Euphorbia Ascot Rainbow | Perennial Pastimes

Tag Archives: Euphorbia Ascot Rainbow

Euphorbia: A Chameleon in the Garden

This winter most of my perennials died back, conserving resources in order to make a reappearance in warmer weather. One notable exception was Euphorbia “Ascot Rainbow,” a stoic plant that carried on through frosts, snow, and months of reduced sunlight. It did so by undergoing a transformation of sorts — turning from a mostly yellow and green plant in the summer, to being a much pinker plant in the winter. The colder it got, the darker the Euphorbia became–especially in the cold depths of March when it was a very dusky, reddish rose. And then, after just a few days of glorious sun and high temperatures (after we jumped straight from winter to summer with no spring in between), it rapidly became quite yellow again. These photos are all from the same plant during the past four months.

December January

February April

Tags: Euphorbia, Euphorbia Ascot Rainbow, pink green yellow variegated foliage, spurge

Comments Leave a Comment
Categories Gardening

Last Few Spots of Color

1 Dec

The garden is looking quite sad now, after a few frosts. What remains is for the most part bare, brown, drooped, or shriveled–all of which would be quite depressing if not for the fact that after every autumn/winter comes the spring. For gardens, at least, the current state of affairs is not permanent.

But amid the early December bleakness, a few spots of color remain–a small selection of plants that are not quite ready to call it quits (plus one bud that looked particularly nice this morning–the last bit of interest on an otherwise denuded plant).

In order of appearance (from left to right, top to bottom) : Gaillardia (Fanfare), Montauk Daisy, Variegated Sage (Tricolor) , Euphorbia (Ascot Rainbow), and a bud from a tree Azalea (Gibraltar).

Tags: Azalea Gibraltar, Euphorbia Ascot Rainbow, Gaillardia Fanfare, Montauk Daisy, Sage Tricolor, Salvia Tricolor, spurge, winter

Comments 2 Comments
Categories Gardening

High Five

3 Sep

While the asters usher in autumn, I thought I’d take a moment to give a shout out to a few plants that have kept going, and going, and going–and are still going; the ones that have added color to my garden for three or more months. It was tough, but I chose the following five to honor this time around:

1. Euphorbia (Ascot Rainbow)–with its gorgeous foliage and bubble-like flowers, it has been putting on a show since late March. This photo looks straight down into the middle of the plant.