Poinsettias are the flower of Christmas. And this time of year, you'll see them in just about every store.

For this week’s Made In Connecticut, News 12 visited a wholesale farm in the state that grows thousands of poinsettias.

The plants are native to Mexico. They were brought to the U.S. in the 1800s by John Poinsett, the first U.S. ambassador to that country who received his early education in Fairfield.

EJ Kurtz is part of a third generation running his family's wholesale farm in Cheshire. They have 18 acres of greenhouses. Kurtz says the plant is hard to grow.

Poinsettias plants are tropical and require just the right food, temperature and water. By early fall, the top green leaves begin to change color with the shorter days.

Around Oct. 1, Kurtz says poinsettias start to blush. And he says that triggered back in September. But these lush rows of red, white and pink are a far cry from his family’s early roots.