The bright red of poinsettias is a traditional part of the
holiday season. But
poinsettia flowers are actually yellow. Remembering that can
help you pick the best
poinsettias to buy, says a University of Georgia expert.

The bracts of a poinsettia are often mistaken for the
flowers. “The flowers aren’t
the color,” said Ron Oetting,
an entomologist with the UGA College of Agricultural
and Environmental Sciences.

The flowers, Oetting said, are bright yellow. But they’re
so tiny they get lost in the
center of each of the bright red bracts.

The bract is a leaflike part of the plant below the
flower or flower cluster. In most
plants, the flowers are brightly colored and the bracts
green.

As insignificant as they are, the flowers still hold a
key to selecting a healthy
holiday poinsettia, Oetting said.

“Pick a plant that hasn’t flowered yet,” he said. “And
remember, the
flowers are the small yellow blooms.” If most of the tiny
blooms haven’t opened, the
plant is still early in its holiday flowering cycle.

“You also want to select a plant that hasn’t turned
completely red,” Oetting
said. “You want it to look vibrant throughout the
holidays.”

Oetting has other tips for getting healthy
poinsettias. “Check the number of
bracts,” he said. “A good selection would be a plant with
six to seven
bracts.”

Check the plant’s foliage, too. “Search for a plant with
dark green foliage and a
stiff stem,” he said. “A good-sized, full plant with five or
more branches
should be an excellent selection.”

Be sure to check the base of the plant for hidden
bonuses. Sometimes a pot will
actually contain two plants.

Oetting also advises consumers to make sure they aren’t
bringing home hitchhikers with
their holiday plant.

“Silverleaf whiteflies have been major pests of
poinsettias since the late
1980s,” he said. “They inhabit the underside of the leaves
and suck the juices
and sap from the plant.”

Request the high-res image: please include size, res and format R. Oetting, UGA CAES

WHITEFLIES may hitch a ride into your home on holiday poinsettias. Check your plants carefully for signs of the insects — sticky leaves and honeydew drops — and select another plant if you find these clues.

Evidence of whiteflies is obvious, he said. When they
excrete the plant’s juices, they
drop a “honeydew” onto the leaves below.

“If the plant has sticky leaves and you see dots on the
undersides of the leaves,
don’t buy it,” he said. The scale-looking dots are whitefly
nymphs.

Oetting should know the signs of whiteflies. The UGA
researcher is working closely with
greenhouse growers to find solutions to the problems
greenhouse pests cause.

He is studying the effects of pesticides, soaps, oils,
plant derivatives, insect growth
regulators and biological and microbial controls in the
fight against whiteflies.

Adult whiteflies look, naturally, like tiny white
flies. “When you shake the
plant,” Oetting said, “it looks like smoke going up when the
whiteflies fly out.
Unfortunately, chemical management with pesticides is still
the most effective means of
fighting whiteflies.”