More from Longwood Gardens

This is my entry for Todays Flowers and to see more beautiful flowers please go and visit:

http://flowersfromtoday.blogspot.com/

Longwood Gardens is a wonderful place to go during the holiday season. Their Christmas display of flowers and lights is beautiful. On my post for Todays Flowers I am sharing Longwoods display of Poinsettias. There were the more common Red Poinsettias I am use to seeing but they also had these gorgeous pinks and the pretty white Poinsettias.

Some info on the Poinsettia from Wikipedia: The poinsettias are also known as Noche Buena and is a flowering plant indigenous to Mexico and Central America. The name Poinsettia is after “Joel Roberts Poinsett” who was the first United States prime minister to Mexico.

The colored bract- which are often red but can be various colors like white and pink are actually the leaves. They need 12 hours of darkness to change colors but then the plants need a lot of light during the day for the brightest color.

I enjoyed reading about the legend of how the Poinsettia became associated with Christmas. The legend is of a young girl who was to poor to leave a gift for the celebration of Jesus’ birthday. The little girl was inspired by an angel to gather some weeds growing along the roadside to place on the church’s alter. Crimson blossoms sprouted from the weeds and became the beautiful poinsettias we associate with Christmas today. I think this is a lovely story.

Thanks for stopping by and to see more beautiful flowers make sure you visit my link for Today’s Flowers.

Special thanks to the host of Todays Flower : Luiz, Denise, Sandy and Laerte