‘Tis the season to be jolly — and decorate accordingly.
UF’s Environmental Horticulture Club is holding its annual Poinsettia Show and Sale Dec. 10 at the Fifield Hall greenhouses on Hull Road.
Kara Monroe, the club’s president, said those looking to get their annual fix of holiday cheer will find more than the traditional array of poinsettias.
“You can go to Wal-Mart and buy a kind of junky poinsettia for $3, but you get the real deal when you come out here,” the UF environmental horticulture senior said.
The club will be selling more than 30 varieties of poinsettias from global plant breeders, ranging from $9 to $28.
Monroe said the plants are priced according to size and rarity of the poinsettia strain.
The club has raised about 2,500 poinsettias since August, cultivating the plants from seedlings.
From deep orange to white speckles, Monroe said there’s more to poinsettias than the traditional crimson hue.
“Sometimes you just think of the boring red, but there are so many different kinds to see,” she said. “It gets you out of that box.”
Her personal favorite is the Winter Rose, a variety of poinsettia where the leaves are red and tightly curved in a rose-like curvature.
The poinsettias will also be on display in a neighboring greenhouse at the event, and potential shoppers can participate in a consumer analysis study for a complimentary poinsettia.
The sale will happen rain or shine, and after the poor weather at last year’s sale, Monroe is hoping for the latter.
Despite the rain, the club made about $15,000 at last year’s sale.
“That’s the nature of working outside all the time,” she said. “We make do.”
And it’s this enthusiasm that carries the sale each year as the club’s largest fundraiser.
“The best part of the experience is to see the interest in the sale,” Monroe said. “It’s exciting to see this work that you’ve done beginning in August start to come full circle.”
The sale lasts from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. There is a clearance sale Dec. 11 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the same location.
