Did You Know - The Holiday Edition

How about a little more information on the common holiday plants and decorations? Here's the Punch List article I wrote last December for The Denver Post.
   
Pine Cones
 

The common go to term for any “cone” we see under conifer trees are called pine cones even though there are different types of evergreens—fir, spruce, pine, and cedar. When was the last time you called it a spruce cone? No worries—keep using pine cones for wreaths, ornaments or pack them with peanut butter as a winter treat for birds.

Unlike flowering plants called angiosperms, pine cones are gymnosperms which have exposed seeds. The female cones are what we normally think of when we see pine cones with large overlapping shingle-like scales that grow at the end of branches. Female cones may live several years.  

Bowl of Female Pine Cones

Male cones are much smaller and grow in finger-like groups on the end of branches; they live for a few weeks. 

Male scales hold pollen sacs which open and release each spring pollinating female ovules—found at the base of each scale. Seeds form in about a year. Now you know where that heavy dusting of yellow pollen on roads, cars, waterways and in noses comes from. 

After pollination female cone scales get thicker and tighter. When mature the cone dries out, opens up and releases winged seeds. Don’t be alarmed by the “popping” sound of wet pine cones brought indoors as they dry out—just the seeds looking for a new place to grow.

Poinsettias 

Poinsettia 'Monet Twilight'

This holiday go-to plant was used by the Aztecs for dyes and cosmetics. It was introduced to the United States around 1825 by Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first U.S. Ambassador to Mexico and amateur botanist. He found this large, red-flowered bright shrub growing near a road. He brought back cuttings and began growing it in his South Carolina greenhouse. 

From there it went to Philadelphia and other nurseryman before ending up in Southern California with the Ecke family in the early 1900s. A generation later, Paul Ecke, Jr. mastered the grafting technique for mass propagation and promoted the plant for growing and decorating during the Christmas season.

Poinsettia 'Gold Rush'

There are over one hundred varieties in the marketplace, red poinsettias are the standard. Check out the range of colored plants with white, creamy or pale green leaves (also called bracts). Others have subtle shades of peach, yellow, pink and deep burgundy. Look for marbled, blotched, variegated, spattered or ruffled leaves—a color for every palate.  

Poinsettias need six hours of bright, natural light (not direct light) from a south, east or west window (not touching the window). Keep them from cool drafts and heat vents. They prefer temperatures between 60 and 70 degrees. Colors last longer at cooler temperatures. Poinsettias are not outdoor plants and cannot be exposed to cold temperatures. They must be kept warm when transported from the store to your car to your house.

 
Always remove the foil or punch holes in the bottom for proper drainage. Water when the surface feels dry to the touch, if allowed to dry out leaves will drop and plants will wilt. Too much water leads to root rot, insects and death— they do not like to be over watered. Plants are not poisonous to people or pets, but the milky sap may irritate the skin. For more poinsettia information, click here.

Mistletoe  

Why are we kissing under a flowering parasitic plant that can rob their perfectly good host plants of vital nutrients, water and vigor? Ask the ancient Druids, Romans or Scandinavians. These and other cultures either praised or feared these evergreen white-berried small plants. They believed the plant had magical powers for healing, warding off evil spirits or celebrating the winter solstice. Mistletoe is poisonous to pets and can cause illness in humans. 

Dwarf Mistletoe Lodgepole Pine by Brytten Steed, USDA

During the Victorian age, a kissing ball made of ornaments, ribbons and mistletoe at the end was placed high in the room during holidays, weddings and other special gatherings. Guests would play kissing games under the ball while plucking a berry—when the berries were all gone, the game ended.

This holiday charmer in reality is a destructive parasitic organism that grows on or within the bark, branches or tissue of trees and shrubs. The parasite commandeers the nutrients and water of the host plant. In the Rocky Mountains there are six native species of mistletoes (leafy or dwarf type).

Seeds practically explode from the plant and spread by— wind, birds or gravity. Often called witches’-brooms, growths look like a jumbled mass of yellow to olive green fibrous shoots (called sinkers), reaching up to six inches in length. Dwarf mistletoe attacks lodgepole, limber, ponderosa, Douglas fir and pinyon pines. Leafy mistletoe occurs primarily on juniper in the Central Rocky Mountain Region. Urban landscapes are generally mistletoe free unless infected trees are moved here from native forests.

Lucky for us, noted Denver plantsman and dwarf conifer expert Jerry Morris has introduced several naturally occurring witches’-brooms in to cultivation. They make perfect specimens for gardens of all sizes. One of the most popular being Pinus monophylla ‘Blue Jazz’, a dwarf pinyon pine from the popular Plant Select® Program. Read more on 'Blue Jazz' here.

'Blue Jazz' Dwarf Pinyon Pine from Plant Select®