I had a Picasso paintbrush, but lost it to a freeze, have tried to find another since with no luck.

Gold Dust


Eleanor Roosevet



Mammy


Mammy


This is the closest I found to Picaso paintbrush, bought it a year ago, it was labeled "Zanzibar

Sherri, Zanzibar is my favorite of all Crotons with P. Paintbrush coming in second. Both do not fare well at all in the winter months here and I have to keep them in pots and pull them in when the cold fronts sweep thru.

Scott, I am well north of you, very top of 9a, at best. I move my Zanzibar to a protected corner of my deck where I have a seedling heat mat going from mid January through February. It doesn't put out much heat but it is enough to raise the temp a few degrees which is usually all that is needed. This corner faces the NNE so it gets plenty of light but no sun. I crowd all my container tropicals there, out of the wind, and they stay in a holding pattern. During those 2 cold winters I tossed a fleece blanket over them all on the worst nights. I find if I bring my crotons inside they shed their leaves and take too long to re-grow them.

Good info Alice, I don't want to lose this one. Yours is amazing.

Croton colors in Summer...

Great collection Scott. Do your pink one stay pink or do they turn orangey over time?

Nice croton collection, ScotTi!

ardesia said:Great collection Scott. Do your pink one stay pink or do they turn orangey over time?

The pinks pictured in the post maintain the pink throughout the year.

Thanks Scott, I often wondered about that as I seen some half pink and half red plants.

Alice, As you know a Croton has a habit of doing what it wants in different sun conditions. I purchased a Mrs Iceton (AKA 'Appleleaf' & 'Imperialis') some years ago as I liked the orange coloring the plant was displaying at the time. After growing it for some time I never saw the orange again. Believe me I have tried in every light condition. I am really not a pink fan and the orange colors would be more to my liking, but for a true pink it can not be beat.



The 'Caribbean Star' is supposed to be orange red but for me its always pink in the filtered sun conditions from which it grows.

Plants are a lot like kids, they are all individuals. LOL

I think I like the pinks because I can't get them here, all I have ever seen are the orangy reds. The grass is always greener.......

I like the pink coloring also.

All very nice, I know I have over a dozen varieties in the garden, some are getting quite big since no hard freezes in a few years.

dyzzypyxxy said:I'm thinking it's the combination of yellow and shocking pink that "clangs" with me on some crotons.

I had the same problem for years, but for me it's red and yellow that just doesn't work, sorry Liechtenstein, Macedonia et al but it looks like a poison frog (erm and not in a good way). Two primaries that just don't sit well together for me. However I absolutely adore Crotons. The common yellow Petra in the morning sun is one of the most gorgeous things. Even the ordinary Petra can look incredible during certain growth phases. I tend towards those with clear colours, and colours I like rather than everything croton. I found a beauty in Sri Lanka very much worth a picture which I will endeavour to provide later. It has long long leaves with yellow in the centre of dark green, the yellow ages to a lovely burnt sienna like "Zulu", the leaf stalks are shocking red but the whole thing works cause the red is so confined. No name just one of the very many they have there that are spontaneous sports of others.

There are so many I love but can't easily find where I live. These three Im growing, bought in Bangkok, plus a few with extreme round leaves which bushes out into a small tree very nicely. The pics are taken from their site, once I've downloaded the other I will try this lot. These are in my yellow, violet and black garden.

Always seems to be crotons on my wish list.........I just wish I knew how to take cuttings successfully on my travels. Wonder if large bare sticks would work better than top cuttings? Anyone try that, I see many in the trade are grown like that for producers in tropical regions. The pots sold are just a bunch of rooted sticks. I've lost so many top cuttings, they just don't travel for weeks on end so well.

Scott, as usual I'm more than a little envious of your gardens. I'll have to get out and take some pics of my crotons tomorrow. Most of mine are smaller, but several are growing up nicely now and showing some good color.

Came unstuck with a few yellow crotons actually. After three weeks of almost solid rain we get the clearest day of the year! Might as well have been Arizona. The UV suddenly sky rocketed. Rushing around with large umbrellas as the tops which are almost pure yellow new growth collapse instantly in sun, any sun now! Grrrrrrr

Here crotons ordinarily grow very well in full sun but when you get these fronts they are taken by surprise by clear days, actually everything is even one of my lovely pure powdered silver B.nobilis got scorched. Just shows a little bit of colour beyond 'lutea' is a good thing.

Fanny, Large bare sticks of Crotons will root. I was amazed when I learned this at one of the Croton Society garden tours. The sticks are slower to root than top cuttings, but it works.

ScotTi said:Fanny, Large bare sticks of Crotons will root. I was amazed when I learned this at one of the Croton Society garden tours. The sticks are slower to root than top cuttings, but it works.

Thats fantastic news i honestly thought they had to be top cuttings........wow Im going to go to town in Sri Lanka August. They have some of the most stunning crotons I've ever seen. Do the sticks need to be kept dry or the ends sealed or anything, will they be Ok for ten days traveling around? Old wood right or second year growth which is best?

Some lovely crotons on this thread. Talking of Sri Lanka here is one of my all time favs I found in Sri Lanka, it was a sport growing out of what looked like a dead ordinary green species Codiaeum variegatum hedge. The owner of said hedge rooted it and sold it as a pot plant outside his hut for next to nothing, in fact I bought six yellow coconuts too. I love this croton a lot. I took off a lower side branch as a cutting fingers crossed and planted the main part in the garden. There was also a branch that had no colour at all just green leaves! This Im also trying to root as I reckon with such unstable genes it could be interesting.

So here is the lovely long leaved and wildly exotic "Perahera". I named it after the greatest parade on earth involving hundreds and hundreds of decorated tusker elephants and thousands of young exotic male dancers that writhe and cavort, play music, with fire and whips through the night streets of Kandy in fierce teams. Of course others might tell me it's Zulu or King Chaka, Limpopo or whatever but this I can absolutely vouch is Perahera.

As its still fresh in the ground Im expecting the leaves to get much much bigger, as they've already much to my amazement doubled in size.

PS Jungle Gal, I love that Buddy creation lovely! (just saw it wasn't the Davis one...)

Perahera is simply stunning.

Perahera is stunning.
Mine are pumping out lots of new growth, but pretty green/yellow with all the rain and heat, although there is still nice color on the older growth down under. Come fall/winter is when they become so colorful putting on a spectacular show. I'll have to snap some photos of them to post.

Oh my, all of the photos on this thread are making me want more of them. I only have one croton right now, and it's in my greenhouse. I wish I lived where they could be outside.