Polar Bear Makes Its Way Into The Palazzo Las Vegas

Jennifer Zurko

The Palazzo Las Vegas celebrated the holiday season with an Arctic-inspired display that featured a 16-ft. polar bear created almost entirely from 10,000 Ecke Polar Bear poinsettias grown by Armstrong Growers. The winter wonderland decor was on display from December 9, 2009 through the New Year and also included a 6-ft. “baby” polar bear. Both “sculptures” were created to help raise awareness about the plight of these cold-loving bears.

The poinsettia, aptly named Polar Bear, is a new variety developed by the Ecke Ranch and is “the industry’s whitest white poinsettia,” according to Ecke’s Andy Higgins. The Ecke Ranch is donating a portion of its proceeds from each poinsettia cutting sold to Polar Bears International (PBI), a non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of polar bears.

The event kicked off December 9 when the display was unveiled in the Waterfall Atrium at The Palazzo in Las Vegas, Nevada. Design Solutions custom-made the polar bear sculptures, using approximately 10,000 poinsettia plants in sphagnum moss. Each bear had hand-sculpted and painted heads and paws and together weighed in at about 5,000 lbs.