Horticulture student Oonah Stringer is surrounded by just some of the 2,500 Christmas Poinsettias which CAFRE produce at the Greenmount campus every year. Indigenous to Mexico and Central America, there are some eight million sold across the UK every Christmas and approximately 12,000 plants are locally produced in Northern Ireland.
At CAFRE’s Horticulture Centre they have been growing the plants for many years, providing students with experience of intensive crop production under glass.
Oonah, who is studying part-time for her Foundation Degree (FdSc) in Horticulture, has been collecting data on the seven varieties they grow at the Antrim campus which have different bract leaf colours and shapes.
The plants are marketed locally and some are sold by students to raise fund for their study tours.
You can learn more about CAFRE’s courses at www.cafre.ac.uk
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