I have had some of my E. trigona get red-brown patches in the center of whatever side was facing the sun, and I moved them to lower light, and the browning stopped. I never established to my satisfaction that there was necessarily a cause-and-effect relationship between the two things, but it seems pretty suggestive. The brown spots never turned back to green, but on the other hand they didn't continue to expand, and they never got soft or anything either. So it's at least probably not a disease. If it's gone brown over a large area, you may want to cut off the brown, for cosmetic reasons.

Hi Toni, I have all my gardenias previously planted in pots in plain loamy garden soil (rich black soil) with lots of earthworms and humus (decaying matter). They were very happy and green until I transferred them to the ground. Our local topsoil is actually contaminated with construction debris particularly concrete fragments, making our topsoil extremely basic. After transplanting to the ground, majority of my gardenias rapidly became chlorotic. However, I just let them be because there is nothing I can do about the soil. The contamination and leaching of lime to the topsoil is extensive. Despite the 'bad soil', my gardenias are still growing happily and they still bloom for me despite the chlorosis. They have grown from 1 ft tall plants in the pots to more than 3ft tall in the ground. I think the fuss about gardenias liking acidic soils and dying in basic soils or in 'less-than-perfect' garden soils are highly exaggerated. These plants (gardenias) are actually highly adaptable to various soil types like other plants. They even survive sandy soils fit for a cactus but they just won't be 'picture perfect' (similar to my gardenias). What gardenias (and michelia albas) do hate however is too much moisture in the soil particularly around their roots. I had ALL my gardenias rapidly dropping leaves and leaves turning yellow when my helper watered them daily despite the daily rains in our area. I was lucky to have immediately spotted the rapid leaf yellowing and dropping problem as I rarely attend to or inspect my gardenias anymore. (I have more problematic plants to take care of like my 'chilli thrip' infested roses, unhappy hydrangeas and suicidal apple seedlings.) Anyway, after telling my household helper not to water my gardenias anymore because it is rainy season in our climate, the leaf yellowing and dropping stopped. That's how sensitive these plants are to overwatering. Anyway to illustrate my point, here's a photo of my chlorotic gardenias (variegated and non-variegated) planted in the ground with less-than- perfect 'basic' soil: In contrast, I have 'Euphorbia milii' plants which are supposed to be 'succulent' plants similar in 'soil' and water requirements to cacti. Here they are thriving and flowering profusely in pots filled with rich, black, loamy garden soil which is 'less-than-perfect' and actually counterindicated for a succulent plant like Euphorbia milii. (Succulents prefer sandy soils as they are adapted to dry, arid, climates.) tropical

Westes - I suspect the bark just helped retain too much water because I was getting root rot. And I live in an area that's very dry in the summer. Here's the problem with Al's argument: it's all based on the idea that perched water is this huge bogeyman that's killing everyone's plants. It is not. Yes it's a bit of a problem for beginners, but with a little experience, anyone can learn how not to overwater your plants. Al would have you believe that in order to solve a relatively minor problem, you have to go through this enormous ritual of collecting all these different ingredients, sifting them, rinsing them, and mixing them in a certain ratio. Beginners are the last people we should be pushing this on. Instead we should teach them how not to overpot, and how to tell when your soil has dried out. Pretty simple. Other issues: - One of Al's big selling points is the air spaces in gritty mix. But a good organic mix (I use 50/50 potting soil and perlite) will have plenty of air circulation. And when I unpotted some of my gritty mix pots, the mix was pretty compact (and I screen out the small bits). - It's difficult to know when it's the right time to water gritty mix, because it's so heavy. Organic mixes are so light, that you can tell by the weight of the pot if the soil is still wet. - When gritty mix pots fall over, the mix all comes out. With robust plants in an organic mix, the root ball will hold together. Minor inconvenience, but it happens occasionally. - For my plants that survived the move to gritty mix, it took them WAY longer to adapt and start growing then it did for plants I repotted in soil mix. And during that time, many did poorly and I could never tell if it was because they needed more water or less. From an overall cost/benefit perspective, I haven't seen any significant benefits, AND it was a huge hassle to assemble all the ingredients, AND I lost a lot of great plants. Btw I was not coming at this as a beginner. At the time I started experimenting with gritty mix I had 15 years experience growing cacti and succulents in pots very successfully, with a collection of about 120 plants.

On my email and not showing up here?? "Stefan said: Stush, think its a grandicornis instead. Might i ask, howd you germinate euphorbia?" Answer; Stefan, I think your right. I purchased it from Bob Smoley a few years ago. I did purchase grandicornis but it rotted before being able to root. Bob told me to plant in pure perlite and not water for months. Which I have a hard time doing. Started to and was successful finally. I don't plant seeds of euphorbia. I do get some volunteers at times but they just come up on their own. 'Bikerdoc' is very good at seeds and from his own stock. One of the best men on this site. Very helpful and knowable.