Euphorbia amygdaloides purpurea is one that I have that is evergreen or ever purple
The older winter leaves are a bit duller, but still maintain a presence and it looks lovely in spring with new leaves and lime green flowers. Not too tall, mine grows in dappled shade in my 'stumpery', with ferns and other small treasures.
A euphorbia that likes shade! This one's perfect for my shady east-facing bed, a purple foil to the greens of my ferns, gunnera and hostas. Thanks!
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@carletonexotic I came across your question because I have 3 Euphorbia plants and I wonder how to go on with them. Thanks to the @TheGreenMan picture, I realised the difference.
I've got a Euphorbia margalidiana, evergreen, looks marvellous in winter and is a good source for food in February and March. Early bees loved it. It started as a little plant and is now 1.50m in height and around 2 meters in width. Stunning.
The second one is an Euphorbia characias wulfenii, also evergreen, but smaller in size, 90x90 max says the internet. Unfortunately, one of the two February storms broke a huge chunk, the best part. It now grows slowly back.
The question is how to deal with flowers and when to prune. I checked the GW and RHS advise, and both say that Euphorbia margalidiana needs to be pruned to ground level. That can't be right, because my stems have no ground level. Every new sideshoot comes from the main stem. In my picture, you can see that the flower heads are coming from the tip of the step. In November or so (when it was ready), I cut each single thin flower stem (in red) but didn't touch the shoot stem.
@TheGreenMan's picture is from a type of Euphorbia characias wulfenii. Don't call me an expert, but looking at the flowers, the flowers continue the actual stem, and this type of Euphorbia needs to be pruned (just the stems with flowers) to the ground in the second year to make place for new stems.
The third Euphorbia I have got is a pot plant and doesn't grow bigger than a half a meter max. Also here are the flowers part of the stem, and turn wonderful red looking when their time is up. I also cut them down to give way for new stems.
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I've got a Euphorbia margalidiana, evergreen, looks marvellous in winter and is a good source for food in February and March. Early bees loved it.
It started as a little plant and is now 1.50m in height and around 2 meters in width. Stunning.
The second one is an Euphorbia characias wulfenii, also evergreen, but smaller in size, 90x90 max says the internet. Unfortunately, one of the two February storms broke a huge chunk, the best part. It now grows slowly back.
The question is how to deal with flowers and when to prune. I checked the GW and RHS advise, and both say that Euphorbia margalidiana needs to be pruned to ground level.
That can't be right, because my stems have no ground level. Every new sideshoot comes from the main stem. In my picture, you can see that the flower heads are coming from the tip of the step. In November or so (when it was ready), I cut each single thin flower stem (in red) but didn't touch the shoot stem.
@TheGreenMan's picture is from a type of Euphorbia characias wulfenii.
Don't call me an expert, but looking at the flowers, the flowers continue the actual stem, and this type of Euphorbia needs to be pruned (just the stems with flowers) to the ground in the second year to make place for new stems.
The third Euphorbia I have got is a pot plant and doesn't grow bigger than a half a meter max. Also here are the flowers part of the stem, and turn wonderful red looking when their time is up. I also cut them down to give way for new stems.
I hope it makes sense.
I ♥ my garden.