Freeze Kills Plants Donated to Boys’ Lodge
One thousand holiday poinsettias that were to be trucked across Woodland Hills to start new lives didn’t weather the move Wednesday.
The red-leafed potted plants had decorated the Warner Center Marriott Hotel for Christmas, and hotel officials planned to donate them afterward to the Pacific Boys Lodge.
Juvenile delinquents and wards of the court who live at the lodge had hoped to use the plants to propagate poinsettias that could be sold next year.
But a driving rainstorm delayed plans to move the plants to the lodge Tuesday afternoon. And Tuesday night’s frigid temperatures caused about 800 of the poinsettias to wither and die.
The surviving 200 plants will be kept under cover until warmer weather returns, lodge administrators said. Poinsettias that last through spring will be pruned for propagation in July, they said.
Vicky Frank, landscaping supervisor for the hotel, said she will return then to show lodge residents how to start new plants for the 1988 holiday season.
If the boys are successful, she said she may return in December to buy next year’s hotel decorations from them.
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