Use this forum to help with identification issues and to show off your beautiful plants, one species, subspecies, and cultivar at a time.
Forum rules
This section is dedicated toward maintaining one active thread for each succulent Euphorbiaceae species/subspecies/variety/cultivar. Please feel free to add information and/or photos to existing threads or start your own by adding Genus/species as the thread subject. Note that listings are displayed alphabetically. Enjoy!
That's good to know, Geoff, about the cold hardiness. Another succulent enthusiast here in the Los Angeles area gave me a potted little specimen, and I was wondering where on my property I should plant it. Most of our winters at my location here in the IE have nights as low as 28 degrees, and rarely lower. I must have missed seeing the Huntington Botanical Gardens specimens when I was there recently (my wife and I just joined as members). If E. balsamifera lives there, it can live at my place about 31 miles east of there.
bigdaddyscondition wrote:That's good to know, Geoff, about the cold hardiness. Another succulent enthusiast here in the Los Angeles area gave me a potted little specimen, and I was wondering where on my property I should plant it. Most of our winters at my location here in the IE have nights as low as 28 degrees, and rarely lower. I must have missed seeing the Huntington Botanical Gardens specimens when I was there recently (my wife and I just joined as members). If E. balsamifera lives there, it can live at my place about 31 miles east of there.
EZ grow for you. Fast too. I had one up here in the bay area. Gave it away...should have kept it.
It is a coastal species with no other large vegetation around - full sun from dawn to dusk in habitat. Happy with wind. Summer dormant - drops most of its leaves when dry.
Paul S wrote:It is a coastal species with no other large vegetation around - full sun from dawn to dusk in habitat. Happy with wind. Summer dormant - drops most of its leaves when dry.
So...this is the way E. balsamifera looks after a hot, dry spell in late summer in southern California? Maybe I just need a little handholding, but I sure don't want to lose this specimen.
Paul S wrote: Edit - have to say the leaves don't look right for balsmifera. Any pics of the plant in happier times?
This photo was taken April 4 of this year, maybe a week or so after I transplanted it from a pot. The leaf shape on my plant is different from some of the photos in this thread and others online. The habitat of this species includes land masses separated by oceans, so I suspect maybe there's some variation among different cultivars, i.e. Canary Islands, Arabian peninsula, Chad, etc.
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Well, we had a pretty dry winter here in the Inland Empire. My Euphorbia balsamifera has only declined, ever so gradually (see pics). I've tried watering it, not watering it, sparingly applied 20-9-9 fertilizer, talking to it...no visible results.
This plant has never really looked like the specimens shown in the gallery here by Geoff. They are all in Huntington Botanical Gardens, Geoff says, and my yard where this specimen lives is about 31 miles due east of there, at a slightly higher elevation. My plant (see original photo above) started out growing vigorously, but never developing abundant foliage, and then it just stopped. I'm beginning to think my plant has some genetic problem or other problem it had from the beginning. Any suggestions for life support before I remove the plant and start over with a new specimen?
I just got some feedback from the friend who gave me this plant. He has traveled widely and is familiar with this plant's habitat. He showed me his photos of specimens in the Canary Islands at near-sea level, including just feet away from the high tide line. His opinion is that this maritime-adapted plant is not suitable for my microclimate.
I'm thinking of replacing it with a nursery-purchased specimen. If that one fails too, I'll know it's a lost cause.