Seeing Red (and Yellow and Marble and Mojito and …)

Chris Beytes

Nyla Red (Beekenkamp)
This early to mid-season (7.5 week) red caught the attention of trial attendees for its dark green foliage and scarlet-red bracts. Bracts have a deep V-shape that sets the cyathia down a bit so it doesn’t show as it ages, giving the grower a little more time to ship. Vigor is stated as compact to medium, so suited for smaller 2- to 6-in. pots.

Qismas Star Bond (Graff Breeding)
If you see a Q in the name, you know it’s from Denmark’s Graff Breeding. Bond is a compact, 8-week red, needing little to no PGRs. Versatile, you can grow it in any pot size from 2- to 8-in. (By the way, you pronounce “Qismas” like a four-year-old says Christmas.)

Christmas Royale (Selecta One)
Boasting a “modern” chassis (V-shape, strong roots, smaller leaves and long-lasting cyathia), Christmas Royale is an 8-week, medium-high vigor red that Selecta says will perform well in any pot size. They’re touting it as “a new mid-season standard” in poinsettias.

Timeless Red
This vigorous 8.5-week red offers an interesting “tulip-shaped” bract, as they put it, with bracts that are held slightly upright. We thought they looked almost like stars. The plants have that modern V-shape every breeder seeks. Foliage is a nice deep green and the cyathia are prominent, but not oversized. Grow it in 6- to 10-in. pots. 

Stiletto Red
Stiletto is an apt name for this tall, vigorous, upright, V-shaped beauty. They call it a premium variety, suited for bigger pots and even the florist trade.

Glamour Red
This early (7 to 7.5 week) red is already on the market in Europe and has excelled in post-harvest trials there. We’re told it offers early bract color, but the cyathia are long-lasting, for better shelf and home life. It performs well in all pot sizes and all regions—a good early season option for a mainstream red.

Dark Velvet
You might almost say it’s in the burgundy class rather than red, but they didn’t want to call it that because of baggage associated with the old Cortez Burgundy. This overcomes all those issues, they say. We think consumers will see it as a good, rich red. Another one that’s already proven itself in the European market.

Moni White (Dümmen Orange)
Moni splits the difference between standard creamy whites and pure whites like its sister, Frozen. This 8-week, medium-vigorous variety is uniform, with a strong V-shaped habit, strong roots and good uniformity for bench-run growing.

Qismas Star White (Graff Breeding )
Another fairly pure white, Qismas Star White has the low temperature/low PGR requirements Graff tries to breed into all its varieties. Medium vigor and 8-week response.

Nova Cinnamon (Beekenkamp)
This is Beekenkamp’s first cinnamon-patterned poinsettia and it’s a nice one. Early, at 7 weeks, it’s also vigorous and well branched. It performs like their Astro variety, they say, and is good in most any pot size and climate except for the deep south.

Golden Yellow (Selecta One)
Along with the new hybrid euphorbia-style poinsettias for 2027 (and some experimental whites that we were told are off the record or else), Selecta offered a novelty Golden Yellow to go along with their Lemon Yellow—an 8-week variety suited for those retailers for whom the typical red, white, marble and jingle isn’t enough.

Qismas Star Mojito (Graff Breeding)
Assuming you know your mint-based cocktails, you know Mojito leans in the direction of greenish bracts. Mojito is a medium-vigor, 8-week variety that will fit into your mainstream production.

Qismas Star Crunch Red, Pink (Graff Breeding) 
Graff, which likes novelties, has several Winter Rose-type offerings now, called “Crunch.” Similar to the original Winter Rose, but possibly a bit looser in their curled leaves and bracts, and definitely more uniform. A similar variety, Snowball, is a bit larger and later, so didn’t fit in with the Crunches.

Superba Poker Orange & White (Lazzeri)
An interesting glitter type from the Italian breeder than leans into its variability, with lots of white bracts popping up randomly. In fact, if you see the name “Poker” associated with a Lazzeri variety, it means you don’t know what hand you’ll be dealt, bract color-wise. The Superba family is 8 week response, medium to vigorous.

Papagena Marble (Lazzeri)
Named for a comical half man/half bird creature in Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” Papagena (say “papa-hay-nah”) might be a cross between a poinsettia and an Under the Sea Coleus. Look at those crazy bract and leaf shapes, and the two-toned foliage! It had collected more vote flags than any other variety, I believe. Culturally, it’s a medium-vigor 8-week cultivar.

FabYULEous Pink (Dümmen Orange)
FabYULEous Pink joins Red in the FabYULEous family, another mid-season (8-week) novelty. Versatile, for 4- to 10-in. pots, and grower-friendly, meaning little to no PGRs.

Princettia Hot Pink Improved (Suntory)
We haven’t seen a new cultivar in the Princettia hybrid euphorbias from Suntory lately, but Hot Pink Improved shows they’re working on upgrading the line. The improvement is for overall plant presentation, and when you look at existing (left) and new (right) side by side, you can see the richer color and better bract coverage. GT

Did you know a bract is not just a bract? Actually, there are nine kinds, including poinsettia’s “petaloid” bracts. Let hortistician Dr. Marvin Miller tell you more in this educational video.