Squib Knocket For Everyone!!!

i like weird plants. Or rare. Or anything obscure with a strange name. i have variegated horseradish, hemp leaved mallow, laceleaf lilac, "Kiss Me Over The Garden Gate" (Polygonum orientale) - stuff like that. I am still looking for Hosta "Illicit Affair" - sounds like a T-shirt slogan ("...I wanted an illicit affair in the garden, and all I got was this stupid plant!")

Anyway. A few years back i heard of a plant in the Euphorbia family (Euphorbia cyparissias), one of the common names of it being "Squib - Knocket", and i thought that was pretty interesting. (Note: Other colloquial names of the plant are Welcome-To-Our-Home, Graveyard-Moss, and Quack-Salver's-Spurge; in Dutch, a quack-salver is a charlatan - ( i haven't a clue what the hell a quack salver is, but, then again, what's a "Squib"?).

So i started to try to find the elusive Squib- Knocket - i finally did, but can't remember if it was thru a swap or if i actually paid money for it (i have seen it at nurseries occasionally). Sort of pretty, except it got less pretty the more INVASIVE it got! Plus the sap is sticky and causes a rash if i get it on my skin. Got it on the rock garden, and hasn't seemed to travel beyond trying to take that over, and i do still have it just because i like to see the look on someone's face when i tell them what it is! The disadvantages don't outweigh the novelty yet, so i'll continue to fight with it until they do!

***plAnt dAy!***(a running commentary on the most interesting collector's plants I own) *VARIEGATED HORSERADISH*

VARIEGATED HORSERADISH

This was one of my first "must have" plants - Armoracia rusticana 'Variegata' . I love finding variegated forms of ubiquitous garden plants that you rarely find variegation on (unlike, say, a Hosta, since a great percentage of them are variegated). Variegation in leaves is caused by a loss of light absorbing pigments in the plant cells. Remove only the chlorophyll and the result is yellow variegation. Remove both chlorophyll and the yellow pigment xanthophyll and the variegation is white. The white parts of the leaves do not make food for the plant, (that's what chlorophyll does), so as a result, a lot of variegated plant aren't quite as robust as their green parents. Always an exception to the rule, though - don't think i'd ever trust a variegated MINT to behave more timidly! In my limited experience with this Horsie, it does not spread as much as the green form. Two other points: when you plant a root of Variegated Horsie, it will take a year or so to develop it's variegation - also, lots of people ask me if they can make prepared culinary horseradish with it, but i would stick with the green type for that (IMHO). It can be a knockout, though!