
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, November 25, 1993                   TAG: 9311250219
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-3   EDITION: HOLIDAY 
SOURCE: JOANNE ANDERSON
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

POINSETTIAS BLOOM AT TECH

Five hundred poinsettias, America's favorite potted plant, will go on sale Thursday on the Virginia Tech campus - their colors not only brightening holiday homes but also providing scholarship money for Tech horticulture students.

For the past three years, Tech's Pi Alpha Xi horticulture honors society has grown poinsettias from cuttings started in pots in late summer. The result "rivals commercially grown crops," according to Kevin Grueber, faculty adviser for the organization.

The club will sell the plants both Thursday and Friday, Dec. 2 and 3, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Squires Student Center and at Virginia Tech's greenhouse on Washington Street.

The cost is $5 for each 6 1/2-inch potted plant.

This year's selection will include white, pink and marbled varieties in addition to the ever-popular red-flowered plant. Susan DeBolt, head grower for the harvest, said that each poinsettia will be sold with bright red or green foil. Care instructions will be handed out with each plant purchased.

For information on the sale, call Barbara Newton at 951-9616.

by CNB