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January 13, 2021
What’s a locally-grown gift that everyone is sure to love? BC-grown flowers are the perfect gift to brighten up the darkest winter days: they’re a mood booster, an air cleaner, and a burst of colour that makes your home a better place to be. And - surprise - loads of flowers are in-season right now, thanks to your local BC greenhouses. We talked to our friends at Rainbow Greenhouses to find out more about how they grow their flowers, and they shared some helpful tips for how to make the most of your poinsettias this holiday season.
Based in Chilliwack, Rainbow Greenhouses are family-owned by Stan and Wilma Vander Waal and they’ve been in business since 1985. While many farms are quieter in the winter months, right now it’s busy at Rainbow Greenhouses. Winter-blooming flowers like Cyclamen, Christmas Cactus, Kalanchoe, and Frosty ferns are all in season and ready for market. And of course, ever-popular poinsettias are in their prime! Poinsettias take 5 months to grow before they are ready for your holiday decorating. The Vander Waal’s grow 500,000 poinsettias each year, so the greenhouses are a sea of red, pink and white come late November.
We’ve talked before about how efficient greenhouse growers can be with vegetables, and greenhouse grown plants and flowers are no different. Rainbow Greenhouses conserves water and energy while growing beautiful blooms for your home. They can recapture 98% of the fertilizer and water used through a flood-floor system, and then reuse it so there is little to no waste. Daily, they collect their plant material and organic waste so that it can be composted on-site. They are even energy-conscious in their transportation! Staff use bicycles and battery-operated carts to navigate around the spacious greenhouse that totals about 45 acres (or 45 soccer fields)!
BC-grown flowers are the perfect gift to brighten up the darkest winter days: they’re a mood booster, an air cleaner, and a burst of colour that makes your home a better place to be.
Even though the technology that goes into farming these local plants is complex, they are simple to buy and care for. Look for local greenhouse-grown flowers at larger stores like Walmart, Home Depot or Costco as well as independently owned stores and nurseries. You’ll see the Flowerful BC label on many BC-grown plants.
To keep Poinsettias healthy in your home over winter, the experts at Rainbow Greenhouses suggest three simple tips:
- Location: Be sure to give them as much light as possible but try to avoid direct sunlight. And keep them away from cold drafts! Poinsettias are tropical plants that enjoy a warm and cozy spot in the house.
- Feed: Fertilize them once a month to keep the blooms vibrant.
- Water: Don’t overwater them! This is especially true of poinsettias, which are prone to root rot. Remove any decorative foil from around the pots to make sure they don’t sit in water, and water them very sparingly -- only when the soil is completely dry to the touch. The best thing about poinsettias? With proper care, they can last for years -- and bloom for you again next holiday season.
To learn more about Rainbow Greenhouses, visit their website. Then, for more holiday gift ideas and to support your local farmers, join our communities on Facebook and Instagram!
Photos courtesy of Rainbow Greenhouses.