ScotTi
Esteemed Member
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- 16/04/08
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I kind of suspected that Spirale was a narrower leaf but wasn't sure...Spirale is very different with having a very thin leaf with a slight twirl, twist, whatever you want to call it. Similar colors, but again, the leaf is maybe the width of a pencil.
(Hope I'm not hijacking this thread too much...)
And here's a Spirale that looks more like Jeff's description, this one an illustration from 1969 by Gordon Gee...
Makes me wonder what happened to the 1876 Spirale - did the same plant morph from very twisted to slightly twisted over the intervening 93 years? Or was it grown under different conditions?? Or is it a different plant altogether???
I know vegetatively propagated plants can shift in appearance over time - I've seen this in big wholesale nurseries in Florida with two large blocks of the same dieffenbachia cultivar with one block originating from one source of cuttings, and the other block coming from a different source, and when standing back looking at both blocks they appear different...
(Hope I'm not hijacking this thread too much...)
And here's a Spirale that looks more like Jeff's description, this one an illustration from 1969 by Gordon Gee...
Makes me wonder what happened to the 1876 Spirale - did the same plant morph from very twisted to slightly twisted over the intervening 93 years? Or was it grown under different conditions?? Or is it a different plant altogether???
I know vegetatively propagated plants can shift in appearance over time - I've seen this in big wholesale nurseries in Florida with two large blocks of the same dieffenbachia cultivar with one block originating from one source of cuttings, and the other block coming from a different source, and when standing back looking at both blocks they appear different...
Going back to the pics of Moose's and yours: Moose's gets less light and therefore more green. Yours gets more light and more color. FWIW, I suspect Corkscrew and Curly Boy are of and the same variety.
Phil - I suspect that your suspeciousness is correct. Although my "corkscrew" is planted on a Southern exposure, it is heavily shaded until this time of the year and the southerly shifting sun starts coloring it up. It looks very simular to Peyton's Curly Boy.
This posting made me go put on Elvis singing Suspecious Minds.LOL
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So where does the regular Tortilis (original spelling?) fit in here?
Here's a pic from an 1884 publication...
And a 'Corkscrew'? cutting from the local university - this plant dates back to 1974 for sure, and probably ten or twenty years or more before that...
Could this Corkscrew be the same as Curly Boy?
Curly Boy - definite ID by everyone who came to both Croton meetings at our garden. No pink! Just primary colors. This is in deep shade except at noon and then for only an hour at most.
No. Only saying that Curly Boy has no pink. The photo just above my post is actually Delicatissima. I have no idea what Corkscrew is, but I agree, it probably is just another name for Curly Boy.
No. Curly Boy has red as it's primary color - no pink at all, except in new leaves before it turns red. Corkscrew has pink in the older leaves. I'll post some pictures this afternoon when I get home from Dallas. Randy and I found a beautiful Corkscrew growing in an alley in Hollywood Hills last year and took a huge pile of cuttings.
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