Ice
Punch
| |
Ice
Punch, a striking new poinsettia from Ecke Ranch that will debut
nationwide next year, is getting a trial run here this holiday
season.
Discovered in Europe, Ice Punch has rosy-red bracts (colored
leaves) splashed in the center with snowy white. It is available
exclusively at Home Depot stores here, Texas and Georgia, where it
is sold in a 6-inch foil-wrapped pot and priced at $9.97.
The Encinitas-based Ecke Ranch is the nation's largest poinsettia
breeder and famed for popularizing the cheery winter bloomers as a
symbol of the season. More than 100 million will be sold in the U.S.
during the holidays.
Paul Ecke III, Ecke Ranch CEO, praised the company's latest
discovery as “one of a kind – fun, perky and trouble-free for
growers and consumers. Plus it's mostly red, which is still the most
popular color. Seventy percent of the plants sold are red.”
Ecke supplied Ice Punch cuttings to a variety of growers who sold
mature plants to Home Depot. Plants in bloom from Ecke Ranch are
sold primarily to florists and constitute only about 10 percent of
the company's business.
“Our main business is breeding
new varieties,” he said. “We like the fact that Home Depot sees Ice
Punch as a way to give its consumers something very special.
Upscale, value-added poinsettia products are clearly the wave of the
future.”
Recent introductions by Ecke include Visions of Grandeur with
“pinkish pillowy bracts that people instantly fall in love with,”
Prestige Maroon with deep maroon bracts, and Kris Krinkle with
crinkled red bracts.
In the pipeline? Watch for an orange poinsettia in a couple
years, and Polly's Pink, named after Ecke's 51/2-year-old daughter.
For detailed information on poinsettia care, visit the Ecke Web
site at www.ecke.com and click on poinsettias and then
consumer help.
– MARY JAMES
