Hi! I grow COT also. I would loved to know how you got seeds! I've never really heard of anyone growing them from seed, sorry! Can you explain how you hand pollinated them??

TIA

Hi Tia. I am afraid I can't really help you with that since insects and bees must have done the pollination for me, so I found the seed pots ready. I haven't taken pictures but in this webpage it shows how they looked.

http://www.tropicanursery.com/euphorbia/seeds.htm

From what I read here though, (http://home-gardening-easy.blogspot.com/2012/07/how-to-hand-pollinate-euphorbia-milii.html) it's not too difficult to hand pollinate them. The problem for me is that nothing grows from the seed I got :)

eliana

While i'm not absolutely certain, but you must have two different plants to produce potential viable seeds. Just because the ovary swells and "looks" like it has seed, they may be sterile seed. Next, you have to let the pods open (explode) while still on the plant to make sure they have matured. then plant ASAP as Euphorbia seed have a short shelf life. Then warmth is important.

Hi bikerdoc5968.
I have read somewhere that euphorbias' flowers are female at the beginning and turn to male later on. I am no expert so I don't really know if this is true. I hope it is though, because I only have one plant and I have really put my mind in succeeding to germinate its seeds. Today I have manage to collect a seed that came from a flower that is still attached to the plant. Does it look ok to you?

In the plant world flowers can be complete or monecious or incomplete or dioecious. A complete flower has both male and female reproductive structures on the same flower, while incomplete flowers have separate reproductive parts. A complete flower may be self pollinating or require pollen from another plant to produce fertile seed. The seed pictured may be viable. Plant it and see what happens. Because the seeds are small, don't plant it too deep; about the twice the diameter of the seed. Remember, wait to collect seed only from pods that have opened. For Euphorbia, I cover them with gauze or some kind of netting to capture them.

@bikerdoc5968

Thanks for the information and the advice. I have planted the seed. Fingers crossed!!!

I have never tried to pollinate or collect the seed from my E. milli. It grows in my side garden area - in spite of hubby whacking it down to the ground and trying to get all the roots. It's a survivor!

Today I was pulling weeds in the area and got poked by a couple of them. They were E. milli seedlings. I don't know if the ants, honey bees, leaf cutter bees, green orchard (?) bees or wasps did the pollination, but I was surprised. They are about a foot to 18 inches from the mature plant.

I found your thread when trying to look up seed pods on these plants. Eliana - have you had any progress with yours?

I've still never seen the seeds, but I did try to see if there are any seed pods on the plant. I think I have a picture that isn't too blurry.

This milli has the very small flowers. It's not special. Everyone in the neighborhood has them, so I really don't know if they were cross-pollinated with another plant.

I would venture to say these are open pollinated by insects. So you may have flowers of various colors.

It will be interesting! I'm going to let these little guys grow bigger before I try to move or pot them.

Hi Crenda. Your seedlings look really cute :) Unfortunately I didn't have any luck with my seeds. I am gonna try again this summer though. This time I have 5 different plants so I hope things are going to be better. The seed pods are in the middle of the flowers. They get bigger day by day until they burst out. I've noticed them on my plant last August and then the plant stopped producing them. I hope it will start again producing them again this summer.

After a lot of unsuccessful efforts I finally got a seed sprouted! :))

Hi. I now have 7 seedlings of this plant. Has anyone try to reproduce this from seeds? Can I have some advice on the subject?

I have some updates on my seedlings. They are now 3 months old, I have lost one of them and I know have five. Some are more robust than the others. I hope they will survive the winter that is coming. Of course the weather now is still quite hot, so at the moment they are staying outside. When it gets colder I will move them inside.

This post was edited by eliana_s on Wed, Oct 1, 14 at 4:45

Theese 2 don't show much of a progress

Hi Eliana. It's 2016 I'm Google info how to seed crown of thorns seeds since I purchased some online.

how are your seedings doing??

and what tips can you offer me?

thank you!