It Came from Far, Far Away

On Tuesday I went to Costco and walked out of there with a huge poinsettia. It was kind of an impulse purchase. They have big 10-inch plants for about 16 bucks, so not bad. I have it sitting by fireplace as part of the first wave of Christmas decorations. Seeing it in that familiar Christmas context reminded me of last summer, when Matt and I went to Vanuatu. Poinsettias grow huge all over the place down there.



That's a place we stayed for a few nights on Tanna, one of the outer islands of Vanuatu. There were big poinsettias all along the road, in both red and white. I didn't notice them so much at the time, because there are luxuriant flowering things all over the place. At night the air was fragrant. I've always read that in books: "The night air was fragrant," but I've never really experienced it until being down there. Seeing the poinsettia pots all arrayed at Costco made me think of them growing huge and tall in Tanna, truly a world away.

According to the interwebs, the poinsettia is native to Mexico and Central America, but they must have been brought to the South Pacific and cultivated a long time ago. You know how when you bring home a poinsettia, it lives long after Christmas, and you get a little tired of the red and green come late January? I'm describing myself here. Last year, with that in mind, I bought white poinsettias, thinking they would look fresh longer, which they did. The one I got at Costco is a big ol' red one though. How do you deal with poinsettias after Christmas?

Another plant I see associated with Christmas here, the Norfolk Island Pine, is also from the South Pacific. From Norfolk Island in fact. We saw them growing tall everywhere, even in Sydney.

Here you can only really find them in nurseries around this time of year, in my experience. They are sold labeled as "living Christmas trees" because people like to put lights on their sturdy branches. I had one a couple of years ago in my sunroom. When I bought it in the winter, it still had an undignified sprinkling of glitter from the nursery's Christmas display. I loved it but it died anyway. They need a lot of light, and are a little fussy. I'm not so good with the plants, and am in the process of killing an Ikea yucca. So I've got that going on.

Looking through my Vanuatu pictures got me seriously wishing I were back there. And it made me realize there are tons of cool things I haven't shown you guys from that trip. In the dead of winter, I may have a return-to-summer series and show the last of my vacation pics. Like, return-to-summer as in, last summer we went to the southern hemisphere where it was winter. Mindbender.