The family-owned business, which has been producing locally grown plants for more than 100 years, sells between 6,000 and 7,000 of the Christmas flowers each year. 

Farm manager Dave Miller said his family started growing and selling the Christmas staple in 1960s

“My mother, Betty, really got the poinsettias started,” he said. “My mom was really a worker. She wanted to be doing something all the time. Things slowed down in the fall. Poinsettias were starting to gain popularity, and she jumped into it.”.

Back then, there was only one variety and one color — red, which is still the most popular color. Now, however, there are 50 shades of red alone, Miller said. 

“When we first started growing poinsettias in the 1960s, there was only one variety of poinsettias,” he said. “Different colors, but they were all the same cultivar. Now, there’s hundreds. It’s ridiculous the number of varieties you have to choose from.” 

Dustyn Miller, Dave Miller's son and farm’s head grower of specialty and vegetative annuals and poinsettias, said there are two main varieties of red poinsettias that they grow — mid-season and late season. 

Miller Plant Farm starts selling their poinsettias in their retail store on Thanksgiving week, and Dustyn Miller said mid-season poinsettias are ready for sale now.

The late-season poinsettias still have a lot of green and haven’t developed their full color, he said. Many of the late-season variety are sold to churches as they are decorating their sanctuaries and will have full color by Christmas. 

“We call (late-season poinsettias) Christmas Tradition. This is our go-to for church orders,” Dustyn Miller said. “I usually deliver a lot of flowers to churches right around the week before Christmas or right around Christmas Eve even.”