Euphorbia

I have to state at the outset that I am not a natural gardener: My wife is a keen gardener and my son has green fingers. I, however, while not being a contender to present on "Gardening Australia" do get roped into various gardening enterprises and have a mild interest in cactus and succulents, although nothing obsessive (unlike some other interests).

A few years ago, can't really remember how long, but around eight years, I bought a plant at a nearby agricultural show in Allora. The lady I purchased it from was really helpful and advised me to put stakes around the plant when I first planted it as it had a tendency to fall over as it grew in size. If I put the stakes in early I would not risk sending them through the roots. It was a tiny little thing when I bought it and quite cute with it unusual leaves and stem.

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The four stakes at about 400mm high were more than twice the height of the plant. After about four or maybe five years it became apparent that I had seriously underestimated the size to which this plant would grow and I hammed into the ground two more stakes of 75 x 50 hardwood and bound the plant with a piece of cloth to keep it together.

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This worked quite well for a few more years until a month ago it suddenly topped over and would have been on the ground if it were not for an old fence that supported it.
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There were a few discussions as to what we might do and in the end settled for a frame. It was constructed from scrap metal and scrap timber. The frame was made so four spikes located in the corners could be hammered into the ground. All thoughts of sparing the root system had been discarded by this stage. The timber was screwed to the angle iron uprights. The frame was assembled and then dismantled for painting.

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The metal base was hammered into the ground first and then the timber work put into place.Like most of my projects, the frame is more functional than aesthetic. The idea is that the plant will mainly grow up through the structure, but some stems will be allowed to come out through the structure and both break up the harsh lines and disguise it. The colour was chosen for two reasons: Firstly it was similar to the colour of the leaves, which at times have a red tip and secondly (mainly) it was what we had. :rolleyes:

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If the frame works as I hope, I will eventually remove the old stakes as they will probably no longer serve a useful purpose.

The plant I believe is a Euphorbia Trigona and is sometimes known as an African Milk Tree. It emanates, funnily enough, from West Africa. The name "milk" is because when damaged it produces a white milky sap that is both poisonous and a skin irritant. Consequently it is best admired from a healthy distance.

Regards
Paul

One extra thing to consider, if you get the sap in your eyes it can cause permanent blindness, so be very careful.
Rgds,
Crocy.

Thanks Crocky.

Looks like we will have to extend the social distancing to selected plants too.

Regards
Paul

Paul, sadly the big green shed and lots of people on FB Marketplace sell Euphorbia's without any warning as to the danger of the sap. I have been a Cacti/Succulent grower for 55 years and have seen a lot of documented cases of eye damage.
Keep safe old mate,
Rgds,
Crocy.

I went searching through my threads for another item and in doing so turned up this one. The Euphorbia has grown quite a bit in the last three years!

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In fact there looks to be a new growth spurt at the very top again. The second pic below shows the plant attempting to grow sideways a little, but mostly it seems content to shoot for the sky. Currently it is about 3.3m high. I say about because I have a healthy respect for it's less desirable characteristics as outlined by Crocky and stand back a little to admire.

Regards
Paul