By Kristina Jackson | University Communication and Marketing
After months of care, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Horticulture Club is ready to deliver holiday spirit through its annual poinsettia fundraiser.
The Dec. 5 event includes 1,020 poinsettia plants of varied colors and sizes, all grown by some 30 students in the club.
“Poinsettias are there to bring up the mood,” said William Anderson, club president and a senior plant and landscape systems major from Gothenburg. “They create that feeling of a time to be with friends and family and celebrate good times.”
The club receives small-rooted stem cuttings, which are about 2 inches in diameter, during the summer. The students transplant them into containers and — as counterintuitive as it sounds — trim the top of each plant.
“It signals to the plant that it’s time to branch out,” Anderson said. “It will send the little branch stems outward, and that helps set up the structure for how the poinsettias are going to look down the line.”
The young plants are especially sensitive to pests and disease, so club members create a plan for pest management, which is then applied to the plants mostly by Stacy Adams, professor of practice in agronomy and horticulture and club adviser. They also use fertilizer to get the plants to grow.
“They need nutrients to grow big and strong just like we do,” Anderson said. “We give them a general fertilizer as well as a more specialized fertilizer to get them certain nutrients we want, like calcium. Just like calcium strengthens our bones, it helps strengthen the stems in the plant.”
Read the full article at https://news.unl.edu/article/horticulture-club-spends-months-preparing-to-bring-holiday-cheer
The Horticulture Club’s in-person poinsettia sale is Dec. 5 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Nebraska Union and Nebraska East Union, and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Teaching Greenhouse West.
Or, order poinsettias online and pick up Dec. 4 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 to 5 p.m. in the Teaching Greenhouse West. Pay at pickup.
Go to https://go.unl.edu/hortclub for more information.