Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Colorful Crotons...not croutons!

These colorful Crotons are growing in my side yard...I believe this variety is named "Ducks Foot" due to the shape of the leaf. I never really new about crotons until I moved to Hawaii, and now they are one of my favorite plants...they come in a incredible variety of colors, sizes and shapes! One of my favorites has leaves approx. 10-14 inches long but only 1/4"-1/2" wide, but the best part is the leaves are such a dark purple as to appear almost black and they twist slightly, very cool plant.
Another variety is called "gold Dust" and the more sunshine it sees the more golden yellow dots there are on the flat, oval, dark green leaves, its a very fancy looking plant and grows to about 8-10 feet tall and 3-5 around with lots of leaves, so its a pretty good foliage shrub! I guess some plants wear their autumn colors all year long!

5 comments:

lv2scpbk said...

Funny title. They are colorful.

Anonymous said...

I LIVE IN NORTH CENTRAL FL. I JUST BOUGHT TWO CROTON PLANTS AND WONDER IF THEY WILL SURVIVE OUTSIDE AND WHAT KIND OF CARE THEY NEED - DO I HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT SLUGS GETTING THEM? HOW DO I PREVENT THAT. I WANT TO PLANT THEM WITH MY SHRUBS.

AlohaTrevella said...

Aloha! I do know that the crotons do well in southern Florida, not so sure about your area, though they should be fine, how much did the plants cost? Thats what you stand to loose...I bet if you mulch them when it gets real cool they should be fine. The slugs don't touch mine...not sure if Florida slugs are hungrier than Hawaii slugs? Here is a link to what the University has to say about Crotons, http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ep106 back in Colorado we used to keep our "Gold Dust" variety in the house as a indoors plant only, way to chilly & dry to winter outside. They are a favorite plant of mine and I am endlessly amazed at how many different kinds there are!

Anonymous said...

colorful croutons would be pretty awesome too!

AlohaTrevella said...

Yes they would, maybe make the bread with spinage, beets & carrots before baking...ummm, tasty!