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Coffee Scented Flowers?

July 14, 2013 by Shannon Dillon 16 Comments

I’m always on the lookout for a plant that is different & will stand out in my garden.  I came across ‘Euphorbia characias wulfenii’ at a greenhouse that sadly, was  going out of business.  I knew it was a Euphorbia of some kind but none of the employees could tell me which variety.  I think the only reason I bought it was that it looked so forlorn & badly in need of a permanent home in the ground.  Knowing that Euphorbias like it on the dry side & can take lots of abuse I found a spot I thought it might like, threw it in a hole with some mulch, wished it the best of luck & promptly forgot about it.

Cofee scented blooms

Euphorbia characias wulfenii

It again grabbed my attention  a few months later when it it really started growing.  It’s habit is to grow very uniformly with no pruning at all.  I appreciated that & made a mental note to pay more attention to it.  I was delighted in late February when it began to bloom.  It’s chartreuse flowers hang at first & then begin to unfurl upwards where when fully open stand atop strong stems that last for months. I have a good view of it from my kitchen window & I was further endeared  when I saw how many bees and other pollinating insects were attracted to it’s nectar filled blooms.

Euphorbia characias wulfenii

Euphorbia’s nectar filled blooms

 

Euphorbia characias wulfenii

The coffee culprit

Early spring is such a busy time for us here that I don’t spend near the time I’d like to in my garden.  Most mornings I try to sneak in a quick trip through before I head down to the greenhouses.  On one of my walks I smelled brewing coffee & thought that my neighbor must be brewing a pot.  It made me want to go back in the house for a second cup, but decided I’d better get to work. The following morning was the same & I wondered why after being neighbors for almost 20 years was I smelling her morning coffee.  That evening Paul & I were working  separately in different parts of the yard when I began to smell coffee again. Thinking that our neighbor may be border lining on some kind of caffeine addiction I mentioned it to Paul.  He graciously pointed out that because of the size of our properties & where our homes are located that it was highly unlikely that the smell was coming from our neighbor’s house.  He’s always more sensible than I am in these things & suggested we go for a walk & try to track it down.  It didn’t take long following our noses to realize that it was my beautifully blooming Euphorbia. We were both amazed at how strong the coffee smell was. This plant certainly had my full attention now!  Wow, drought tolerant, blooms for months with coffee scented flowers & loved by the bees, what’s not to love?   As for our neighbor……., come to find out she doesn’t even drink coffee.

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Filed Under: You Can Grow That! Tagged With: deer resistant, drought resistant, euphorbia

Comments

  1. Karen connell says

    July 14, 2013 at 7:55 pm

    Hey Shannon!
    That seems like a really interesting type of Euphorbia! Hope to get one of those plants for myself. I hope everyone is very careful when pruning Euphorbias, or taking cuttings because the “milk” that comes out can really cause some major problems if it gets in your eyes. It happened to me while working at a commercial greenhouse. Many blessings, Karen

    Reply
    • Shannon says

      July 14, 2013 at 9:18 pm

      Thanks for the warning Karen!

      Reply
  2. Pauline says

    September 2, 2014 at 6:45 pm

    Do they need full sun? How much room do they need? It sounds like this is just what we need around here. Thank you for posting.

    Reply
    • Shannon Dillon says

      September 3, 2014 at 8:58 am

      They prefer full sun and ours has gotten pretty big. It’s almost 4 feet tall & about 3 feet wide. You can keep them pruned smaller, just be careful of the sap as it can be a skin irritant. If you need something hardy & deer resistant it’s perfect!

      Reply
  3. Amu says

    September 4, 2018 at 9:37 pm

    Where can I get this “coffee smell” plant?

    Reply
    • Shannon Dillon says

      September 24, 2018 at 2:36 pm

      The Grange Co-op’s carry them but you may have to wait until next spring.

      Reply
  4. Martha Smolen says

    October 14, 2019 at 8:38 am

    Can this plant tolerate winter?

    Reply
    • Shannon Dillon says

      October 16, 2019 at 8:17 am

      In our zone 7 here in Southern Oregon, it goes through the winter with no problems.

      Reply
  5. Ray says

    March 20, 2020 at 9:18 am

    When can I prune mine. It is so big and I want to have a few of them?

    Reply
    • Shannon Dillon says

      March 23, 2020 at 5:51 pm

      You can prune it now or wait till after it flowers if it’s budded up. You can either use some of the prunings and root them in soil or you can divide the whole clump with a shovel if its large. Let me know if you have any other questions.
      Thanks, Shannon

      Reply
  6. Monica Jaress says

    May 31, 2020 at 10:57 pm

    At the corner of my block when walking home with my dog in the mornings, I always smell coffee. It was awhile before I realized how unlikely that it was that the people in that house would always have coffee brewing. Then I wondered if it was the large euphorbia plants, and just now got around to looking it up. Mystery solved! Thanks for posting this.

    Reply
  7. Stan says

    April 22, 2021 at 6:56 pm

    This plant has been haunting me for years. I hate the smell of it, it smells to me like a combination of coffee and garbage. I never knew what it was until I read this post and then realized its outside my bedroom window. Thank you!

    Reply
    • Shannon Dillon says

      April 24, 2021 at 5:57 pm

      Glad the mystery is solved!

      Reply
  8. DKR Horticulture says

    July 11, 2021 at 2:05 pm

    It may smell like coffee, but the vapors from this plant’s foliage are poisonous and can cause irritation to the skin and especially the sinuses. The plant’s latex is also poisonous and should be only pruned or handled with gloves.

    Reply
  9. Scott says

    June 16, 2022 at 9:52 am

    Hello, I had one of these in my garden and as a landscape architect I thought it resembled a Euphorbia but I did not know which one until I posted it on INaturalist. However, my plant which was 4′ tall and wide did not smell like coffee. When it bloomed, it smelled like a combination of skunk and urine. And it was planted outside the kitchen windows, so with the windows open it was awful.

    It was removed and I see startings of the plant in other parts of the garden, so it seems to sow it self and not in close proximity.

    Reply
    • Shannon Dillon says

      June 17, 2022 at 10:45 am

      Oh my, that plant’s scent sounds horrible!

      Reply

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