The Spring green we love so much is showing up all over the place, but one of our favorite bearers of the color is euphorbia. The plant, with its little green "alien eye"-looking flowers, seems to be everywhere this time of year...
Euphorbia in Bloom
If you're lucky enough to have an outdoor space to garden, we've found that euphorbia look especially bright and inviting at the entrance of a home. There are many different species of plant to the genus, but the most common here in the Pacific Northwest seems to be euphorbia characias, ssp wolfenii, or Mediterranean Spurge. The vibrant chartreuse flowers will bloom from late Winter through mid-Fall, giving you plenty of time to enjoy them. One word of advice, though - when cut, the milky sap of the plant is an irritant and can be toxic to smaller creatures (think bunnies, gophers, etc), so handle with care. We want to know if anyone has tried growing these in containers. If so, what was your experience?
Images: at top, petrichor; above, cramsay23 via Flickr's Creative Commons.
Comments (11)
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I actually just bought one of these last week to grow in a pot inside. It seems to be doing well so far, but we'll see how it does in the long run.
view Sassyladie's profile
Sure that's not an Audrey II?
view dnice's profile
So that's what those things are called...
view bepsf's profile
They are wonderful, especially in spring flower arrangements. Careful though, they are very poisonous, the milky liquid that seeps from broken and cut stems has been linked to freak incidences of permanent blindness.
view redesign's profile
I grow many species of euphorbia, and I often cut the plants without 'protection'. Neither me nor my dog have been blinded or sickened -- nor even had skin irritation.
The one pictured is sp. wulfenii, I think.
view tenderleaf's profile
I wouldn't necessarily use these in an indoor arrangement. Some species have an odor that's described as "coffee" or "cat piss" depending on who you ask...
view FiatLex's profile
my roommate and i have one of these that we've had in a pot for at least a year and a half and it's done well ever since we got it. never knew what it was though until this post.
view jrkoppelman's profile
I see these around and a couple of apartment buildings near mine grow them in their front landscaping areas.
view ciddyguy's profile
I love this plant! But be careful, it spreads like wildfire. My husband and I call it the "argument plant" because we had a huge argument over my wanting to buy it for our garden. He said it wouldn't look right, and said I disagreed. He later bought a couple of the plants, put it in our Oakland Hills garden, and the following year, starts were sprouting up everywhere.
We moved last year to socal, and brought along a couple of our potted plants (gerbera daisy, large philodendren) and guess what? We have sprouts in them as well!
We can't get away from it!
view rachelrachel's profile
I think that is a Pride of Madeira
view aprilfoolsf's profile
These are thriving in containers on my balcony. It's the only plant that lived through our colder and snowier than usual winter this year here in Vancouver. I'm south-facing, so it gets a lot of light, but this winter there was not much light at all anywhere and it's still doing great.
view petethecat's profile