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SUNNYSIDE -- The first greenhouse at SunWest Growers in Sunnyside has turned from a blanket of green just a few weeks ago to a patchwork of pink, red, burgundy and white.
In the springtime the business grows bedding plants. But starting each July, owners Bill and Anne-Marie Van Wingerden turn their green thumbs to filling three greenhouses with poinsettias for the holiday season.
"When you see the mass, it's breathtaking," said Virginia Opgenorth, who toured the wholesale nursery with a group from Wynwood Columbia Edgewater in Richland just before shipping started this year.
The Van Wingerdens started shipping their 30,000 flowering plants the weekend before Thanksgiving. They'll be sold from Ellensburg to Baker City, Ore., including in Tri-City nurseries and florist shops.
By about Dec. 8 they expect their three greenhouses to be nearly bare of this year's crop.
They devote two greenhouses to mostly red poinsettias. It remains the holiday favorite for most shoppers. But the greenhouse that the Richland group toured just before the annual shipping began has a mix of poinsettias.
"It's beautiful in here," said Pauline Fowler, who was making her second visit to the greenhouse with the group. "All the different varieties and colors are fascinating."
The colored part of the poinsettia actually are modified leaves, called bracts, and the flowers with yellow pollen are in the center of the bracts.
The leaves start changing color when the nights are at least 12 hours long. To keep the lights of nearby homes and businesses out, part of the greenhouses are hung with black plastic this time of year.
"They are kind of touchy," Anne-Marie Wingerden said.
Little more than two weeks before the first planned shipment this year, the leaves still were green and the Van Wingerdens were keeping their fingers crossed that the plants would change color in time.
But they need not have worried. Even the white poinsettias, often the last to change color, turned on schedule.
In addition to the nearly solid-colored poinsettias the nursery grows -- from a pale green-tinged white to a deep burgundy -- it also grows two-toned varieties. Silver star has red bracts edged with white and jingle bells are red speckled with pink or white.
The nursery receives cuttings of the varieties it orders in July, and a couple of weeks after they are planted each needs to be pinched back. Any plant that's missed will grow just one big flower.
The pots are spaced across the floors of the greenhouse with a spaghetti of narrow drip water lines leading to each.
They don't like extremes of heat or cold -- something to remember with poinsettias at home, Anne-Marie Wingerden said.
To keep a poinsettia healthy, make sure it is not in a draft, either from a heater blowing hot air or a door that opens, letting in cold. And don't overwater.
Too much water, either from a caring owner or water trapped inside the decorative foil wrapper, will cause root rot and the leaves will start to droop.
After the tour, Opgenorth bought poinsettias for herself and for gifts and was confident the SunWest plants would look good through the holidays.
"They are so nice and fresh you know they will last a long time," she said.
-- Annette Cary: 582-1533; acary@tricityherald.com.
