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 If you like the colour orange, and why not with a slatey blue as its foil, then you will appreciate the charms, although perhaps not its vigourous nature, of Euphorbia griffithii. It is not the alarming orange of the marigold, but a burnt bricky orange. The variety 'Fireglow' has more tomato in its colour. Another, called 'Dixter', even has stems that have that tomatoish glow. The plant stands three feet high, the stems looking similar to the euphorbias described earlier. But this one likes to run, so must be kept in its bouds with a spade when it dies down in the autumn, It will even run out into the lawn without being annually tethered. In spring, it looks for all the world like a red and green spangled snake emerging from its winter sleep in slow motion. |
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 The largest euphorbia our climate will allow is Euphorbia mellifera which, in its native islands of the Canaries, can grow to a height of 50 feet. It rarely reaches more than twelve to fifteen in Britain. It has strange, fascinating mops of rusted flowers, intensley attractive to bees, which appropriately smell of wild honey. It loves the sun and poor soil and is quite forgiving of the hacker-back's spade.
At the other end of the scale is the delicately elegant purple leaved Euphorbia amygdaloides Purpurea'. Its leaves surround the needle thin stems with a charming grace. The flowers are a bright lime green that make the mouth water. |
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All Euphorbias exude a milky white sap which can be a skin irritant
and should not be ingested. |
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