Madagascar Jewel Question
 

Does anyone have some expertise on growing Madagascar Jewel? I have one that's grown so top-heavy I've been propping it with a stake for the past couple of years. Now it keeps pulling the stake over sideways and I have to prop the stake against the windowsill. It isn't fitting into my sunroom now, after moving some other plants in this fall.

Have you ever "pruned" or "topped out" one? Will it die, or slowly scab over and the other branches keep going? I know the sap is an irritant (reminds me of a pencil plant). But I'm wanting to cut off a pretty good "chunk" of the top of plant (about a foot or more) right about where the bottom of the bird cage behind it hits. Any advise? PS I have a couple of smaller ones, but I'm always growing them out to give someone who wants one and hate to sacrifice one of them just to find out.

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...cture13045.jpg

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...cture13046.jpg

Have you considered air-layering it?

Make a cut about 1/3 the stalk thickness, and sprinkle some powdered rooting hormone in the wound.

Wrap about 2"-3" above and below the wound with moist sphagnum, then tightly wrap that and a couple of inches above and below with plastic food wrap.

Keep the most moist, and in a few weeks roots will grow into the moss, allowing you to sever the stalk below that and pot it up. The lower part may branch.

I didn't know you could air layer it. Doesn't look like the type of plant that would take to it, but if I decide to cut back, I sure will try air layering. What's to lose? Do you know this as fact, or does it just appear to be a plant I could do so with? I can't find anything on the web about pruning or anything about propagation, other than it spits seeds EVERYWHERE, which I already know.

It's already branching in numerous places. It's the height that's getting in the way of where I want to put it. Or I could just move my husband's desk. There's a great spot by a window there. Think he would notice? :biggrin:

Just a guess on my part.

Thanks Ray. I temporarily moved my desk (a safer decision) so I have a spot for it at the moment. I'm going to air layer one of the smaller branches first, and see how it goes. If all goes well, then I can do the BIG chop to the top after air layering. Have had this particular plant for a very long time, so being cautious for a change.

Thanks Paul. I'm trying air layering a branch first. This plant doesn't get insufficient light, isn't a crawler. But is naturally top heavy due to the way the stem grows. In the wild, it gets base covered up with leave debris as it grows. It's a pretty unusual plant, especially the base.

Were it growing naturally, it would likely have at least a foot of leaf debris at the base now. It's about ten or twelve years old. I can't do that much leaf debris in the house. :biggrin:

It looks like one of the Madagascar leafy Euphorbias. There are a lot of similar species, like E. leuconeura. They're normally deciduous during the long dry season, then grow a crown of leaves during the rainy season.

Few succulentists prune them. If you want to take a cutting, try all the way back to a branching point. The sap may be extrememly toxic.