Mardi Gras

annafl

Esteemed Member
When I was at the sale I saw a beautiful croton by the name of Mardi Gras. I happened to run into Jeff and he told me that this is the same plant as what's in the wiki as Sybil Griffin large leaf form. He said Johnny Shelton calls this cultivar Mardi Gras. Now, I have always wondered about this. There are clearly two cultivars under Sybil Griffin. The ones submitted by Jeff and Chris Mayhew. Both are beautiful and different. Should we separate them and make the Sybil Griffin large leaf form Mardi Gras? Please let's have some discussion on this and see if we should add a caption for Mardi Gras. Thanks.
 
I picked one of these up at the sale.It looks very different to my Sybil Griffin.I do not think they are the same plant
 
To make it even more complex,Hans Reiter has a Puerto Rican Sybil that also looks different :) Smaller leaves different growth habit.The Hawaiian Sybil is a beauty.
 
Wow, I had no idea there were so many different plants going by Sybil Griffin. I'd love to see all of them too. Is the Hawaiian form the last one in the wiki whose photo was taken by Ron at the Ramble? Would love to see this one especially. Here are my two. The first one is the one that was tagged 'Mardi Gras'. For me, the longest leaf is 14 inches (not counting petiole). This plant is a much faster grower so far than the second one
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Sybil Griffin-Ana.jpg
. The second is Judy's clone. For her it seems to get pink, for me it is more red-orange. The largest leaf here (not counting petiole) is 17 1/2 inches. On average, this plants' leaves are about 3 inches longer than the other. The shoulders on this one are much more defined and pronounced and you can see the difference in habit.
 
My Mardi Gras looks like the one in the first pic.In my opinion the plant called Mardi Gras has little resemblance to Sybil and should never have been called the long form of Sybil
 
Sybil_Griffen2_searle.jpg


About 14 years ago friends of ours bought a home and moved back to Miami (Emmylou). In their garden a wonderful croton was growing. They brought us cuttings and we tried to identify it John Bender had never seen it so we gave him a plant. Finally we scheduled a visit to meet with Robert Halgrim and Bob Alonso. We took a cutting and Mr. Halgrim immediately identified it as Sybil Griffin. We looked in Brown's book once again and with an ID we could then see our plant in the picture of Sybil Griffin even though we had tried in vain to match it with a picture before. The plant that we had at the time looks like Jeff's picture posted above and I believe the same as Chris Mayhew's picture in the wiki - I think he got his plant from us. It's a younger plant not a different plant.

A few years later, I was introduced to the second form of Sybil Griffin (like Judy's plant) and thought there must be some sort of mistake. Two very different plants each worthy of a name with the same name? Then in Hawaii a few years later we found the one that Ron photographed at the Ramble.

I'd like to hear some history on the name Mardi Gras. Who came up with that name and when did they do it? For me for now the plant pictured above will continue to be called Sybil Griffin.
 
So interesting, Marie, thanks so much for enlightening us. So the Mardi Gras was the original Sybil Griffin? I got the above first plant at the Searle Extravaganza in 2013 tagged as Sybil Griffin 'large leaf form'. I hope Jeff and Judy will join in on this discussion. I wonder how the other Sybil Griffins got named and where they came from. Lots of fog here.
 
My first Sybil Griffin came from John Bender about 15+ years ago; got a second one via the Glocks; these two are identical (except they do not grow as well here as further south).
then I purchased one labeled Sybil Griffin from Jeff at a meeting; this is the one that looks similar to Mardi Gras.
 
To make it even more complex,Hans Reiter has a Puerto Rican Sybil that also looks different :) Smaller leaves different growth habit.The Hawaiian Sybil is a beauty.

Mike - the "Sybil Griffin" you got from me back when you were at your old home was the Big Leaved Sybil from Marie ...

As Mr. Phil so eloquently says, onward through the fog ...

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