Decorate the holidays with reds and greens
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Thousands of red, white, pink, orange-red and marbled poinsettias -- some 30 different varieties -- will be sold today and Saturday by the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo horticulture students who propagated and grew them.
According to Natalie Lovgren, co-manager of the university’s Poly Plant Shop, the holiday open house is a student-run project that generates funds for seeds, soil and other greenhouse expenses of Cal Poly’s horticulture and crop science department. “It’s an example of our whole ‘learn by doing’ philosophy,” she says.
Sure, it’s a schlep up U.S. 101 to San Luis Obispo from Los Angeles. But once you arrive, there’s complimentary hot cocoa and cookies to enjoy. Take a tour the school’s greenhouses and retail nursery, too, as you shop for healthy, affordable holiday decor. The dozens of poinsettia varieties grown by the students are now in 4- to 10-inch pots for the annual sale. Prices begin at $5.25 per plant.
“We’ll also have decorated poinsettias in different colors – including outrageous tie-die-looking ones and others with glitter and sparkles,” Lovgren says.
Traditional greenery also will be on sale, as well as selections of the Poly Plant Shop’s signature floral “cube’ (pictured at left), a holiday flower arrangement in a 4-inch-square glass vase, $20.
“We are also featuring other Cal Poly student-made and student-grown products – chocolates, fruits, honey and jam,” she says.
Cal Poly Holiday Open House, Poly Plant Shop, Building 48, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Sale today and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (805) 756-1105 or www.polyplantshop.com.
Photo credtis: Cal Poly Horticulture and Crop Science Department