North Carolina is a poinsettia-producing powerhouse, ranked second only to California in the number of plants grown annually.
A greenhouse outside Charlotte grows more than 3 million poinsettias a year, selling to major retailers in the Southeast. An operation near Salisbury produces 500,000 poinsettias annually. In Raleigh, a family greenhouse and garden center grows 30,000 poinsettias in more than 50 varieties. And Mitchell's Nursery & Greenhouse in King in Stokes County, just north of Winston-Salem?
"We grow 12,000 a year," says Judy Mitchell, who cofounded the nursery and greenhouse with her husband Jim in 1979. "This season we have more than 80 varieties."
The lion's share of the poinsettias are sold directly to consumers or garden clubs and service organizations purchasing them for fundraisers. The Mitchells can offer so many varieties because each year they participate in breeder "trials."
Read more at Business North Carolina