Evans shares his red, pink, white and green thumb for the holidays

  • Published
  • By Raquel March
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, TENN. --  A botanical sign of the holiday season is the appearance of poinsettias in multiple varieties and Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC) employee Rick Evans prepares Evans Plant Farm for the busy poinsettia season in July.

"We start out [growing] our poinsettias in July to be sure that they are the proper size and that the colors will be ready by the end of November," said Evans, an electrical technician in the Aerospace Testing Alliance (ATA) Aeropropulsion Plant Assets Branch.

Evans and his family grow six varieties of poinsettias at the Murfreesboro greenhouse. He has grown the Christmas plant for 25 years with his wife Gail in different sizes and colors such as pink, white and red, which is his favorite.

"We have to prune them a few times as well as making sure that they receive plenty of fertilizer for vibrant colors," he said. "Then right after Thanksgiving we start delivering poinsettias to churches, fundraisers and of course to the wonderful people at the base."

Evans sells about 6,000 poinsettias during the holidays. He admits that the "holidays are a lot brighter when we sell out of poinsettias."

Poinsettias are indigenous to Mexico and Central America. The plant was introduced to the United States in 1825 by the first U.S. Minister to Mexico Joel Roberts Poinsett.

Today the flower is known as the Christmas Eve Flower in Mexico.

Once a poinsettia is taken home for display, care must be taken with providing the right conditions for the plant. Evans says if it is too wet, dry, dark, cold or hot then the plant will lose its leaves. He also added "a little food for thought."

"Poinsettias are poisonous but only to the degree that you would have to eat your weight in them to have a belly ache and in my case that would have to be a whole lot of poinsettias," he said.

Once the holiday season ends, the poinsettia can be induced to re-flower by pruning, providing minimal water and moderate indoor light. The flowering portions of the plant are bracts. They aren't actually flowers, but instead they are leaves that change color due to photoperiodism - a process of 12 hours of continuous darkness daily combined with light for at least five days.

"After poinsettia season is over, I like to spend time with my family on Christmas to celebrate the birth of Christ and reflect on all that God has done for me throughout the year," Evans said.

Evans's love for Christ has led him and his family to participate in numerous mission trips where they helped others with building wells and providing electricity and medical needs.

Evans said his participation in approximately 20 mission trips would not have been possible without his 35-year employment at AEDC. He plans to retire in February and looks forward to helping with more missions to Kenya and working at the plant farm.