merry christmas! we wish you a happy and healthy holiday season, surrounded by those you love. perhaps you will also be surrounded by the most cherished plant of christmas, the poinsettia! this bright red, star-shaped flower is associated with the star of bethlehem, the heavenly body that led the three wise men to the place where christ was born. a mexican legend tells of a young girl who didn’t have enough money to buy a present to bring to the church on christmas eve to show her love for baby jesus. she could only bring weeds to the church which she found on the side of the road. the next day, the weeds suddenly blossomed into the beautiful red flower we now know as poinsettias! for this reason, poinsettias are referred to as “flores de noche buena” or “flower of the holy night”.  seventeenth-century franciscan monks were the first to include poinsettias in their christmas celebration after that, and to this day, many of us do!