Relaunching the Humble Poinsettia

Due to the recent resurge in popularity for Dianthus in the last 2 years, there has been quite a lot of noise made about the humble Poinsettia 0r Euphorbia pulcherrima before Christmas this year. To tie in with current trends and contemporary technique modules at college we were asked to design our own 'shop window' display to demonstrate the relaunch of the Poinsettia. Heres some of the designs I came up with. My team members made parcels out of pine and planted up Poinsettias and used stems clustered in Advent designs.

This was also a personal experiment to understanding the plant and its suitability. Note to self : Poinsettias DO NOT take kindly to being shoved in oasis and sealing the end of the stems with a lighter doesnt seem to stop the poor plant from bleeding sticky sap everywhere. HOWEVER, stems cut from the plant thrive in water and are long lasting. I cant say that these handkerchief shaped plants are at the top of my list but they certainly can make an impact when used en masse on a relatively tight budget . . . Think along the lines of the white variety massed at a winter wedding venue.