The Ohio Regional Poinsettia Variety Trials, were born in one of the meetings of the Ohio Florists' Association's Grower Extension Committee. Implementation of this idea was the result of a collaboration between this committee and Ohio State University Extension: many people were involved making this a reality. The objective of these trials was a grower evaluation of poinsettia plants grown by growers in three Ohio locations. The trials allowed a look at the relative consistency of responses when plants were grown under somewhat different conditions in a variety of locations.

Three firms generously agreed to grow plants for the trials: Lakewood Greenhouse in Toledo, Maple Lee Greenhouse in Delaware, Ohio, and Diefenbacher's Greenhouse in Cincinnati. Each grower received rooted poinsettia cuttings generously donated by four breeders: Dummen USA Inc, Paul Ecke Ranch, Fischer USA Inc, and Oglevee Ltd. Growers followed their own cultural procedures. Planting and pinching were done withing four days difference (Table 1).

Cultivar evaluation open houses were held November 18, 19 and 20 at the three grower locations. These early dates were selected in order to complete the evaluations before the "sales rush" of late November and December. These early dates favored early cultivars over late ones. To compensate for this situation, it was decided to evaluate plants later in what was called a "post season" trial. In late November, plants from each cultivar and location were shipped to The Ohio State University's Department of Horticulture and Crop Science where they were placed in the greenhouse. An open house was held at the university on January 13, 1999. Unfortunately, the weather did not collaborate: very few people showed up due to a terrible ice storm. These limited results are not reported. On December 28, plant height (from the pot rim to the top of the plant) was measured. Poinsettias were evaluated by: 36 growers in Cincinnati, 39 growers in Toledo and 55 growers in Delaware. The highest rating in all three locations was 4.8 given to the cultivar Orion Red (Fischer) by Cincinnati growers. The same cultivar had the highest rating overall: 4.3 (Table 2).

As a result of our trials, we offer a few comments. It was very frustrating to experience branch breakage while handling plants sent to the University by one of the growers. The reason: this grower's crop was particulary tall and he did not use plastic support rings. Nothing new here, just the confirmation that simple rings do work. We could not help imagine the frustration that customers experience when beautiful plants break apart in their hands... The cultivar Orion Red shows color two weeks earlier than Freedom. Many growers were wondering how the bracts would look later in the season. By January 13, Orion Red bracts were still in good shape. Growers gave a relatively low rating to the cultivar Winter Rose. Surprise! Customers seem to like this cultivar better than growers, according to anecdotes. As a consequence of this apparent lack of agreement, it would be interesting to have the public evaluate the same cultivars the growers have evaluated and make a comparison.