Varner's Greenhouse and Nursery brings bursts of color to the holiday flowers this season

NILES, Mich. -- Varner's Greenhouse and Nursery run an extended season stretching to Christmas Eve. During the holidays Varner's grows 20 thousand poinsettias and around 600 Christmas trees. On a weekend day they can see 200-300 people.

Jon Shultz, Greenhouse Manager, says, "We have a robust business here in the wintertime, picking up around Thanksgiving time, but certainly we have activity before that time as well. The two weeks, three weeks, depending when Thanksgiving actually falls, are very, very busy weekends."

During the holiday season Varner's also sells painted poinsettias. They are sold in colors like purple, green, and orange.

Shultz says, "It's just a matter of using a special floral paint to paint them. First of all, he kind of puts a glue on there, and then he paints with the color actually, and then it finishes up with some glitter on."

Shultz says that lifespan is not really affected by the paint color either, "Basically once these leaves would grow out, or the other leaves below it, which are basically called rocks on a poinsettia, the bloom, if you will. And as those turn color, these will then fade away, and it'll become a white poinsettia again."

What starts at 20,000 holiday flowers at the beginning of the season usually will dwindle to less than 1,000 left on the shelves. The nursery tends to donate the leftover flowers out before the season comes to a close on Christmas Eve.