It was less
than a week ago that Plants Galore’s supplier brought her hundreds of poinsettia
plants imported from Holland.
“He had
imported 600 plants but before we could receive them, we had to get all the
paper work done in advance,” says Celia Hardy, who had to get so many different
permits. “We had to get one permit for every kind of plant that we were receiving,”
she adds.
But all the
effort was worth it since she got all eight varieties of poinsettias, especially
for pre-Christmas sales. “I’m not sure why the poinsettia is traditionally
recognized as a Christmas plant,” says Mrs Hardy. “But as that tradition got
started in the West, I suspect it had to do with winters being cold and people
tending to stay indoors. The poinsettias added a touch of color and brightness to
the home, so that could be why the tradition grew.”
Whatever the
reason, Mrs Hardy says that just as soon as her daughter put images of her
poinsettias on Facebook, the plants started flying out the door at Plants
Galore. “We sold 200 in just three days so if you want to see them, you had
better come right away. Our supply is almost gone!” she says, giving me a
warning that I will be stuck with no story if I arrive after they’re all sold.
“One woman
came in yesterday and bought 30 white poinsettias just like that,” says the
owner of Plants Galore who has been a plant lover all her life. “The woman said
she needed them since she is decorating her house for the holidays and her
color scheme is all white,” this award-winning gardener.
Noting how
many different colors the plant’s leaves come in, Mrs Hardy admits she also
prefers the white poinsettias. But her clients come in and buy all eight
different varieties of the plant. “Poinsettias come in pink, red, orange,
yellow and white as well as several varieties of variegated-colored plants,”
says her daughter Katy. By that, she means her mom has plants whose leaves come
in red and white, red and yellow, orange and pink and other varieties as well. “We
even have one plant that’s been sprinkled with glitter,” her mother adds.
“One lady
came in yesterday and bought several plants. She came back again today because
she decided she wanted to give poinsettias as Christmas presents,” says Mrs
Hardy who’s been busy all this week.
But she adds
that people are not just getting poinsettias for the holidays. “We also have
baby Christmas trees in pots that are also going very fast,” she says. They are
already decorated and perfect items to have if you live somewhere that cannot
easily accommodate a large Christmas tree.
The other
plant that many people get to give as a Christmas gift is the African violet. “The
ones we had are already all gone,” says Mrs Hardy who received several other
types of plant when her order from her importer came in.
“We have a
number of collectors who keep track of what we have in stock. For instance, we
just got a new Anthurium that one collector has already booked as her own,” she
says. Apparently, collectors also love the African violet. They also have a fondness
for the Medinilla, a rare plant that comes from Thailand, since she only has
one left.
One other rare
plant that collectors seem to love is a succulent called the Lithop. Mrs Hardy
imported two varieties of Lithop, which her knowledgeable plant-loving friend
Maria says is indigenous to Southern Africa. “I’ve seen them both in Cape Town and in
Namibia,” she says, adding she has a preference for indigenous plants. “I grew
up in Rumiruti where our poinsettia had grown into a giant tree,” she says, startling
this Business Daily reporter who didn’t know the plant could actually grow into
a tree!
Both Maria
and Mrs Hardy have a chuckle over the Lithops. “One is commonly called Baby
Bottoms,” says Mrs Hardy pointing at the button-sized miniature succulent that
has a crack down the centre of every ‘button’. “The other one is called Baby Toes,”
Maria adds, pointing at the toe-like tubular cluster of mini-plant that she
observes is not easy to keep alive.
“People tend
to over-water their succulents, which is what the plants don’t like,” says Mrs
Hardy who is an authority on all kinds of plants, a vast variety of which can
be found at her place in Rosslyn.
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