The Powerg Poinsettias

A little while back, a neighbor knocked on my door, hoisting up a ruby red plant so enormous it concealed her completely from midriff to head. I was new to the area, and this was her way of welcoming me. A poinsettia, vividly colored, overflowing its pot, and endearingly ill-timed-it wasn't even Thanksgiving yet. But the plant seemed to brighten up the whole world just a bit, as if daring anyone to reject the early holiday spirit. You could say it kick-started my love for the leafy shrub and what it seems to represent: a simple kind of goodwill.

- KAITLYN YARBOROUGH SADIK

There is perhaps nowhere in Texas, or on the entire earth for that matter, where poinsettias create a more spectacular display than at The Brookwood Community in Brookshire, Texas, less than an hour from Houston. For over 35 years, the organization has dedicated much of its yearly calendar to growing the plants well ahead of the Christmas season, with seeds sown in summertime and then nurtured in 47 greenhouses until the last months of the year. And by the first weekend of December, people are allowed a peek at the horticultural feat: 50,000 glorious poinsettias, bursting with color and ready to be taken home or sent off to churches, schools, and offices in the nearby city.

At the annual open house, just before 9 a.m. on a Saturday in early December, the grounds are buzzing with activity at The Brookwood Community garden center. In a flurry, staff members donning Santa hats duck and dive into various sheds outside, wheeling carts of flora in and out, quick flashes of scarlet leaves disappearing behind hazy walls.

The massive greenhouses are already steaming up from the unseasonably warm Texas weather, almost stifling any sort of yuletide anticipation-almost.

Luckily, the greenhouses' inner spoils more than make up for it.