The blaze of red blooms stretches as far as the eye can see, a riot of colour inside the vast greenhouse and a stark contrast with the grey rainy December sky above. The plants will be gift-wrapped the following morning and despatched to Marks & Spencer’s depots for delivery in time for “peak poinsettia week”.
The poinsettia is Marks & Spencer’s biggest selling plant at Christmas. It accounts for 42% of sales of its Christmas plant range, about 10% of its houseplant sales over the year as a whole. The company expects to sell 635,000 poinsettias over the festive season – sales are already up 7% on the same time last year – ranging from a mini plant in a pot for £3 to a gift-wrapped extra large centrepiece for £10.
With the supermarkets still engaged in a price wars, however, Lidl will offer a 6cm poinsettia in a pot at 99p, the cheapest on the market, and Aldi is selling a 13cm version for £2.19.
About 4m poinsettias are sold in Britain each year – 90% of them red, despite the newer pink and white varieties on offer. They are, however, notoriously difficult to look after and they are often discarded after the festive season.
The plant is indigenous to Mexico and Christmas poinsettias are grown from imported cuttings over the summer.
Given strict supermarket specifications and competitive pricing, however, UK growers have struggled to compete with efficient mass production, particularly in Holland, where the plants are also very popular. Many supermarkets, discounters and some online sellers largely use them as festive loss leaders, to drive footfall and increase basket spend.
Geoff Caesar, the managing director of Bordon Hill Nurseries outside Stratford-upon-Avon, admits his company does not make any money from poinsettias, which he grows for M&S and most major supermarkets, despite the huge demand.
“They’re coloured up and ready to go” he said, picking one up to point out that what look like petals are actually bracts, fleshy leaves that turn red during a short period when the plants are kept in the dark.
“Poinsettias are a risky, expensive seasonal crop which fit in growers’ glasshouse programmes between bedding plant seasons,” said Matthew Appleby, the deputy editor of Horticulture Week magazine. “In 2010 Tesco had 13cm poinsettias at £1.98. Prices are up a bit in supermarkets since then but not much. Several UK growers have dropped out of growing them since 2010, though subsidised biomass boilers and favourable exchange rates have helped sales and margins in the last couple of years.”
Appleby said garden centres tended to have bigger plants with more bracts, in better pots and in more colours. Their prices for a 13-14cm pot range between £5.99 and £7.
“We expect to sell over 80,000 poinsettia plants this year, with strong sales starting in late-November and continuing throughout the first three weeks of December,” said Ciara Sheridan, the horticulture buyer at Wyevale Garden Centres. “Smaller sizes are becoming increasingly popular for both home decorations and gifting, and as a result we have introduced a 6cm plant to our range this year. This miniature size is very versatile. You can pop it in a suitable ceramic pot of your choice or plant it into a floral Christmas arrangement.”
