My weather has turned decidedly in the wintry direction. No snow yet, but it has been chilly.
While I was out putting up Christmas lights, my neighbors came home and hollered out that their petunia growing in a pot on their covered and well-protected porch is still blooming. I yelled back, “You have green thumbs.”
One must encourage gardeners whenever and however one gets the opportunity.
In my garden, the pansies are still going in front, and in back those Christmas Roses are putting on a grand show.
Which I appreciate.
In the vegetable garden, the alyssum and snapdragons are rapidly winding down. Cold weather does unwind a flower, doesn’t it?
Indoors, I’ve already written about the Thanksgiving cactuses in bloom.
So what else is there to write about in my quest to write every day about gardening and plants?
The Crown of Thorn houseplants! Euphorbia milii. There is never a day when they are not in bloom. I will write about them!
Crown of Thorns is an easy plant to grow, as long as you don’t mind thorns and have room for a plant that can become quite large and sprawling. Mine are in my sunroom, where they get light primarily from a west window and a north window. I’ve secured them to a few stakes in the pot to keep the branches more upright than outright so they take up a little less room.
There are two plants in the pot. The more common pink-flowering variety and the less common yellow-flowering variety, which at the moment looks like a green-flowering variety.
I’ve had this yellow one for almost 12 years. Do you know how I know that? Because I wrote this post when I first saw it in the grocery store, about how I didn’t buy it when I first saw it and worried that it would be gone when I went back.
I don’t see that I ever really followed up to report “I got it” so here’s that report, a dozen years later. I got it! I still have it!
And it is always in flower, just like the pink one.
This euphorbia is indeed a prolific bloomer! It thrives outside in the summer, and will survive neglect in a 50° garage all winter (but prefers winter in my east facing bay window, where it never stops blooming). It is the very devil to repot, however! There’s a reason its common name is crown of thorns. Got my two at the grocery store also, a red and a white. Its a shame this plant is not more readily available. Thanks for writing about it.
How lovely to have a plant that is always in bloom!
How fun to have a sun room to work in during the winter months. I love that you were able to go back and grab this plant.