Spurge Euphorbia Ascot Rainbow

Ascot Rainbow makes a rounded, tight clump of upright stems clothed in blue green leaves edged and streaked with cream, and in cold weather the whole plant picks up pink and coral tones through that variegation. In spring the stem tips open into broad heads of chartreuse bracts flecked with the same cream and red. It is a front of border and pot plant for dry sunny gardens, chosen where you want colour carried by foliage for most of the year rather than by a short burst of flower.

Drainage and winter colour

Full sun and free draining soil are the two conditions that matter; nearly everything else it will tolerate. Gravel gardens, raised beds, rockeries, dry slopes and pots of gritty mix all suit it, and it is at home in Melbourne, Adelaide, Canberra and Perth gardens where summers run dry and winters are cold enough to bring the pink tones up. Water through the first summer, then very little. Set plants far enough apart that air moves between them, and mulch with gravel rather than bark, keeping the mulch back off the crown. It also holds up in a pot on a hot paved courtyard, where drainage is simple to control and the winter colour sits closer to eye level.

The failure mode is heavy soil that stays wet in summer. The crown rots from the base, usually after a run of warm humid nights, and the first sign is a whole stem going limp and grey while the rest of the plant still looks healthy. There is no saving it at that point. In clay, plant on a raised mound or grow it in a pot rather than trying to improve one hole.

Ascot Rainbow between the other two spurges

Silver Swan is the taller, more vertical relative, cream edged blue grey whorls topped with lime bract heads, and it is the one to repeat along a dry border for structure. Ascot Rainbow is shorter and rounder with far more colour in the leaf, so it works at the front of that border, in a pot, or spilling over a low wall where the pink winter tones are close enough to see. Crown of thorns is the frost tender succulent option for warm gardens and shares nothing with these two but the sap. Both cold hardy spurges sit in the low maintenance range.

Removing flowered stems safely

Each stem grows one year, flowers the next and then dies, so the annual job is taking out the flowered stems. Once the bracts brown off in early summer, trace each spent stem down to the base and cut it there, leaving the fresh non flowering shoots untouched. Shearing the whole clump over at one height instead leaves a tangle of dead stubs and removes next year's flowers. Every cut bleeds milky latex that burns skin and can damage eyes, so wear gloves and eye protection and wash the tools afterwards. Feed lightly in early spring if at all, since rich soil produces soft growth that falls open.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 3 sizes, from 140mm up to 200mm, priced from $17.95 to $29.95 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. These are younger plants, priced for planting in quantity, and they establish quickly once in the ground. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to low water gardens.