Adopt-an-Older-Adult / #GivingTuesday

#GivingTuesday November 29, 2022

Help us combat loneliness and isolation amongst older adults as they age. With social contacts, mobility, and access to community resources decreasing, a personal visit with a caring volunteer delivering a beautiful holiday plant will spread cheer that lasts through the season.

Your generosity will brighten the lives of isolated older adults, and also support the many critical programs and services that the Center of Concern provides throughout the year.

With your support, friendly volunteers will personally deliver a holiday poinsettia to the homes of older adults including those in assisted living, rehabilitation, memory care, or skilled nursing facilities. Plant sizes are between 4” to 4.5” and colors vary in hue within the holiday palette.

You can also choose to have a poinsettia plant personally delivered to family members, friends, colleagues, or neighbors as an opportunity to wish them a happy holiday season while supporting our vital community services in their honor.

Poinsettia deliveries will occur during the first week in December. You can place orders anytime during the month of November, but are especially encouraged to donate on #GivingTuesday, November 29, 2022.

Double your impact! Gifts up to $5,000 will be matched by the Edward and Wanda Jordan Family Foundation!.

Cuitlaxochitl Plant History

• In Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, cuitlaxochitl (“kwet-la-sho-she”) is formed from the words “cuitlatl” meaning residue and “xochitl” for flower, making the cuitlaxochitl a “flower that grows in residues or soil.”
• During the 14th to 16th centuries, the Aztecs used cuitlaxochitl sap to control fevers and for a reddish dye. Native to Mexico, the cuitlaxochitl is a perennial shrub that can grow 10 to 15 feet tall!
• In the 1820s, botanist and physician Joel Roberts Poinsett took cuttings from cuitlaxochitl plants in Mexico and brought them back to South Carolina in the United States.
• The botanical name Euphorbia pulcherrimameans “very beautiful” in Latin and was assigned to the plant by German botanist Karl Ludwig Wilenow around 1834.
• Around 1836, historian and horticulturist William Prescott gave the plant the common name of poinsettia named after Joel Roberts Poinsett.

References: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (2022). The Poinsettia Pages. University of Illinois Extension: The Poinsettia Pages. Retrieved from https://web.extension.illinois.edu/poinsettia/index.cfm

Poinsettia Indoor Plant Care from the Park Ridge Garden Club

LIGHT: During their holiday flowering period, poinsettias will tolerate lower light levels. If you want to keep your plant year-round, give it at least some direct sunlight–that of a southern, western, or eastern window.

WATERING: During flowering, it is most important to keep the soil moist but not sopping. After flowering, allow the soil surface to dry out between waterings. When it is dry, water the plant thoroughly. At least a little water should come out of the pot’s bottom drainage holes, but the plant should not stand in saucer water for more than 30 minutes.

FEEDING: Feed sparingly, and only during active growth and flowering. Use a high-phosphorus (high middle number) houseplant fertilizer at half the concentration and frequency listed in the product directions.

SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS: Many people treat poinsettias as annuals and discard them after the holidays. However, if you want to keep your plant, clip it back to half its original height in late winter and grow it as a normal foliage houseplant until fall. In the summer, it will especially like being placed outdoors in dappled shade. You can even convince your plant to bloom the following winter by keeping it in at least fourteen hours of complete and uninterrupted darkness each day, from Oct. 1 to Nov. 15.