Cultivation

Succulent euphorbias grow in many different habitats, some with extreme conditions, and any attempt to copy these in cultivation are doomed to failure.

To understand how it is possible to grow plants from different localities together in the same conditions, you need to bear in mind that plants do not choose where they grow. On many occasions plants exist in a locality because other competing plants cannot grow there. No plants would choose to germinate, grow and produce seed in a gap between rocks where there is hardly any soil, when a rich, well-drained area of deep soil is available nearby. In habitat, we find plants in areas where they have managed to survive; for sure many others will have germinated in unfavourable conditions, and rotted, or been stifled by competing fast-growing vegetation.

In cultivation plants are protected from competition and so can be grown in conditions that have little to do with their natural habitat. This has the big advantage that we do not need to treat each species in a different way with regard to soil, water and feeding, but simply observe some basic requirements which suit the majority.

text: Volker Buddensiek, translation: Alan Butler, photos: Frank Vincentz