Looking at a leaf detail, you can see why it is called “Fishbone.”Īnother yellow and green variety that I like a lot is “Eleanor Fisher.” I needed to propagate this one because I only bought a single stem originally and it doesn’t like to branch. I have really fallen for this yellow and green variety shown below. First up is a newer addition to the garden thanks to a friend in Florida that has an amazing collection. All these plants were propagated before documenting on this blog how to get the best results doing stem cuttings. Since I’m on the subject of showing crotons from my garden that I recently propagated, let me present you with a few more. This plant below would be my first subject.įrom the photo below you can clearly see how it got the name “Stop Light.” Most likely my favorite is the cultivar “Stop Light.” Great color, nice up-right bush, handles the cool winter soils, and does well in sun. There is no shortage of crotons in my yard that I want to propagate and spread throughout the garden. As this post will show, the answer is “very well.” So of course once back home, I tested out her technique to see how well croton stem cuttings take and grow.

Air-layering plants is a pain, stem cuttings are much easier. At that time she also explained how she propagated her crotons from stem cuttings. Last year, while attending a Ti Society meeting, a delightful lady in her 80s brought some crotons to the sale. Up until recently, I believed the best way to propagate a croton was by air-layering. I wish the plants did come true from seed, as I have quite a few self-seeding in my garden right now like this cultivar called “Purity” shown below. However, crotons are one of those plants-like the hibiscus-you can not propagate by seed because they won’t come true.

Because almost all mine came from Florida, propagating them would be of great value in order to share with others in Southern California. When people tour the landscape, one of the more common requests is asking where I got certain crotons that a visitor fell in love with. After weeding those out, I am left with 15 different ones succeeding in my garden right now. Some cultivars did in fact prove difficult to grow, some hated the cool winter soils and others just grew too slowly. Through the years I have been fortunate enough to test close to 25 different cultivars to the garden. When I started my garden 12 years ago I had no idea that such a colorful and tropical plant as a croton ( Codiaeum variegatum) would grow, let alone excel, in Southern California.

Just My Luck by Alice Winters