In a sprawling plant nursery near Thessaloniki in northern Greece, a Greek family is hard at work. They are preparing close to 150,000 poinsettias for distribution ahead of Christmas, both to local but mostly to foreign markets. Throughout the years, their poinsettia family business has grown and has turned into a competitive global exporter.
"It's been three weeks since we started being so busy and every year, our orders become bigger," Giorgos Albanidis, one of the owners of the business tells the Athens News Agency/Macedonian Press Agency in an interview. "These days for us are those with the most work and everything must be done right so we cannot let one minute go wasted so there are no loose ends left and we can . . . let go of our plants," he adds.
Poinsettia (known as Alexandrino in Greek), the flowering plant that is a Christmas symbol around the world, decorates thousands of homes and businesses during the holiday season. Albanidis says this year most of their plants are going to Romania while many countries across the Balkans choose their poinsettias because, as he says, they have an early production.
Read more at Greek Reporter