Plants for the Christmas season

Gardening slows down in December. For the first month of winter, major tasks are keeping frost-tender plants covered overnight and uncovered in daytime, and pruning unruly trees and shrubs. And it’s time to think about filling your house with plants for the holidays.

The list of plants that appear for Christmas is far longer than I expected, and each of them is interesting for a different reason:

Christmas trees

The first Christmas plants most people think of are Christmas trees, and Walmart’s garden center has been filled with them since before Thanksgiving, But did you know that most Christmas trees are balsam, Douglas and Frasier firs, not pine trees?

Christmas Cactus (Schlumbergera x buckleyi)

Thanksgiving Cactus (Schlumbergera truncata syn. zygocactus truncata) 

These plants are a two-fer. They are closely related, and both are sold as Christmas cactus. To know which variety you are buying, look at the “leaves.” If the plant has points resembling lobster claws on top, it’s a Thanksgiving cactus. When watered and fertilized regularly, they may have long lives and bloom several times each year. (One of mine is three years old.)

Poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima)

Poinsettias originated in Mexico and are a type of euphorbia, a large family of plants commonly called spurge. 

The gaudy red, pink or white display is produced by floral bracts, which are actually modified leaves. The small circle of yellow in the center of the poinsettia flowers contains the real flowers. Folks in the Phoenix area sometimes replant poinsettias outside, where they can grow 3-10 feet tall. 

Holly

The history of using holly to decorate for winter festivals reaches back to Roman, Celtic and Druidic times. In the middle of winter, its green leaves and bright red berries led ancients to believe the plant had magical qualities. When Christians incorporated holly in Christmas decorations, they related the sharpness of the leaves to the crown of thorns worn by Jesus and the red berries to the drops of blood that were shed for salvation.

Native to the bottomlands and swampy margins of the eastern and central US, American holly can grow to 30 feet tall. Although you may find holly plants in stores like Home Depot, beware that, like blueberries, holly requires acidic soil. 

Rosemary

Rosemary is a newcomer to the Christmas lineup. An evergreen herb that can be grown outside or in a container, it shows up before Christmas sheared into miniature trees dangling oversized Christmas ornaments.

English Ivy (Hedera helix)

Because ivy remains green through the winter, it has been used as winter decoration since before the birth of Christ. However, its ability to flourish in the shade connected the plant to rumors of secrecy and debauchery, and it was removed from Christian homes and banned from churches until someone decided that ivy’s clingy characteristic could symbolize the faithfulness of Christianity. By the early 19th century, ivy was featured in the carol “The Holly and the Ivy.”

Christmas Rose (Helleborus niger)

Not a rose, the Christmas rose is related to delphiniums and anemones. Its name comes from a folktale where it suddenly appeared in the snow, growing from the tears of a young girl who lacked a gift to offer Christ in Bethlehem. 

If you decide to grow Christmas roses, be aware that they will need summer shade and winter sun. Also, because it is toxic, keep pets and children away from the plant.

Norfolk Island Pine Trees

The 25-foot-tall upside-down pine trees you see scattered around Globe are Norfolk Island pines. They are really conifers, not pines, and they shouldn’t grow here because our winters get up to 20 degrees too cold for them. For inside, small potted examples can regularly be found in nurseries or floral departments, but they can be grown from seed. If I wanted to grow one outside, I would try to get a cone from one of the specimens here, because the parent is adjusted to our climate.

By the way, do you see a pattern? Pines that are conifers; bracts, not flowers; hellebores, not roses …

Mistletoe (Phoradendron serotinum)

The “kissing” mistletoe seen in so many movies comes from Europe or the eastern US. However, we do have a variety of mistletoe in areas of the Sonoran Desert below 4,000 feet.

Those weird-looking, twiggy balls that hang on mesquite, acacia and even the occasional cottonwood trees in the Cobre Valley area are desert mistletoe, also known as mesquite mistletoe. Far less decorative than its European cousin, its berries form a major winter food for the local phainopeplas – medium-sized black birds with cardinal-like crests. 

To explore how to prune mistletoe off trees, trick this year’s poinsettia into blooming for next Christmas, plant a Norfolk Island pine and much more, check out theSpruce.com.