Zesty euphorbias

For striking colour and structure in your spring borders you can’t beat the yellow, green, orange and red shades of striking euphorbias

- Camilla Phelps

EUPHORBIAS are guaranteed to add zest to borders and pots with their brilliant blooms in shades of lime-green, yellow and orange appearing in spring. Many also have evergreen leaves offering unique structure all year round, so they really do fit very easily into the must-have plant category.

Whether you’re looking for classic grey-green foliage or red and maroon shades, there is bound to be a euphorbia to suit whatever growing conditions you have in your garden.

Vast choice

With around 2,200 species, euphorbias are the second largest genus of plants in the world. They can be found growing in an extraordinary range of landscapes, from mountains to deserts to temperate forests. There are many species types and more cultivars are being bred, so there is a vast choice. There are varieties that work in sun and shade, dry soils and damp, and they vary enormously, from succulent cowboy cactus types like Euphorbia ammak through smaller and larger shrubby varieties with bottlebrush stems, to low, spreading clumps.

Many perennial euphorbias are also known as spurges or milkweed, as they share a characteristic milky-white sap that can be an irritant if it touches your skin or eyes, so when cutting always wear gloves.

While euphorbias may vary in form and leaf colour from grey-green to rich maroons, the flowers gain their intense colour from the leafy bracts around the tiny central blooms. They have the advantage of looking good for weeks even after the blooms are spent. This allows springflowering varieties to gently blend into hotter summer colours. For example, Euphorbia griffithii ‘Dixter’ works well with cooler-shaded camassias in May right through to hot kniphofias later in summer.