Consumers Tell Which Poinsettias They Like

There is always considerable discussion over what poinsettia cultivars growers should produce and about which cultivars consumers prefer. The new cultivars and their success at retail have changed the industry’s mindset of what a poinsettia should look like. Remember when ‘Winter Rose Dark Red’ was introduced and few industry folks liked it, but within a couple of years, almost everyone was growing it. The situation has changed so much that when looking at potential new introductions, sometimes someone will say, “That looks so strange consumers are sure to like it.” But how can we really know?

The Trials

Just like production variety trials, a single consumer survey does not tell everything. It is best to look at the results of multiple surveys and to look at trends as they change from year to year. With this in mind, we are providing the results of the consumer surveys conducted at Purdue University, University of Florida and Homewood Nursery in Raleigh, N.C.

These surveys are conducted in conjunction with the National Poinsettia Cultivar Trials and are supported by the major poinsettia breeder companies: Dummen USA, Paul Ecke Ranch, Fischer USA, Oglevee Ltd. and Selecta First Class. At Homewood, 40 individual plants are placed at the entrance of the retail greenhouse during Thanksgiving weekend. Customers were invited to vote for their favorites through the Christmas shopping season. At the University of Florida, two days after the industry Open House, consumers were invited to view the commercial trials, and some additional survey plants were set up. For the Purdue study, plants were moved to the conservatory greenhouse at White River Gardens in Indianapolis, Ind., from November 28 until December 29.

Overall Favorites

Figures 1-4, pages 44 and 46, show the results from Florida, Purdue and Homewood where consumers picked their favorites from a large group of cultivars. These types of evaluations are interesting because they allow the participants to express many different feelings. They can include cultivars they really like, plus ones that may be a little different but interesting to them.

Across the three surveys, there are six cultivars in the top 15 on at least two of the lists. Those are ‘Sonora White Glitter’, ‘Jingle Bells 4.0’, ‘Monet Twilight’, ‘Cortez Burgundy’, ‘Carousel Red’ and ‘White Christmas’; none of which are traditional red plants. This does not mean everyone should grow these cultivars Á

because the participants in these studies are more typical of the consumer who shops at independent garden centers. These results, along with results from previous years, do show that this consumer is attracted to the new and different. Also, notice there are traditional red cultivars in the top selections of each study.

Often, some of the more interesting cultivars are among the more difficult to produce. There should be no question that Sonora White Glitter is very appealing to a large number of consumers; however, it finishes late and, like all Jingle Bells types, has a significant amount of sporting. Cortez Burgundy and Carousel Red also finish late in the sales period for most growers, but both are very popular. Cortez Burgundy has been the hottest cultivar with consumers over the past two years. Carousel has been one of the strongest cultivars in consumer surveys for 4-5 years, and most of the growers who are successful with it use black cloth to bring it in early. Because of the special requirements of these three cultivars, growers who can black cloth for early flowering can use these varieties to differentiate themselves in the poinsettia market.

White Christmas often has the best white bract color in consumer trials. While it finishes before the three late cultivars above, White Christmas is still the latest of the white cultivars. It also has smaller bracts than most other cultivars.

Jingle Bells 4.0 is a newer cultivar that many growers have not seen. Important characteristics of this cultivar is that it naturally finishes with ‘Freedom Red’, and it has much better bract appearance than ‘Freedom Jingle Bells’. Jingle Bells 4.0 does not have the real strong branch strength of most of the newer introductions, but it has been received well by the consumers.

Monet Twilight is a perennial favorite with consumers, but it is very vigorous and requires more exacting fertilization management. Many mass-market growers are actually going away from Monet Twilight and using ‘Da Vinci’ instead because it is so much easier to grow. These results again illustrate that there are ways for independent retailers and Á smaller growers to produce a product distinctly different from the poinsettia sold by large chains.

Favorite Reds

In the Purdue and Florida studies, more focused tests where participants were shown only a few cultivars were conducted. As presented in Figures 5 and 6, above, consumers were shown a small group of red cultivars and asked to pick their favorite three plants. Freedom Red, the dominate cultivar in the market, was in the bottom half of the selections in both studies. In the Purdue study, ‘Orion Red’ and ‘Christmas Cookie’ were the top two cultivars, which illustrates the diversity in the preferences of consumers. Orion is one of the industry’s top cultivars and has the common blueish-red tint, while Christmas Cookie has the brightest orange-red color of any commercial cultivar.

Among the top cultivars in the Florida study were ‘Merlot’ and ‘Chianti Red’. Both of these new cultivars have a deep, wine-red color and have lower vigor than most cultivars. They do look different, as Chianti has distinctive cyathia with multiple nectaries and deeply lobed leaves and bracts. Unlike Winter Rose Dark Red, these two cultivars are probably not distinctive enough from other red plants to warrant a premium price. The UF students sold standard, single-plant, pinched, 61?2-inch red poinsettias for $7.50 and other colors and specialty varieties for $10-$20. They could not get $10 for Chianti. ‘Olympus’, the second-place finisher, is a new, interesting cultivar with the bract color of Orion but slightly smaller leaves and bracts. The bracts are held up in a horizontal plane.

Other Favorites

Figure 7, page 50, shows the results when Florida consumers were asked to pick their top three from a group of different cultivars that represented various types of poinsettias. The two top choices were very distinctive. Ecke 54-99 is a new cultivar that is available in 2003 in only limited quantities in a trial pack. It should be widely available in 2004. Ecke 54-99 has Á bright red bracts with white markings. While we might be tempted to call this a Jingle Bell type, it is so distinctive is should be classified as a novelty separate from Jingle Bells. Another version of this is Ecke 6401, which has a bright pink background with white markings. Both will be very popular with high-end consumers. The runner up, ‘Holly Point’, has very low vigor. In the past two years, we grew Holly Point as a typical single-pinch plant in a 6-inch pot, and this small plant did not attract much attention. This year, the UF students put four cuttings in an 8-inch bulb pan, and those were the plants shown to the consumers. Notice that Holly Point was the number-four choice in Figure 1, page 44. The UF students sold plants that were about 12 inches tall for $20-$25. Note the key to a successful Holly Point is to pinch high and avoid a hard pinch.

In the Purdue study, shown in Figure 8, page 51, the participants picked their favorites from a group of novelty cultivars. Their choices reemphasize the appeal of Sonora White Glitter and Monet Twilight. The third pick, ‘Marblestar’, has long been the best marble and ranks very high in surveys when the plants look good.

The comparison shown in Figure 9, page 51, is the consumers’ preferences for a selection of pink cultivars. ‘Freedom Pink’ is an important cultivar because it is in the Freedom family, and ‘Maren’ is the most widely grown pink in the South. ‘Santa Claus Pink’ is a newer cultivar that has more vigor than the others and produces larger bracts. ‘Enduring Pink’, which has the same timing as Freedom Red, was the consumers’ first choice and will likely become an important variety in warmer climates.

The authors would like to thank the poinsettia breeders, technicians, universities and all the poinsettia growers for their support. Special thanks to technical support: Terri Kirk, Purdue University and Carolyn Bartuska, University of Florida. Also thanks to White River Gardens, Indianapolis, Ind.: Duane Martin, curator; Ken Breece and Susan Micks, gardeners; and Mary Welch-Keesey, consumer horticulture specialist, Purdue University.