Euphorbia Species, African Candelabra

This plant is awesome. We have the variegated version & I just love this beautiful plant. It's about three years old & a couple feet tall...Read More now & needs a bigger pot. I bring it inside on the cold winter nights we can get here in Central Florida. Would like to try putting it in the ground next year near the foundation wall, as we will have to cover it & heat it during those extra cold winter nights. Sometimes I wish we lived further south.

About three years ago, I found some of these at the local Wally World for $5 each, BEAUTIFUL and HUGE specimems about 3 1/2 feet tall a...Read Morend 3-4 inch in diabeter steams, Healthy with the beginnings of branching out on the tops and starting to get some little leaves.

I gave three of them away, one to a friend who originally was from
Beirut Lebanon. I told him it was for his wife who loves plants. He was thrilled to receive it and told me that in the middle East this plant is considered to be very lucky to have in ones' home or garden!

It is true that is is carried at nearly every Target, which is where I purchased mine. It is the variegated version - which has sort of ...Read Morea blue-green appearance. I have some reservations about planting it, after having read about its poisonous propensities, especially with an inquisitive dog and young grandchildren. I went to several Target stores looking for a second one, thinking I wanted a pair, but the two others I found had a brown mold-like appearance at the base of one of the "legs". A photo is attached. I think I will use it as a specimen plant in a tall pot, instead of putting it in the ground.

This is a striking Euphorbia of massive stature from Yemen (N Africa). The most commonly cultivated coloration of this species is a pale...Read More yellow, but the 'natural' color is deep green (yellow plants should be uploaded to the variegated form of this plant). It resembles Euphorbia ingens but has deeper ridges and a bit more angular in its twists and turns. It branches but not profusely. In the right climate, it will produce simple lancelote leaves near the top of each branch (usually if wet and warm at the same time, an unusual combination in So Cal). These leaves are much larger and more prominent in this green form than in the variegated/yellow forms. It is easy to propogate- just take a cutting of the plant and stuff it in the ground (preferably dry, loose, extrememly well draining soil). That is how they are always sold at home gardening centers (not yet rooted).