Red Poinsettia Watercolor

/ Jodi

Red Poinsettia Loose Watercolor 11×14 140lb cold press

Have you ever heard the old Mexican legend about how poinsettias became the flower of Christmas?  It’s a sweet little story that has several versions, but basically goes like this:

There was once a poor Mexican girl named Pepita, who had no present to give the the baby Jesus at the Christmas Eve Services, so she picked a small handful of weeds from the roadside and made them into a a small bouquet.  When Pepita knelt down and put the bouquet at the bottom of the nativity scene, the bouquet of weeds suddenly burst into bright red flowers, and everyone who saw them were sure they had seen a miracle. From that day on, the bright red flowers were known as the ‘Flores de Noche Buena’, or ‘Flowers of the Holy Night’.

The shape of the poinsettia flower and leaves are sometimes thought to be a symbol of the Star of Bethlehem which led the Wise Men to Jesus. The red colored leaves symbolize the blood of Christ. The white leaves represent his purity.

Do you decorate with poinsettias for the holidays?

I always have a few around in December.  They add such festive color.  I also love to grow some potted paperwhite narcissus for their beauty, but most of all their amazing fragrance.

This watercolor painting is my loose rendition of the Christmas poinsettia.

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

 

65 thoughts on “Red Poinsettia Watercolor”

  1. Never. We never had these until about 10 years ago when they showed up in shops, flower shops in December. We call them “Christmas flower” but don’t know the real name. We saw such flowers in english/american movies. I once both this for my mom… but somehow don’t like it.
    I’m glad you shared this story and name. Now I know it’s Mexican thing 😉

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  7. Your poinsettia is gorgeous. I I wasn’t aware the little story behind the Poinsettia being the Christmas flower. Our shops get full of poinsettia flowers and plants from now till Christmas, now I will look at the poinsettia in a new light.

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  11. One has to love that sweet legend and your beautiful painting too! I will share a little history that you may already know. Joel Poinsett brought the first plant here from Mexico in the 1800’s and after growing them, sent them to friends and botanical gardens. One came to a Philadelphia nurseryman from a friend and later became known as the poinsettia. This is a much abbreviated history that my Gram used to tell us when we were little. She is the only person I ever knew that successfully had poinsettias bloom more than once. Gram was the human encyclopedia of flower facts!

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    • I did read that also – but that is amazing that your grandma shared that with you and had it all memorized! You have a lot of hidden gems of info that I adore you share here Ellen! ❤

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  22. ohhh, Pepita!! how cute! and flowers of the holy night…. love how that sounds. Great little story Jodi for us at just the right time too 🙂 gorgeous scarlet reds in your flower, with nice drips and vibrancy – a color full flower of the holy night !

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  24. Oh, Jodi!! So LOVE love your Poinsettia !! ❤️❤️❤️ And I enjoyed your story about how the flower. 🌟 I have a funny story about Poinsettias… When I was in college, a friend and I had a job one year during the holidays to water all the Poinsettias at Nordstroms. At the time, they used to decorate their stores with LOTS of this flower. By the end of this job, I was so sick of Poinsettias!! LOL! 😝 It took me several years before I would buy one!

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  27. I love your painting! And yes, I always decorate with a few poinsettias at Christmas because they look so festive and I don’t have to pack them away for next year. (Instead, they live on my window seat forever, looking scraggly and green from March on, but that’s another story….)

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  28. I needed to go back so far to catch up, my dear Jodi! So sorry, last few weeks before my vacation were full of work and not much visiting blogs.
    I love your watercolor poinsettia! They come from Mexico which made my Spanish teacher Mom love them, especially the range of colors! Red in the family room and the pink, light green and white ones in her Victorian living room (“parlour”). 😊

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