Ricinus!
They are AWESOME!
I'm ripping em out like weeds now they really can take over!









These are old pics I'll get more soon!
Show us what you got!

While they are pretty at that size, they aren't at 10' tall. They are considered a noxious weed here.

Yea they volunteer here too, but won't make it thru the winter here.
The seedlings usually choke each other out after 2 years they usually give up, too short of a season!
I much prefer the giant leaves of a 1st year plant to the smaller mature leaves..

































At one time they had names...sort of... If you consider red to be a name... The purple ones are supposedly New Zealand purple, but there obvious signs of crossing amung the 3 kinds I had last year, I've added several differnt kinds in there this year!
There's some cool coolers and shapes coming out!

I never let their seeds escape me, they are too dangerous!
I mostly plant them to repel moles, which they do to a limited extent.

Almost didn't click this 'cuz I thought, no, I don't want anything like that, but then thought... what if the leaves are purple. It is, kinda/almost, always looks like what I'd call 'red,' but still LOL! AND you're talking about an old friend I miss, had in OH a few times. What critters can eat them? That would be interesting to know.

Never heard that name but did it ever get my attention. I love them and the seeds don't survive winters here, at least so far. I forgot to plant seed this year but here's a few pics from past years.
The Colocasia is well over 6'.

Tiffany- they are purple!
The color didn't come thru right, they were covered in dew.
They can be rather red at certain stages, other times black!
Being 100% from seed, there's bound to be diversity, but my 2 year old confirmed it the other day the are "PUPEL!"

Evan- those are big boys! Did you direct seed? I always start a few early in pots, they always get dwarfed by the direct sown seed plants by July, a friend had great luck with early planting in tiny pots, his are 10' now, mine are only 8 or so...
I'm also not so sure that the seed will die up there, it doesn't usually like to germinate unless the seed pods are removed or fully rot away... I also hear that they don't set seed good up north, that may account for them not volunteering...
Have you gathered viable seed from yours before?
He got lucky and one of his came up alot different than any parents I had... Here's hoping the seed stay true!





They seem pretty dramatically different than any I had then, and somewhat resemble an unnamed variety I got just few months ago, but there's some dramatic differences too!

After only a couple years growing I haven't seen any volunteers ... yet. I direct sowed mostly. I did notice direct sowing is fine a few weeks earlier if mulched. I bought a packet of 9 seeds and I remember thinking ... how cheap. I didn't really understand how big they get. Fun stuff.

Oh, sorry! I didn't know such an expert had consulted these plants personally! A 2-yr-old definitely knows red from purple, so that's absolutely settled. I feel silly questioning that above, hope I can be forgiven. No matter what color they are, those big plants/leaves are really cool!

I love this look. I have one castor bean plant growing. It just germinated about a month ago when I tilled an area for clematis. Next year I plan to copy you.. Love, love love it.

While I'll admit They are pretty when they're small, they're not when they get 15" tall. In So. Cal. They are a noxious weed, and be aware that all parts of the plant are highly toxic.

Growing up in SoCal, my job as a kid was to spend every Saturday morning weeding and those were my mother's #1 priority, get them ALL out as soon as you see one. It's funny but while I see they are pretty in the pictures here I still react to them as a weed, my fingers are twitching to pull them out.

Swayback: You should upload some of your beautiful Ricinus photo's to the database: http://garden.org/plants/searc...

extranjera said:Growing up in SoCal, my job as a kid was to spend every Saturday morning weeding and those were my mother's #1 priority, get them ALL out as soon as you see one. It's funny but while I see they are pretty in the pictures here I still react to them as a weed, my fingers are twitching to pull them out.

Well...if u insist ur welcome to come give it a shot...but I'd think about bringing a chainsaw...
They ain't pullin out now...

Winters keep em in check here...

When I think noxious weed... I think of a honeysuckle bush...I guess it's all relative to environment...
Most (all?) plants in cultivation started as a weed...somewhere...

plantladylin said:Swayback: You should upload some of your beautiful Ricinus photo's to the database: http://garden.org/plants/searc...

I thought about that, but they way the database is setup it's practically impossible...most of mine have crossed, and it would likely only spread misinformation and confusion...

I don't know the parentage of most of them, hell the only one I ever had that came with a name was my New Zealand purples... Most of them came back true and didn't cross...I think...

Swayback: Any/All Ricinus photo's can be uploaded to the parent plant entry: Castor Beans (Ricinus communis)

And for those you know are New Zealand Purple: Purple Castor Bean (Ricinus communis 'New Zealand Purple')

Can only I upload pics I post?

You can upload them or anyone can submit a proposal to move photo's you've posted to the database. You will get acorns for each photo and the person submitting the proposal will get .5 acorns.

plantladylin said:Swayback: Any/All Ricinus photo's can be uploaded to the parent plant entry: Castor Beans (Ricinus communis)

And for those you know are New Zealand Purple: Purple Castor Bean (Ricinus communis 'New Zealand Purple')

Sway, to add to what Lin said we have lots of Parent Plants which are a great place to post pics of crosses or varieties you don't have a name for. They're actually called parent entry and general...name of plant...entry.

Swayback: I submitted proposals for a few of your Ricinus photo's to the General Plant entry Ricinus communis: Castor Beans (Ricinus communis)

I wasn't sure which were the New Zealand Purple so I put them all at the general entry but you can also upload any photo's of your 'New Zealand Purple' here: Purple Castor Bean (Ricinus communis 'New Zealand Purple')

After this brutal cold spell... I can barely tell...

Overnight a bunch of em colored up alot!

I hadn't been able to capture the color on my very favorite plant, it had a wicked red sheen to the leaf, now it's dark as can be...