What's not to love about a Christmas poinsettia? The plant is brilliant red, or comes in other lovely shades of pinks, yellow and white. It is easy to care for and it is quite affordable.

And for those who have a green thumb, the poinsettia really takes off in Southern California especially. We like this plant so much, in fact, that we built a photo gallery about it. We have pictures of the artificial poinsettia decorations that people use on their homes during the holidays, we have an edible centerpiece for a buffet and we even visited a poinsettia farm in Central Coast California. You can see that in the poinsettia video above.

California is the top growing state for poinsettias in the U.S. and Encinitas in San Diego County grows the most at Ecke farms. Nevertheless, there are some other farms in Central California that grow prize winning plants for the likes of Costco, as shown in the farm video above.

Poinsettias come in a variety of colors and are mostly found throughout the year but most amply in the winter months at nurseries, discount stores, pharmacy stores, WalMart and grocers, usually beginning around late November. A Poinsettia Festival celebrates the plant in Encinitas each year in the winter. 

With names sounding like candy, each year a new variety or style of poinsettia is introduced to the public. One hot little number unveiled in 2007 was  the Ice Plant. Others offered through poinsettia distributors and nurseries include Amazone Peppermint, Autumn, Red Chianti, Red Cranberry Punch, Freedom series in brights, whites, salmon and maky great shades, not to forget Jingle Bells, Marble Freedom, Pink Freedom and the holiday named plants such as Kris Krinkle. How could you not adore the White Plum Pudding, Pink Shimmer, White Strawberries 'N Cream, Winter Rose and many other uniquely-named plants that are trademarked and painstakingly created for decorators who spend millions during the holidays for lavish public displays and private parties and events.

If you want your poinsettias to survive after the indoor decorating fades and Christmas gets packed into boxes, then by all means, take them outdoors and see if they will take off. A freeze could kill them, but if you live in warmer climes and can cover your poinsettias, they actually will grow into huge bushes filled with the brilliant red leaves. Once the plants get that big, you kind of get over the idea that a poinsettia represents Christmas. But anyway you slice or dice the poinsettia Christmas concept, you won't have to spend a fortune to bring color to your holiday and if you are like most people, you throw away your dead plant sometime near or after you chuck the Christmas tree out the door for trash pickup.