From Akron, Ohio, to Zephyrhills, Fla. — and all points in between — this is the time of year when a lot of little pieces of Huntersville Christmas cheer get spread far and wide.
About five million poinsettias from the sprawling Metrolina Greenhouses on Huntersville-Concord Road will find their way to shelves across the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic region between now and the end of the month. Metrolina spokesman Matt Easley says the family-owned grower and wholesaler has shoppers within about a 500-mile radius of the Lake Norman region covered for their Christmas foliage needs.
"They've pretty much got a grip on that market," says Easley.
Like a shopper's grip on their cart on Black Friday morning, Easley says Metrolina essentially has a lock on the traditional poinsettia trade in the Ohio-to-Florida corridor, supplying major retailers such as Walmart, Lowe's Home Improvement and Sam's Club with plants in a broad range of colors.
Easley says it's the rapport Metrolina's owners have developed over time with their clients that have kept them front and center when it comes to being their greenhouse of record.
"It basically comes down to the relationships they've created with their customers," Easley says.
And that relationship, in many cases, has been almost four decades in the making.
Metrolina Greenhouses was established in April 1972, when Dutch immigrants Tom and Vickie VanWingerden moved to Charlotte and rented a 20,000-square-foot greenhouse — a locale their budding business quickly outgrew. They moved the company not long after to its present Huntersville location, where it now rivals in size the equivalent of more than four Concord Mills mall footprints.
Metrolina is on record as the largest single-site heated greenhouse in the U.S., as well as the country's largest single-story building, covering something approximating the size of 120 football fields. The entire operation is still family owned and run, with Tom VanWingerden's son, Abe, serving as co-CEO following Tom's accidental death two years ago this month. Several other VanWingerden children and extended family members remain involved in the greenhouse's day-to-day operations.
Christmas in July
Easley says the plant that has become synonymous with the Christmas season begins its Metrolina Greenhouses life sometime in July of each year, when the company receives refrigerated plant cuttings in overnight shipments from Guatemala. He says 90 percent of the five million plants Metrolina will ultimately grow are the traditional red-colored, or "prestige," plants, with the remainder a smattering of white, pink, cinnamon, burgundy and variegated selections. He says it even offers red poinsettia trees, plants that grow to four or five feet high with a broad, circular canopy.
Tending to the millions of budding poinsettias throughout the summer and fall is a full-time local workforce more than 600 strong, which can blossom by as many as another 150 employees during the busiest times in the spring and fall. Easley says many of Metrolina's workers are long-time employees, with some having as many as 20 to 30 years or more on the books.
It's an operation that's resource-intense — Metrolina uses up to 700,000 gallons of water every day, and during the summer months the air in the greenhouse is exchanged every minute to keep things cool. The company has found efficient ways to collect and recycle hundreds of millions of gallons of water each year, and now with an unlikely partner, Metrolina will look to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions and reliance on natural gas for heat.
According to a recent press release, Chevrolet announced Metrolina is one of 16 new projects the 100-year-old automobile manufacturer is supporting in efforts to prevent up to eight million metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the air during the next five years. The total carbon reduction goal for all the projects is estimated to equal the emissions created from driving the 1.9 million vehicles Chevrolet expected to sell in the U.S. between Nov. 18, 2010, and the end of 2011.
At Metrolina, the greenhouse has begun a move away from natural gas for heat by using renewable biomass, or waste wood from land clearing, as an energy source. The company anticipates it will use approximately 36,000 tons of waste wood each year.
"As a large-scale operation delivering approximately 70 million plants a year, we're committed to activities like this that help us become a greener greenhouse," says co-CEO VanWingerden. "When our biomass boilers are burning these wood chips, you can't even tell they're running."
Taste is terrible, but not poisonous
It's a nasty rumor that's been around for nearly 100 years — many pet owners and parents have been led to believe exposure to or a nibble on a poinsettia is poisonous, but nothing could be further from the truth. The only thing truly nasty about the plant is its taste.
"You'd basically have to eat thousands of (poinsettia) leaves to make yourself sick," says Metrolina's Matt Easley, which isn't likely based on its incredibly bitter flavor.
According to POISINDEX, a primary resource for most poison control centers, no deaths resulting from poinsettia ingestion have ever been documented, and the plants are not listed as a threat to animals by the American Veterinary Medicine Association.
