Put on a blooming good display
Even the botanical name, Euphorbia, is dismissive and off-putting, yet a variety or two of this much maligned plant has been the most distinguished foliage item in my garden since late November.
During the December and January, the variety “Silver Swan” (and the larger E wulfenii characias in a nearby garden) proved outstanding in their colouring, architectural stance, and unflinching posture in the face of winds, biting cold and driving rain. But then the Euphorbias have always been some of the toughest, most distinguished of foliage plants, and collecting them has long been a fashionable pursuit among those who like to grow hardy border plants.
The largest Euphorbia in general cultivation is E wulfenii, which, if persuaded to grow upright, will reach almost six feet. Its leaves are long, narrow, and sea-green in colour, arranged in whorls on the stems like those bristly brushes used to clean chimneys. The flower-heads are equally attractive: large domes of fresh lime-green in an intricate design not unlike large clumps of frog spawn. It may be too tall for today’s smaller garden and if so a better choice would be E wulfenii characias.
It is similar in all respects yet less vigorous in reaching upwards.
Euphorbia characias will rise to about a metre or a little more (depending on whether it is grown in sun or shade) but it does have the strangest of ways. In its first year, the stems will be short and leafy, the following year these rise to the top, and the year after that they perish but leave children behind to take the place of the parents.
Over the next few weeks these young plants (which are crosier-like and resting at the moment) will uncur, and by mid-spring will be capped with a magnificent plume of greenish-yellow flowers with blackish, brown or golden eyes.
The display is highlighted by the bracts and it goes on for week after week, like those of a faded hydrangea. In time, the flowers give way to seed pods which on a hot day, ‘cook’ slowly before bursting unseen.
Later, you will find the single plant you began with has provided many more to scatter at intervals through bed and border. Here, they will furnish the place in winter, give a superb show of bloom in spring, and act as a foil for later plants through summer and autumn.
Be aware that all euphorbias contain a white juice known as latex which can cause painful inflammation when it comes into contact with skin and is then exposed to sunlight. Naturally, sensitive skin is most at risk.
A safe and simple rule is to wash off any juice that gets on your hands and on no account get it near to your eyes. The latex will bleed only when the stems are cut or broken. One of the benefits of the white sap is that it deters sucking insects.
Occasionally, the tip of some shoots may be attached by greenfly but how you deal with this is a political decision; you can turn to chemicals or use the old-fashioned remedy of soapy water.
