The above Poinsettia just arrived from 1-800-Flowers looking pretty much dead… I don’t know if it was the weather or the long time in transit that did the damage, but this is a sad sight for a $45 gift; not including extra shipping. I thought the floral service used local florists, but instead, they ship packaged, live plants the whole way from a central distribution center in New York state. On top of everything else, delivery was “late” from the date promised. So it’s not surprising that the flowers were not in good ship when they got here. How disappointing.

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US COVID News

On the Vaccine Front
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“Both Kansas and Missouri will receive fewer doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in their next shipments than originally expected.”
KMBC News

Good Along with
Some Really Bad News
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“As the United States welcomed the news Friday that a second vaccine, by Moderna, had been authorized by the federal government for emergency use, the country confronted another stark reminder of how desperately vaccines are needed:

a single-day caseload of over 251,000 new coronavirus cases, a once-unthinkable record.”
New York Times

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Hopefully next Christmas season, life for all will be close to back to normal again. Fingers crossed that a year from now everyone around the world will be in a better situation & that this horrible pandemic will be nothing more than a memory.

Besides no longer having to live in “fear” as we now do, I will then also be able to get out to buy my own holiday plants. If I had gotten the above quite tiny potted plant locally, the cost would have been under $10 in total. The inexpensive pot size is only 4 inches. A plant (purchased elsewhere) probably would have also lasted at least through the end of January … if not longer. My much larger Poinsettias (and less expensive), bought November 2019, flowered until July 2020. Last June: https://pbase.com/britestar/image/170768876

Although I’ve seen them, I have never before had a Poinsettia plant as small as the one above. It looks like a baby, starter plant. It only has 4 leaf clusters & the stem is wobbly in the pot. However, 2020 is not a normal year. So receiving even a tiny Poinsettia has been much appreciated. Too bad, it arrived almost dead. I expect the dried out, twisted leaves to start dropping off by tomorrow. Therefore, I will have to throw this plant out without having ever enjoyed it. Not a big deal in the total scheme of life, but worth mentioning & a photo.

I do still have last year’s “normal sized” Poinsettia plants I got at Lowes. However, this December, those only have a couple of singular leaves each that have changed back to vivid seasonal colors. Even so, I was extremely happy to see even teeny cheerful spots of color once again. Not a great 2020 holiday display, but the old plants have been a reminder of happier days.