Tom Summerville knows that the poinsettia has a bit of a reputation as a high-maintenance diva – kind of like the Kim Kardashian of the potted plant world.

“Some people just look at it and go: ‘Oh my God, I’m going to kill it,’” reckons the general manager of Uniplumo, the largest supplier of homegrown poinsettias to the Irish market. “But there’s no need to be so fearful.”

Still, I feel it’s only fair to warn Tom that I’m a serial offender when it comes to our festive friend, as I step from the sharp air of a winter’s morning into a balmy glasshouse – of which there are six acres in total – at the Uniplumo nursery, just outside Swords in Co Dublin.

ADVERTISEMENT

Yet I am halted mid-confession by the extraordinary sight of row upon velvet row of crimson poinsettias, bracts stretched languidly as if in mid-yawn on Christmas morning. With major contracts to provide both Musgraves and Tesco with Bord Bia quality assured poinsettias, Uniplumo has grown a record 150,000 this season, though their story started long before they hit the shelves in mid-November.

With roots in Co Kerry, where it was first established in 1969, Uniplumo remains an Irish company owned by Total Produce Plc, employing 40 full-time and over 20 seasonal staff.

Activity changes with the season – Uniplumo grows 400,000 primroses every year, for example – but the poinsettia is a key driver, with orders from Musgraves up 30% over the past two years alone.

“It is a sight to behold,” smiles Tom, as we tour the glasshouse complex, “but there’s an art to it.”

Raised on a beef farm in Kilbride, Co Mayo, Tom has been general manager for four years, and his enthusiasm for poinsettias is infectious, which is remarkable considering he’s been looking at them for almost six months.

Growing demand

Plant orders are placed in early spring, with cuttings cultivated by the main producers in Germany arriving at the Uniplumo nursery in July, where they are carefully rooted.

There follows almost six methodical months, with glasshouse temperatures kept at 18-20°C, painstaking pinching, spacing, watering and feeding, and a controlled light environment, with 12-hour days giving way to artificial blackouts from mid-September to encourage the bracts/leaves (which many people confuse as flowers) to turn their deep red.

Demand spikes from 1-15 December, with Uniplumo also handling all deliveries. Tom jokes that he knows one of his sales managers is stressed when he sees him with “not one coffee in his hand, but two”, with the final order leaving on 23 December. However, by the time most people are taking down their decorations, Tom and his team are already preparing for next Christmas, with a major trade show in Frankfurt in January.

But while Uniplumo might have poinsettia-production down to something of a fine art, there is no room for complacency. The bitter winter of 2010, for example, threatened to wipe out profit margins due to high fuel bills to keep the glasshouse temperatures stable.

They have a secret weapon, however: head grower Sean Grimes, who has been cultivating poinsettias for over 20 years.

“You’d sleep at night because you know it’s in good hands,” says Tom, “and I think you will be hard-pressed to find a nicer poinsettia on the market than the one that Sean grows.”

A UCD agriculture graduate, Sean started at Uniplumo when it was little more than a half-acre site, and remembers the first crop of poinsettias they produced for Quinnsworth.

“We might have had about 15,000 in total,” he recalls, “but the same amount was gone by 15 November this year.”

Sean describes the poinsettia as one of the most satisfying, but challenging crops to grow.

“If a boiler breaks, we’ve got three,” he says of the back-up system, but admits that even after 20 years, the poinsettia – a little like an errant teenager – still causes him sleepless nights.

“I could wake up at 3am, thinking: ‘What’s happening?’,” he says. “I’d just have to come in to make sure the screen was right, or the humidity wasn’t too high.”

Sean, however, believes that the poinsettia grown today has a much stronger root system than 20 years ago, and by following a few simple rules, should have no problem surviving the festive season in Irish homes. Both he and Tom advise keeping it in a position with a constant temperature of about 12°C and in indirect sunlight (conservatories and cold windowsills are generally a no-no) and, if possible, to water it with slightly warm water. Just be careful that you don’t drown it: a surefire way to hasten poinsettia-homicide.

“You just have to judge from the weight of the pot when you lift it up: does it feel heavy or light? You only water when it’s light,” says Sean.

But Tom Summerville believes that buying an Irish poinsettia is your best chance of a scarlet Christmas.

“The fact is there are imports threatening every side, and the big retailers do have an option to go elsewhere,” he says.

“But poinsettia doesn’t travel very well, so if you’re buying it in Holland, it has to go across two sets of water and a ridiculous supply chain that’s very stressful on it.

“Why would you do that when you could get a stunningly beautiful plant here in Ireland?” CL