North Carolina is a poinsettia-producing powerhouse, ranked second only to California in the number of plants grown annually.
A greenhouse outside Charlotte grows more than 3 million poinsettias a year, selling to major retailers in the Southeast. An operation near Salisbury produces 500,000 poinsettias annually. In Raleigh, a family greenhouse and garden center grows 30,000 poinsettias in more than 50 varieties.
And Mitchell’s Nursery & Greenhouse in King in Stokes County, just north of Winston-Salem?
“We grow 12,000 a year,” says Judy Mitchell, who cofounded the nursery and greenhouse with her husband Jim in 1979. “This season we have more than 80 varieties.”
The lion’s share of the poinsettias are sold directly to consumers or to garden clubs and service organizations purchasing them for fundraisers.
The Mitchells are able to offer so many varieties because each year they participate in breeder “trials.” Breeders supply cuttings of varieties in development, and as a participating nursery, the Mitchells display samples of each variety so customers can vote for their favorites. The nursery tabulates the results, providing breeders with valuable market feedback.
“Want to see this year’s crop?” Judy asks.
We hop on a golf cart in front of the nursery office and head out.
The Mitchells grow a diversity of plants. There are rows of trees and shrubs and greenhouses filled with alleys of brilliantly colored pansies in flats.
After the poinsettias are sold, the greenhouses are prepared for the spring crop of geraniums.
“We grow even more geraniums — 18,000,” she says. “The garden clubs really take a lot of them!”
After passing a structure full of Boston ferns, we pull up at a complex of greenhouses. Since it’s September and nights aren’t yet long enough, I’m looking at a vast quilt of varying shades of green. The plants are grouped by type and height. Each one is individually potted, some with plastic rings to support their branches.
Judy explains the process.
In August, cuttings set in strips arrive from the breeders and are then individually potted. At the end of that month, the tops are pinched off by hand to enhance branching and manage height.
Fertilized automatically by irrigation, the poinsettias grow in the greenhouse through September, shaded only if the sun raises the greenhouse temperature too much. The plants need plenty of natural light.
By October, nights have grown longer than daylight periods. On cooler nights, the greenhouses are heated because poinsettias, indigenous to Mexico and Central America, will not survive the cold temps at our latitude.
“Everybody is real careful to cut off their headlights when they turn in to come to work,” Judy says. “We don’t want the plants to think it’s daylight!”
As the poinsettias acclimate to longer, sleepy nights, their bracts begin to display their beautiful colors.
“Thanksgiving is when our customers really start showing up,” Judy says.
Judy’s interest in greenhouses stems from growing up on a dairy farm in Hickory. “But Jim’s a city boy.”
Jim smiles. “My Dad was in a Raleigh garden club,” he says. “I spent a lot of time with him in the back yard growing flowers.” In sixth grade, Jim started rooting azaleas in a sandbox and selling them in cans he brought home from the school cafeteria.
The couple met at NC State and were married by the time they graduated with degrees in horticulture. After Jim took a job as a pesticide inspector with the N.C. Department of Agriculture, they bought a house in King.
In 1979, the Mitchells purchased an adjacent lot and started their business.
Over a span of 45 years, the nursery has moved and expanded to some 13 greenhouses, with additional property nearby for a potting shed and growing area.
Mitchell’s now has seven staff members, along with their son Jay, who joined the nursery in 2001, after working at a large greenhouse operation in Raleigh. Jay’s wife Melissa, a high school math teacher, updates spreadsheets and balances the company checkbook. And there are grandkids.
When I ask Judy and Jim if they’re ready to kick back and let the new generation take over, they chuckle.
“Oh, I think we’ll just keep on keeping on,” Judy answers.Jim nods.
“This nursery really is the dream of a lifetime,” he adds. And a beautiful dream it is. ■
