Euphorbia pseudovirgata Redwing Charam - Spurge

Euphorbia Redwing 'Charam' is a new hybrid euphorbia that will please you with its compact and dense ball-shaped habit, its beautiful changing colours, and its low cultural requirements. This evergreen variety develops young shoots tinged with light red in late winter, which precede an early and abundant flowering of acid-yellow colour, with bracts turning to bright red and retaining their colour for a long time. The plant, attractive all year round, offers a particularly colourful spectacle from February to June. Both an accent plant and a structural plant, it will enhance all those that accompany it in a rock garden or on a well-drained slope. It is also highly decorative in a pot on the terrace or balcony.

The Euphorbia Redwing belongs to the large family of euphorbias. It is a recent English selection, whose origins are not clearly established. This perennial with numerous woody stems at the base, of a beautiful red-purple colour in spring, will reach about 50cm (20in) in height and 40 to 50cm (16 to 20in) in diameter, with a fairly rapid growth. From February, cylindrical inflorescences of a beautiful light red colour form, with their tips unfurling to bloom from March to June. Each 'flower', without petals, is composed of leaves and bracts, forming a cyathium of chartreuse-yellow to acid-green colour, in the centre of which are the brightly coloured red nectar glands, attracting pollinating insects. The flowers remain highly decorative on the plant until June. The foliage consists of long, thick, evergreen leaves turned downwards, forming tight skirts along the stems. With a glaucous green colour on the upper side, their undersides are tinged with beautiful purple shades, creating a beautiful colour palette on the scale of the plant. Stems and leaves contain a milky sap that is sticky and toxic. The vegetation of this euphorbia persists in winter.

With around 8000 species, the genus Euphorbia is one of the richest on the planet. Few of them can acclimatize in the garden, but rest assured, there is something to satisfy both the most demanding collector and the amateur who wants to garden without worries with hardy perennial euphorbias for shade or sun, cool or hot, dry or humid conditions. You just have to choose wisely. The Euphorbia Redwing is a robust and charming plant, for well-drained to dry soil, which can be associated in a rock garden, on a slope, or in a well-drained bed with small lavenders, creeping rosemary, helianthemes, basket-of-gold alyssums, aubrietas... The acid-yellow of its flowers and the pink-red of its foliage blend well with all blue flowers: perennial flax, lithodora, perennial geraniums, or even Siberian squills, for example.