Garden Croton
Codiaeum variegatum
var. pictum ‘Norma’
(koh-dih-EE-um) (var-ee-GAY-tum)
This blog
is always teaching me new things. Today’s flower is surely not the prettiest or
most glamorous. You could probably even call them insignificant but I photographed
it because even after growing various Crotons at work and home for many years I
had never seen the flowers before. Codiaeum for me provides year round interest
in its crinkly, leather like colorful leaves. It all hit home when I visited a
garden in Fort Lauderdale and they had an enormous collection of many different
cultivars planted in a woodland setting. It left an impression on that clear,
bright winter afternoon.
These
types of Crotons should not be confused with the genus Croton, which is a large
group of species (700) in the spurge family (Euphorbiaceae). Codiaeum is native
to Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, Southern India and some western Pacific
Ocean Islands. It grows in open forests and scrublands. It can grow into a tall
shrub/small tree in the wild. My experience growing them in containers has been
good. Keeping them moist seems to be the key to having a nice plant. They can
be slow growing in containers but are valued for the color and texture they can
bring to the greenhouse in the winter.
October is
here. Here is a quote that sums up a little bit of what has to be done this time of year.
"Fall
is not the end of the gardening year; it is the start of next year's growing
season.
The mulch
you lay down will protect your perennial plants during the winter and feed the
soil as it decays,
while the
cleaned up flower bed will give you a huge head start on either planting seeds
or setting out small plants."
Thalassa Cruso
I would just like to say
goodbye to my friend David who was removed from life support this weekend. Mercifully
it was just a short time until he was finally at rest after the machines were
stopped. I know he wouldn’t have wanted to live like that.
“All that live must die,
passing through nature to eternity.”
William Shakespeare