Poinsettias: New Varieties: 2010

Each year researchers with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences evaluate many potentially new varieties to determine how they perform under Florida weather conditions to test their performance with consumers.    Here are three of the more interesting varieties for this year:

Advent Red

Advent Red is a variety that us special for Florida because it makes a very nice landscape plant. It flowers early so that by the first of November.  Someone that has one in their landscape or patio container would have a poinsettia that is in bloom.  Disease resistant, it has really strong stems so it holds up really well outside in the wind and rain, much better than other varieties of poinsettias. For people in warmer climates it works well as a landscape plant, but for people in colder climates it won't work as well.  It's a plant for the South.

Christmas Beauty

This is another new poinsettia that's really nice and was introduced for the first time this year. Christmas Beauty has a bright, red color. It sort of blends with the name. Also It's a very nice uniform plant. It's compact with a lot of leaves, a lot of branches and a lot of flowers on it. It's an interesting variety from that standpoint.

Red Glitter

This is a poinsettia in the jingle bell variety. Many people like that the look of the jingle bell types. Jingle bell styles of poinsettia have a red or pink background with a lot of spots or splotches across the bracts that are different colors of white or pink. So because of the festive name and time of the year they're called jingle bells. Red Glitter is special because it has a little brighter color than many of the others. Also it is a stronger plant. It's going to be better for growers and for retailers as well. It will be in stores in 2011 and will be a real improvement for consumers in the jingle bell category.

Presenter

Jim Barrett is a professor in the Environmental Horticulture Department. His Teaching responsibilities include Introduction to Greenhouse and Nursery Operations, and Advanced Crop Production. His research responsibilities involve flowering potted crops and bedding plants. About half of the work is directed at developing information in the use of plant growth regulators for size control. The growth regulator research includes evaluations of new chemicals and application procedures, and studies sponsored by chemical companies to expand label information to more crops. Additional research activities include poinsettia production problems, environmental factors involved in production of floriculture crops, and developing crop cultural information.

This page was last updated on April 27, 2012.