Christmas Eve is the peak time for sales of poinsettias, claim Wyevale Garden Centres
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Wyevale Garden Centres predicts a peak sales of poinsettias on Christmas Eve based on year upon year sales trends.
The start of November marks the beginning of Poinsettia sales with more momentum typically building around the 23 November, culminating in a sales peak around the hours of 1pm – 2pm on Christmas Eve. With an expected 14 per cent increase in sales this year, Wyevale Garden Centres Poinsettias are on track to be the retailer’s best-selling indoor plants this year.
 This year’s statistics also reveal that alternative colours in the traditional seasonal plant are setting a new trend as the White, Pink, Picasso, Marble, and Dark Pink variety, unavailable in most supermarkets, are flying off the shelves at Wyevale Garden Centres. In addition, the last Saturday of December 2014 revealed another huge spike in sales as customers adhered to the tradition of wishing someone good luck and success by buying them a Poinsettia.
Mairi Devlin, Category Manager at Wyevale Garden Centres said: “The rush hour seems to make sense since customers visit family over the Christmas period and a Poinsettia is an ideal gift for friends and family, as well as being a colourful treat for your own home. We usually see a huge peak in sales on the last Saturday of December – suggesting that customers stick to the tradition of buying Poinsettias for loved ones as a way of bringing good luck for the New Year.”
Poinsettias originate from Mexico, but they are best grown in cooler climates. Nurseries in the UK such as Wyevale Garden Centres are equipped to grow Poinsettias that are stronger, so that they last beyond the festive season with minimal need for maintenance. The plants’ coloured bracts (which are often red) are frequently mistaken for flowers, but are actually leaves. The flower is a small yellow part that develops at the very end of the Poinsettias’ lifecycle.
Mairi Devlin from Wyevale Garden Centres adds: “No Christmas home is complete without a Poinsettia, and thanks to our expert horticulturalists’ growing techniques, we provide customers with Poinsettias that are in beautiful and full bloom. We are seeing customers buying less traditional colours, a trend that is evident across all of our Christmas product sales.”
Wyevale Garden Centres are available in a variety of sizes from 10.5cm to 5L with a retail starting price at £2.99.
 Jamie Downes, Wyevale Garden Centres’ Nursery Manager, gives his top tips for looking after your poinsettia:
- Make your poinsettia the last purchase of the day - they don’t like sitting for hours in a cold car
- Ask for your plant to be completely wrapped in paper all the way up to the top of the foliage
- Once home, position it somewhere warm and out of cold draughts
- The biggest mistake people make is moving them between hot and cold temperatures too quickly, so keep its environment constant
- Let the compost dry out between watering - they don’t like sitting in water.
- Feed once a week with houseplant fertiliser
- Trim the plant down by half in June and pot into multi-purpose compost
- From the end of September, make sure it has plenty of natural light - if it’s dark outside though, the plant needs to be in the dark too in order for it to develop its red leaves
Interesting facts
- The vast majority - 80% - of poinsettias sold are red. The rest are pink, white and cream
- Red poinsettias take eight weeks to turn from green to red – their colour starts to turn at the equinox (22 September)
- Woodland’s Nursery grows 30,000 poinsettias in state-of-the-art computer controlled greenhouses, across four acres of land
- They are available in centres until Christmas Eve
- If looked after carefully, they will last until March
- Poinsettias have an optimum total height of 32cm
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