I'm making a new tropical garden in a different part of my yard,& I'm excited to have the winter time to plan & start some new plants. A friend has a rice paper pup waiting for me and a pot of bamboo Nigra. I've ordered a Thai Giant colocasia, which looks very exciting. I hate to ask, but does anyone have a teeny-weeny brug cutting I could have? I'll send postage, or even my eldest son (and he's cute). All I have for trade right now is white datura metel, which is very beautiful. I'm soaking the seeds to see if they are viable. In spring I will have tons of Euphorbia Chariakis Wolfenii, one of my favorite plants that grows like weeds from self-sowing.

Euphorbia is one of the largest genus of plants on the planet and includes both hardy, tropical (and/or semi-) as well as succulent/cactus species. To uniformly consider them all as toxic or with the same degree of toxicity is one of those persistent gardening myths. Hardy euphorbs - like the characias referred to in this post - are not very toxic if ingested.....in fact, you would need to eat a bushel full of the stuff to cause much harm. As with all things potentially toxic, dosage is everything! The latex or sap is caustic however, and could burn or blister your mouth or any mucus membranes it came into contact with long before any other harm would come to you. I would have NO concerns about growing this plant with small kids or pets as long as they were not inclined to rip things out of the garden. And even contact dermatitis is restricted to those who are sensitive to this effect - I grew multiple species of euphorbs for many years and never once had them raise a rash or any sort of skin irritation. Rosie, these Mediterranean species want very good drainage - excessively wet soils at any time of year will cause issue. That is no doubt why yours are looking unhappy. Since these get to be pretty hefty plants, I would recommend planting the seedlings individually, giving them plenty of room to fill in (average size for wulfenii is 4-5' by 4-5'). And you could transplant them now if you tend to stay on the drier side over winter. Otherwise I might wait until spring......or whenever your drier season is in GA :-) Just wear garden gloves when you cut these plants back and don't wipe your face - you'll be fine. No need to make a bigger production out of them than necessary :-) They could sure gum up my pruner blades but other than that, no worries!

Thanks Shilp! I'm going to plan out my planting area this weekend and see what all I need. I did just plant a 2500 sq. ft. area with a mixture of PNW wildflower seeds and I'll bring some of those to trade. Does everyone put their lists of plants to trade on their "my page" under "see my trade list"? I've looked at a few and it doesn't seem like everyone lists there. Is there someplace else to look for lists? I'm so excited to meet all of you! Most of my women friends are not into gardening and I've been longing to share my love of gardening with others who have the same passion. Thanks! Judy

phyllostachys bamboo. If you are in or near the Eugene OR area, you can have all the clumps or rhyzomes you want. Warning: the euphorbia will spread throughout the garden and yard if not deadheaded, but is easy to pull up; the petasites are invasive and need to be kept in a container or they will send roots throughout the yard; and the bamboo is a slow running type. The euphorbia will grow to 4 to 5 ft and is a wonderful speciman plant. The petasites have huge tropical-looking leaves and strange spring flowers; it is eaten in Japan and called Japanese butterburr.. The bamboo, which I will be digging soon, makes a lovely, tall, hardy screen with fairly large culms. I planted it 9 years ago and it just recently began to spread, so I'm cleaning it up and putting in barriers. I purchased the bamboo from a local specialty bamboo grower, but I misplaced the species name. It isn't the ordinary skinny rampant bamboo you often see. I'm not asking anything in trade, but if you have something to share I will gladly take it.