Green Flowers

Looks like the season for green flowers. It seems like a lot of the caudiciform plants are not really showy in their flowers--But I'm having fun with them anyway!

First Drimea maculata

Whole plant--

Ornithogalum caudatum--Pregnant Onion

Pregnant Onion caudex

Euphorbia flanaganii--Medusa's Head. Kind of yellow-green but close anyway!

Bill

The last one... On what planet did you find it, Bill?;-)

Showy flowers are not that important to me as a collector of caudiciforms. But I can't complain if they have.;-)

Best regards,

Martin

Hi Martin,

I found it at a Wal Mart so maybe it is a little off-planet!. It was covered with powdery mildew that I cleaned up with neem oil. It came out kind of ugly so I divided it up. Here is one of the clones, a year later, that shows its caudiciform nature a little better.

I agree--The flowers are a nice addition but I grow them for their unique shapes.

Thanks for your post.

Bill

Bill, hope you don't mind me reactivating this nice thread. First, thanks for the neem oil suggestion for powdery mildew, I had a bit on a few arms of my Euphorbia flanaganii and it worked well.

Second, I note that all of the "arms" on your E. flanaganii are healthy, green, and lovely. On one of mine, as healthy new arms are being produced from the top, older arms on the very bottom tier become brown and drop off. I'm wondering if this is a normal process (new ones being replaced by old) or if it means my plant would like even more moisture than I'm already providing (in my hot little greenhouse.)

I know your growing conditions are kinder than mine, but do you have any guesses? Mine looks very happy otherwise ...even a few blooms in the center. Does yours ever drop off older arms, or does it always maintain such a healthy mane of...um...limbs? Thanks!
Sheri

Hi Sheri,

I guess my pics are somewhat misleading as I plucked the dried brown arms from the bottom of the plants before I took them. That appears to be the way the plant develops its caudiciform body. One thing I found (by having mine in an almost inaccessible spot in my overcrowded GH) is that my healthiest ones received virtually no water through the winter and only got moved to the front once new growth appeared this spring. I still am very sparing of the water. That said, my Euphorbias seem to generally use more water than the cacti

BTW--My E. knuthi is budding and as soon as it pops I will add it to this thread.

I think I wish I had more of your sun. My home is in the shadow of a mountain and I get no sun for 2 months each winter and very little for several more months so I have to be very careful of the water. RIP one Adenium, an Avonia and a Mammilaria this winter!

Bill

Oh good, I was hoping you'd say that about the brown arms!

I am slowly learning that my Euphorbias will take up a surprising amount of water in the heat here, more than the cacti, as you said. I have also learned that some of them do NOT appreciate all my sun, although others are fine. My E. decaryi got very upset and turned an alarming brown color, so that one is now under the bench and much happier. I need to build more shelves under the benches for those who are not sun lovers, and I'm still thinking about buying a new higher density shadecloth.

Sorry about the RIP crew...I did not lose any to rot (hard to do here) but I have an ER section under the benches with spider mite victims. I knew spider mites did well in hot dry places, but I just read they also are encouraged by dusty conditions. Uh oh.

Looking forward to your E. knuthii photos!

Nice pics! I used to have E. flanaganii, and lost it do to it getting frozen, left it on the glassed in back porch during Chistmas away.

I always was amazed how easy it was to grow and flower. Just a little water, and it was happy.

Thanks AnalogDog. It is pretty forgiving although it is the only plant I have that seems susceptible to powdery mildew. A little neem oil takes care of that.

Bill