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Re: Euphorbia mellifera/other species

Sean,

Following your comments

Many people in this area have great interest in Euphorbias, creating
collections of of various obsure species (which are not necessarily
climate appropriate!).  With so many hundreds of species to choose
from, I find it a bit daunting to figure out which might do well
when grown Mediterranean.

I think that you do not have to look far. There are many euphorbia species
from western Cape Province, South Africa where the climate can be said to
be "mediterranean" (rain in winter, sun in summer and lack of continuous
freezing temperatures). These plants do very well in Southern California
and, I feel sure, many of them would do well in your area as long as they
get fast draining soil.

Many of the succulent euphorbias grown are indeed not from mediterranean
areas and some of these do alright when not given summer water. However,
many do not do well. Until I found out which ones, I started to kill quite
a few. Here I am talking about euphorbias planted in the ground and not
container-grown plants which are another matter.

The Huntingdon in Los Angeles grows a fair number of euphorbias in its
gardens. Some of these are not from mediterranean areas and are watered in
summer. But there are others, mostly from southwest and northwest Africa
(including the islands off north Africa) do not need summer water. In Santa
Barbara and San Diego there are several public gardens that grow them and
more private ones. In the Bay Area I don't know if Bancroft grows them.
Despite all that, most people just treat them as container plants and not
as members of a real garden. I think many more of them could and should be
grown throughout mediterranean areas of the world as garden plants and not
just as stand-alones or stuck in a pot. Their shapes, from the ground
huggers to the twenty footers, make them dramatic features in courtyards,
near paving and among rocks. They require little attention, put up with
tremendous heat and are incredibly drought resistant.

In short, I'm with you on seeing them used more as garden plants

Andrew
San Diego, California
awilson@fda.net
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