Euphorbia pugniformis ready for winter

It is getting to that time of year when the plants have to be packed up and moved to winter locations.  Ii is a good opportunity for a clean up and quick health check.

One of the plants that always stands out is the euphorbia pugniformis, one of the medusa forms.

They are surprisingly quick growth wise, at least in growing out, the trunk is much much slower to form. While interesting form the top, the best view is form the side where you can see the trunk.

I must admit to trimming it, which many people will think is a cardinal sin. When each branch (what do you call them?) grows beyond a certain length they hang down obscuring the trunk. It also gives the plant a more messy look.  So I trim the lower set fairly close to the trunk, a few weeks later the remaining bit has dried off and can be removed to give a nice clean trunk. It is a shame they are so hard to root, otherwise I would have lots of them by now. 

I have never really thought about hardiness, it's far to good a plant to be risked anywhere but inside over-winter.  It will be brought in in the next week or so and placed somewhere it can be admired.

Beheading the medusa

One of my recent purchases was this euphorbia pugniformis

Also known as a medusa euphorbia for obvious reasons. You probably know by now that I can't help but try to propagate my plants, the more difficult it is suppose to be, the more I want to try it.  This is one of the euphorbias that wont come true form simple cuttings. Apparently if you cut a branch off and get it to root, the branch just keep growing and never splits.

So how to increase your stock?  It is far to nice to top cut, I am not that brave.  A bit of research online suggests there may be one sneaky method that works.  It is a two step process, with stage one being to root one of the branches.   Once rooted you cut the the top off just above the roots.  You have effectively carried out a top cut and this should (fingers crossed) force the offsets you want.  So I have take a few branches to try rooting them in different ways.

 

Now I just need to be patient, not one of my strong points. The good news is that if it works,  you can start again with the top of the branch, re-rooting it for a second attempt.