There is probably no bit of flora that says Christmas quite like a poinsettia. Every year, Hospice and Palliative Care of Chenango County sells these festive plants to raise money for their organization, which provides compassionate care to the terminally ill.

The sale is one of Hospice’s largest fundraisers of the year and is a highly coordinated effort orchestrated by the agency’s director of development, Donna Wood Craig. Orders are taken in November and the plants themselves are delivered the beginning of December.

As part of our Delivering Christmas series, I helped with that delivery. Well, actually, my role had more to do with sorting.

Last Wednesday, I caught up with the 20 or so volunteers that Donna had enlisted for the occasion at the Norwich YMCA. The plants had gotten there a bit before me, and already carpeted much of the community room.

Sourced from a nursery in Waterville, these were without a doubt some of the most beautiful poinsettias I had ever seen. I was dazzled by their lustrous green leaves and all that vibrant red, pretty pink and creamy white.