Classic Gardening Magazine
Gardening as it ought to be
Happiness is a state of Euphorbia
Actually
I nicked that headline. I really should credit it to some jolly Dutch
chaps who have set up a website dedicated to the euphorbia. It's their
motto.
But they are right. Why, even spellcheck wants to change the word to euphoria. Euphorbias come in all shapes and sizes, and Euphorbiaceae is one of the largest families in the plant world. Their common name is spurge, and the family includes around 300 genera and 7,500 species, 870 of them succulent.
The ones I'm talking about are the range of perennials, some evergreen, some deciduous. Not the desert-dwellers you'll find here, and here, although they are very nice too, if you happen to have a spot of desert to brighten.
Because of the range of sizes, you can thread a euphorbia theme through a border. You might have schillingii at the back, a couple of characias wulfenii dotted midway and some tumbling myrsinites at the front.
Euphorbia have strong architectural forms and sprays of little saucer-like flowers that range in colour from almost white through pale green to an acid yellow or even red. There is even one called fireglow that is salmon pink.
Actually
I nicked that headline. I really should credit it to some jolly Dutch
chaps who have set up a website dedicated to the euphorbia. It's their
motto.But they are right. Why, even spellcheck wants to change the word to euphoria. Euphorbias come in all shapes and sizes, and Euphorbiaceae is one of the largest families in the plant world. Their common name is spurge, and the family includes around 300 genera and 7,500 species, 870 of them succulent.
The ones I'm talking about are the range of perennials, some evergreen, some deciduous. Not the desert-dwellers you'll find here, and here, although they are very nice too, if you happen to have a spot of desert to brighten.
Because of the range of sizes, you can thread a euphorbia theme through a border. You might have schillingii at the back, a couple of characias wulfenii dotted midway and some tumbling myrsinites at the front.
Euphorbia have strong architectural forms and sprays of little saucer-like flowers that range in colour from almost white through pale green to an acid yellow or even red. There is even one called fireglow that is salmon pink.
