(Clockwise from top left) 2024 Poinsettia Variety Day Trial Layout Overview, Noel bred by Selecta, and, Flag Worthy Varieties
Any grower knows that warmth is a must. You need the right temperature to develop strong roots in young cuttings. Warmth is also important for developing and fostering strong relationships — business or otherwise. Luckily, this is not a new concept for our friends in the greenhouse industry. We recently sat down with Plantpeddler to learn more about its December Poinsettia Trial in Cresco, IA.
According to Stacy Bryant, Plantpeddler Sales Manager, Marketing and Trials, on Dec. 5, 2024, the event introduced more than 200 varieties to more than 150 attendees (up by more than one-third in attendance over previous years) at its annual Poinsettia Variety Day. Breeders, brokers, greenhouse owners, and retail garden center owners attended the trials to see and judge the unique, new (and not-so-new) varieties.
All participating breeders had representatives present to talk about their key introductions. Plantpeddler President Mike Gooder explains, “Every year, it’s amazing to see the beautiful, unique varieties and where people take their picks. This year, we were excited to include Graff from Denmark. It was their first time showing in the U.S.”
Plantpeddler is committed to educating growers on best practices in the horticulture industry. You can look at a picture of any variety, but that picture never gives you the true depth of understanding of what it takes to create that plant and the ability to understand its genetics like attending a trial.
“As a leader in poinsettia young plant production, this investment is for our retailers, growers, brokers, and breeding partners,” Gooder says. “The Poinsettia Trial and Variety Day event emphasizes our commitment to the industry by showcasing genetics under real-world, northern U.S. growing conditions. It is important to do a commercial production trial for poinsettias as a way for the industry and growers to evaluate variety performance and improve their selections.”
There’s a competition for red poinsettias alone, then one for non-reds and novelty varieties. This year’s trials were unusual in that a lot of novelty reds placed in the red competition. Of course, more than half of the varieties are red. “Where traditionally, dark reds or the new, improved darker reds like ‘Kayla Red’ and ‘Ruby Red’ will place, this year it was ‘Sky Fantasy’ and ‘Red Ribbons’,” says Gooder.
The Twist: A New Challenge
To shake things up a bit, Plantpeddler added a new competition to this year’s event where no one knew which varieties they were voting for.
“We took the first- and second-place winners from the last five years — of more than 100 reds in the trial, six varieties have dominated this competition over the past five years. We did a blind vote on those six varieties,” Gooder says.
“So, when people came in and registered, they voted on a lineup of these six varieties. We called it the Best of Class Red Five-Year Challenge. And ‘Noel Red’ from Selecta won the overall best red for the past five years. Here’s the twist: Noel Red had never placed first before. It had scored two second-place finishes, then went on to win this year’s overall five-year challenge.
“The idea came to us from our stock farm friend Nick Reed from Vivero Internacional. Nick said, ‘Why don’t you do something where people don’t know what the varieties are?’ So, this was a spin-off from Nick’s suggestion,” says Gooder. “I expect we’ll do it for the non-red class next year.”
The Focus: Commercial Growers
Plantpeddler Poinsettia Variety Day stands out because they focus on creating a trial for the professional grower, treating the plants just like a grower would produce them.
“The block of poinsettias we produce for the trial starts with 24 pots of each variety,” says Gooder. “But what we do differently is grow the trial in the middle of our commercial production block, so they do not get any special treatments. In a lot of trial cases, this doesn’t happen. We use little to no plant growth regulator. We want it to be a very honest, comparison trial, so those attending can experience the plants’ natural habit and vigor.”
Bryant says, “We’re really looking at sustainable poinsettia production. Poinsettias require many inputs. Our goal is to help growers have more sustainable production, which requires less inputs,” she says. “Those inputs typically include insecticides, fungicides, and plant growth regulators. The goal is to have a real-world trial. The breeders and growers really appreciate it.”
It’s important to Plantpeddler to pay it back to the breeder community that supports them.
“As one of the larger rooters of poinsettias in the country, we have a deep position in this crop. And if breeders have certain selections they want to see in larger sizes, we will grow them for the Variety Day,” Gooder says. “Tri-color pots are big right now. So, we’ll put together some reds, pinks, and whites. We grew a ‘Princettia Queen’ combination that Suntory came out with. In addition to the public trial, we support the breeders with private trials for some of their newest selections so they can evaluate pre-release varieties in our conditions, as well.
