Monday, March 30, 2009

Euphorbia, Euphorbia, Euphorbia

This is the start of the blooming season for many euphorbias.
They have a vary large family including perhaps the best know euphorbia, Poinsettia.
The 'flower' is actually cup shaped brackets around a very small flower. I grow a number of them in my gardens because they are very easy to grow in this climate, requiring little water. They also add some interest and variety to the flower beds. They are sometimes called 'gopher spurge' because they are thought to discourage those tunneling pests and I must say, I have never had any gophers. Now all I need to do is find a plant called 'vole spurge'!

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Very nice flower indeed! I have euphorbia tirucalli, I will talk about it in a future post on my blog. Of course, add some pictures.

Unknown said...

Never heard of this plant, I love it!

Lona said...

The variegated euphorbia is gorgeous!

Stephanie said...

The flowers are very unique and beautiful! I have not seen these blooms before.

EB said...

I adore euphorbias, I have tried with them repeatedly, but they hate my heavy clay! I killed some in a pot too - I suspect they were too dry. I think I'll concentrate on other things until we are in other soil.

Jan said...

Your euphorbia is so lovely. I need to look into this, but not sure whether it would do well in my garden. I can do a bit of research on that. Thanks so much for sharing your photos; each plant is gorgeous in and of itself! I love the look of the little flower inside the 'cup'. You have a beautiful blog;-)

Frances said...

Hi Sheila, those are gorgeous. We have some here too, but not the same ones as you have. Is that Tasmanian Tiger, the variegated one? I love it. I didn't know about the gopher thing and was thinking immediately about voles too. They are a huge problem here and nothing seems to work
Frances

Sheila said...

Francis, yes, that is Tasmanian Tiger! I love it too!

Anonymous said...

This is another good thing I learned from you today. I grow some of the euphorbias but not enough if they discourage gophers and other tunneling pest.