Self-seeding euphorbias in spring

I’m going to fling this at you now while I’m standing at the laptop and avoiding the washing up. And that way I won’t feel guilty about a Friday deadline sailing by. It’s a travel day.

Euphorbia x wulfenii. Fabbo plant. Yes tricky if you touch it, an irritant to the eyes, impossible to add to bouquets as you don’t want your recipients to lean in for a sniff and come away with an allergic reaction and spend their leisure time at the pharmacy.

And yes, I do have to keep my hands in my pockets as I push through the verdant madness on my way through the shade garden to the potting shed.

But I stand by my euphorbias. You can’t help but admire their voracity.

I keep meaning to grab the loppers and take out the ones right next to the path. But there is always something a bit more pressing.

If you don’t like self seeders, don’t introduce it to your garden. It’s prolific.

But I love it for this spring time zing. And once it flowers I just have a ruthless session with the loppers cutting off the spent bracts. (I was going to say flower heads, but they aren’t.)

And it has been a saviour in my disastrous lavender bank. The lavender suffered from being shaded by the plum tree in front and the enthusiastic olive tree overhead.

As I was sighing and cutting out yet more dying lavenders, I had to push my way past all these self seeded euphorbias.

There was a time I hesitated about yanking them all out as they are, frankly, weeds.  But I didn’t and now the bed might need a new name.

It’s a colony of euphorbias now. Not quite covering where the lavenders died. But give ’em time.

And how about this for perfect placement of a self seeder?  Smack bank in the middle of two doors on the east side of the house.

Deeply pleasing. You would almost call it gardening.