Hard to believe, but poinsettia growing season, one of the busiest of the seasons at Down Home Ranch, begins in mid-August!

While the temperatures were still hitting 105 degrees and above, and campers were rowing kayaks, squirting their counselors with water cannons, and learning to groom miniature horses, we were ordering 15,000 tiny plants that we will faithfully care for until they bloom into beautiful velvety-scarlet plants heralding the joy of Christmas.

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The plants arrive over a two-week period in August, and we count on dozens of volunteers to help us plant the 3" high rooted cuttings and set them out where they will be lovingly hand watered. After 3 weeks, the volunteers return to help us pinch them back, and in another 3 weeks volunteers help us spread them out and hook them up to automatic irrigators, so they have room to grow in one of our 11 greenhouses.

Naturally our Ranchers will help with all this, filling pots and racking them, pushing them to the planters, taking the racks back to the greenhouses, and then starting all over again. At Christmas-time, they help pack the plants and go on deliveries as Ranch ambassadors to churches, businesses, schools and homes, proud of the work they've done.

Christmas poinsettias, Easter lilies, and spring color baskets are an important part of Down Home Ranch Enterprises. We depend upon our enterprises to supplement our charitable and fee-for-service income, to provide those things that ensure a quality of life second to none for our Ranchers.

Enterprises also provide jobs for the Ranchers, but they're not the only ones that benefit. Many of our customers use poinsettia sales as an annual fund-raiser. They purchase the plants for as little as $6.50 per poinsettia, and sell them for $15.00 or more. Schools, church groups, and independent commercial nurseries appreciate the quality and hardiness of our poinsettias and come back for more, year after year.

To all of you who have purchased poinsettias in the past, or who have supported us with your time and labor, thank you. We hope you had a terrific holiday season, and we look forward to seeing you next year. We couldn't do it without you.