How We Bloom!

Poinsettia ‘Mirage Red’

POHUTUKAWA

Blandfordia nobilis

Various flowers have become connected with Christmas. Here in the US it is the poinsettias. I really love the tradition of poinsettias around the altar. And I am a traditionalist. I like the red poinsettias best. New Zealand also has a red Christmas flower – the native Pohutakawa – which flowers right at Christmas time, It is found along a lot of the coastline and looks especially pretty when contrasted with the blue ocean.

In Australia in the bush there is the Christmas Bell, part of the Lily family. Of my 60 years, I have celebrated more Christmases in the southern hemisphere – 37 in Australia, and 6 in New Zealand; and it is my 17th Northern Hemisphere Christmas coming up - my 16th US Christmas – 15 for Ohio and 1 in Wisconsin, and then 1 in Bayreuth in Germany. Especially in the northern hemisphere, it’s wonderful to see the color of nature in winter, when many trees have lost their leaves and there are hardly any flowers.

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