You never know where you will find a Croton!

[Moose]

Yesterday during my travels around Miami-Dade County, I stopped off at a nursery to see what Crotons they had. It was very disappointing as they only had three cultivars, all the easiest ones to locate. Then I decided to go by a nursery that I used to work at in the mid 1970's. It is now owned by someone that specializes in Palms and Cycads. We have a show and sale next weekend at Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden - so I stopped in to say hello. While looking at some rare and difficult to find palms, I noticed some Crotons stashed here and there. We started talking some croton talk and they said they were doing them because they liked them. They do alot of horse trading with the Crotons as a hobby, and will rarely be willing to sell one. They do not have multiples of any particular cultivars.


The first one here are two different plants of the same cultivar. He is calling it Oak Leaf. I told him I would post pictures on this forum and try to get a more definitive name. Well crotonheads, what would be a more accurate name for these guys?

 

[Moose]

This one he is calling Fishbone. I am not so sure, I told him it may be one of the Davis #'s. I am definitely not an expert so... what do ladies and gentlemen think it is?

 

[Moose]

This next one I do not have a clue. The white is very pronounced against the dark green. What really caught my eye was all the interrupted leaves on this culitivar. He had no idea what it is called. Growing in some pretty heavy shade. These pictures do not do it justice. There were alot of interrupted leaves that these photos do not reflect what was seen. Any guesses what this cultivar may be?

 

[Moose]

This one may be Dreadlocks. If it is it is the biggest I have seen. About 7 ft. tall and growing in a 15 gallon container and stretched in some pretty decent amount of shade. This guy has been flowering and producing seed. Interestingly I found this old inflorescense with two new branches growing out of it. Not seen that happen before. If it was an Orchid - it would be called a "Kiki". What do we call something like this in Croton World?
Is this Dreadlocks or some other simular looking cultivar?

 

[Moose]

This last one is Zanzibar. It is growing in some pretty heavy shade. This plant is about 2 1/2 ft. tall and very full growing in a three gallon container. One of the nicest I have seen.

 

[Moose]

That is all for now. My search for the elusive Richard Krukonis shall continue......

 

[ScotTi]

This last one is Zanzibar. It is growing in some pretty heavy shade. This plant is about 2 1/2 ft. tall and very full growing in a three gallon container. One of the nicest I have seen.

Ron, Nice pic of Zanzibar! I relocated mine last weekend to a morning sun location. I received no new growth on mine this summer growing in half day sun.

 

[RonDEZone7a]

Re: Fairchild

Ron,

You mentioned a croton sale at Fairchild Gardens. I was there for the first time last March. While the palm collection was very impressive, I was very disappointed by the lack of crotons! I expected to see tons of labeled crotons but instead there seemed to be everything but crotons there. Why is that? Do they have some anti-croton administrator or something?

From what I could tell, Fairchild Gardens did seem to have some sparsely planted sections which could support a nice croton collection. I wonder if the Croton Society has ever approached them about making a decent cultivar-labeled croton garden there? Seems like it would be a good idea to have another home for some of these rare cultivars and Fairchild would have the know-how to deal croton scale etc.

Ron from Delaware

 

[Moose]

Ron - I was referring to the South Florida Palm Society's Fall Sale @ Fairchild. As far as crotons go, I do not recall any being there. They are a botanical garden and I believe that they are into plant species collections. All cotons are the same species, the differences in the croton types are cultivars. Crotons are a unique plants as they are very genetically unstable. Seeds come up not looking similar to the parents and sports are genetic mutations where the plant can not even replicate itself.

Not many orchids at Fairchild either.

 

[Phil Stager]

Here's some ID's:
1. No idea but might be Angelwing ??
2. Fishbone and not sure what is behind it (semi oak leaf)
3. Johannis (pictured in Dr. Brown's book)
4. Dreadlocks for sure. See earlier thread started by me on similar inflorescensce sprouting leaves on sprt from Yellow Excurrens. A month or two later and it is still sending out a new leaf.

 

[Moose]

Phil - thanks for clearing up some of the mystery. The Fishbone I was a little confused to as the oak leaf cultivar behind it could have been growing out of the same container. My first impression was that they were the same plant and the Fishbone was a sport. Things were really crammed together there and those crotons were about 8 containers back in a really "stretched out" area of all plants. Very difficult to see.

Well at least I found another local Crotonhead to trade with. I went by Marie Nock's place last weekend and she has a very very nice collection.

 

[RonDEZone7a]

Re: Fairchild

Hey Ron - rest assured I know the difference between a species and a cultivar. I know all the croton varieties we talk about are just cultivars of the same species! And I see your point about Fairchild being mostly a collection of naturally-occurring species - especially palms. However, they do have a dozen or more cultivars of one species there - the Coconut Palm. There's nothing to say they couldn't do a croton garden there if they wanted to. My point was just that Fairchild seemed like a great place - with some available space - to do such a thing.

Ron from Delaware

 

[Moose]

Ron - it was just speculation on my behalf. I really don't know their official reasoning for not having a great collection. They do get alot of visitors. Perhaps there would be nothing left after little pieces kept getting snipped. Maybe they fear crotonheads - I just don't know.

Jerry @TreeZoo is in the process of putting together a collection at his public garden in Deerfield Beach. Suprisingly we really do not have a signature collection at any public garden down here that I can think of. Jeff Searle has pledged support to assist Jerry with this endeavor, as have many others. It is in the planning stages right now but I believe that the first phase may get under way in the spring. One of the few times we will really need Bull Crap! LOL

I imagine that you have had to pull your stuff into the sun room by now. What are your night time temperatures like now?

Best regards,

Ron.

 

[Marie Nock]

Flamingo Gardens has a pretty good collection. I haven't seen it since Kurt Decker donated the Davis collection but now it should be even better.

 

[RonDEZone7a]

Ron - we have our first frost warning for tonight up here in Delaware so all my crotons are safety inside. The "weather" in my sunroom is around 70'F by day and 60'F by night, right now - and closer to 60'F by day and 50'F by night in the coldest part of mid-winter. The crotons adjust just fine to that but basically they "sleep" (i.e. don't grow) all winter now. New growth starts in March or April, when it heats up in there and then they all come back outside in May and really get going again.

Ron in Delaware

 

[Crazy for Crotons]

The first one is Gloriosum Superbum