2015 Pi Alpha Xi Poinsettia Sale

Also Dec. 19.

The UGA chapter of the horticultural honor society Pi Alpha Xi will be selling poinsettias to help fund the club's operations over the next year.  

Honor society members will provide free early delivery on all orders over 15 plants. 

The poinsettias come in two varieties: a traditional red and a crinkly leafed, red rosette variety. Gift-wrapped poinsettias will be $12, and plain poinsettias will be $10. 

A team of senior horticulture students grew the 500-plant crop this semester as part of the greenhouse management capstone class taught by horticulture professor Paul Thomas. The students wanted the experience of growing an entire greenhouse crop from start to finish in the format used by commercial growers.

Grown in Athens, each 6-inch, potted poinsettia was grown from a tiny cutting under sustainable greenhouse conditions. The uniform quality of the crop is remarkable considering that this is the students' first try at running an entire greenhouse operation, and only seven students were involved, Thomas said.

Horticulture students will use the money raised through the poinsettia sale to fund travel to academic and professional conferences and for their annual membership banquet.