News

Poinsettia sales dropping

USDA says production of the staple flower of the Christmas holiday is waning.

Val Val Shirey with the Michigan Greenhouse Growers Council tells Brownfield the time and care necessary to grow poinsettias as well as their relatively low price point has led some growers to abandon the crop.  “There are some factors that have certainly made it difficult and maybe some folks let that plant go as a specialty crop that they were growing.  With demands or contracting through some of the large box stores, that’s made their margin very low and not profitable for some greenhouses.”

From 2010 to 2014, production in South Carolina, the birthplace of modern-day poinsettias, dropped 80 percent and the wholesale value fell by almost half. On average, the top 15 producing states only saw about an eight percent drop in production and a four percent decline in value during that same period.  Ohio’s poinsettia production shrunk by a third, while Illinois and Michigan dropped by less than 10 percent.

Val Shirey says while California grows more than 70 percent of the poinsettias in the U.S., sales from the holiday plant account for almost a quarter of greenhouse plant sales. She says consumers can look on the bottom of the plant’s pot to find where they were grown.

Michigan, Illinois and Ohio lead poinsettia production in the Midwest.

AUDIO Interview and tips on selecting and caring for holiday poinsettias with Val Val Shirey