Flowers on the Boulevard

**(Things are a bit out of order.  Let's go back to last Sunday.)**

I hope that you aren't tired of seeing photos of poinsettias, because here are more.  Just as you see marigolds all over the city for the Day of the Dead, during the Christmas season poinsettias are everywhere.

As you may remember, Alejandro's sister Sandra wanted to buy a poinsettia for the house.  Last Sunday, after spending a couple of hours at the "kermés", she suggested that we drive to the Paseo de la Reforma where they were having a poinsettia festival.  Tents were set up on both sides of Reforma, and dozens of local flower growers were selling poinsettias as well as other plants.  There were also vendors selling Christmas decorations.  Unlike the disappointing poinsettia fair in Iztacalco that I wrote about last week, this was the real deal.

Alejandro and Sandra are to the far right, surveying the selection of flowers.

The poinsettia is native to Mexico, where it is called "flor de Nochebuena" (Christmas Eve flower).  Its name in English comes from Joel Poinsett, the first U.S. envoy to Mexico in 1822.  Poinsett was an amateur botanist, and it was he who introduced the flower to the United States.

In the planters along the median strip of the Paseo de Reforma, thousands of poinsettias are planted for the holiday season.  (There are reportedly around 220,000 poinsettias planted along major avenues in the city.)

And yes, Sandra found a poinsettia to buy for the house.