this floral art form.

Until the mid 1400's the iIkebana art was restricted to royalty. During this period common people were encouraged to learn and use this style of floral arrangment.

The ikebana style of floral arrangment emphasises simplicity and use of common items. This makes it a good way to begin floral arrangment as a hobby.

Selling flowers through a wire service or order taking service is a legitamate way to do business. Many top growers and florists use this business model.

However, deceiving customers into thinking they are ordering from a local florist is not legitamate.

Look for a floral shop that offers the product mix, level of service and design style that fit your needs.

But what does this mean?

Personal Attention: Choose a florist who will get to know you, keep track of your floral preferences and send reminders of upcoming special occasions.

There are many benefits of getting personal attention from a florist. Florists have a wealth of knowledge about flowers and can help you make the right choices when buying flowers.

Different florists have different ways of running their business. Some florists specialize in arrangements and projects that require spending a great deal of time with each customer. Other florists specialize in elegant arrangements that can be made quickly and that will be pleasing to anyone.

Obviously, you will have different needs if you are planning a wedding than if you are just picking up some flowers for a spur of the moment gift.

Growers provide you with a product, the flowers and materials to arrange them. Delivery is done by a shipping company such as FedEx.

If you forget to buy your wife or girlfriend some nice flowers for her birthday, Valentine's Day or anniversary, you are sure to hurt her feelings. If you remember, it was just what was expected. You can't win.

The truth is you can win with flowers. When you buy flowers for no reason at all, you win!

People have been cultivating and selling flowers for a long time. Recent advances in both agricultural and communications technology have resulted in many new choices for consumers.

While more choices for consumers is generally a positive thing, it can also result in confusion and controversy.

Most of the confusion and controversy results in competition within the floral community.

The main players in the floral industry are:

• Growers
• Floral Supply manufacturers
• Florists
• Delivery services
• Wire Services
• Marketing media

Each of these businesses plays a vital role in the floral industry and each plays a role in the price and quality of the flowers you buy.

You can often save money and get better flowers by buying directly from the grower.

For most consumers, wire services are the best way to order flowers. They are very reliable and in independent tests, flowers ordered through wire services were of the highest quality. Local florists are going to make sure that wire service orders are correctly filled. The reason? Florists with too many complaints are dropped from the wire service's network. This is a disaster for most local florists, so they avoid it at all costs.

In addition to having a large variety of technical and business skills, a successful florist must also be highly artistic.

When buying directly from a local florist you have 3 options:

• Buy flowers by visiting a florist's shop
• Buy flowers by phoning the florist's shop
• Buy flowers by visiting the florist's web site