UPPER FREEHOLD — Some poinsettia basics — the reds, whites, pink and combinations of those colors are not the flowers.
With poinsettias, the flower of the Christmas season, people are "buying it for the bract," said Hank Bukowski, head grower at Kube-Pak, a wholesale grower of a variety of plants, here. The bract is a "pigmented leaf," according to Jeff Walls, Kube-Pak's production manager.
"A flower" — in a poinsettia, the little spot of yellow in the middle of the bright-colored bracts — "has the reproductive parts," Walls added.
With that said, the state Department of Agriculture is encouraging consumers to buy New Jersey-grown poinsettias.
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