Want big drama in your garden without the 'Diva' maintenance issues, what could be better?  I have found a reliable stunner with the Euphorbia characias ssp. wufenii, a Mediterrenean beauty. She has found a home in my garden and has been a reliable performer.  Now that we are into our early spring the very large chartreuse bracts are showing beautifully, the show will continue through June. Later I will either trim the spent blooms in early summer or leave them to dry and cut later to add to a dried flower arrangement or wreath.

Euphorbia, aka spurge, is a very large group of plants including annuals, perennials, shrubs, trees, and a few weeds.  All have gray green to silvery leaves symmetrically and densely arranged on stems which produce clustered yellow to greenish yellow flowers.  They tolerate a number of abuses including summer drought, heat, poor soil and my cultivar is hardy to 10 degrees. Just make sure you give reasonable drainage.

I saw a beautiful variegated cultivar this past weekend which didn’t show up in my Google search, but I did find ‘Glacier Blue’, ‘Ascot Rainbow’ and ‘Tasmanian Tiger’-which will go on my dance card for this year.