Stunning photos show over 60,000 poinsettias ready to be shipped across Britain for Christmas.
The plants are grown at Pentland Plants in Loanhead, Midlothian, Scotland.
Owner Carolyn Spray has sold the flowers each year for the past 25 years.
She says her grandfather first brought back the flower in the 1960s, and the family initially struggled to sell them – before winter hit and the demand for the festive flowers skyrocketed.
The tradition of poinsettias at Christmas dates back to a Mexican legend, which states that a poor girl named Pepita brought weeds to the baby Jesus – and after laying them at his bedside, they turned into stunning red flowers.
“My grandfather first introduced poinsettias to Britain back in the 1960s,” said Carolyn.
“He read about them in one of the American horticultural journals and imported the plants’ dried rootstock and grew them before trying to sell them.
“He tried to make them popular but no one wanted them back then – now here we are all these years later growing them.”
The flowers, which cone in various shades of pink, red, white and yellow, must be kept at around 22°C to imitate their native climate in South America, and must also be provided with lots of sunlight.
The usage of the plant in Christmas celebrations dates back to the 17th century, and the USA named 12 December as ‘Poinsettia Day’ – in honour of diplomat Joel Robert Poinsett, who first brought the flowers back to his greenhouse in South Carolina in the 1820s.
