Trying to get its Orange thing going

Moose

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10/09/09
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This coton was not showing its outstanding orange colors this year. The older leaves were fading and no matter how much I was watering it would not flush new growth. Embarassingly I gotta admit that it was getting clobbered by scale. It was being treated but not erradicated - so it kept reestablishing. Reluctantly I attacked it with napalm and the scale was sent to the green squishy scale heaven. Now the rains have awakened it. This photo is about a week old. I'll try and post new photos if it ever stops raining here.

Formerly know as Scarecrow, the accepted name is Heaven :)

I'm not complaining about the rain. I'd rather deal with it than dragging a hose all around. :eek:
 

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Photos taken about 10 minutes ago. You can see that the rains have got this croton cranking. More orange will be happening. :)
 

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What is the origin of this plant?

Bren - It came from Jeff Searle several years ago as Scarecrow. We later learned that this cultivar was previously named Heaven. Where he acquired it, he will have to tell. Through serendipity it was found that this cultivar appreciates bright sunlight for part of the day as long as it gets spelled by some shading. This particular plant is shaded all morning then gets hammered from 11:30 am until late afternoon. Then it gets shaded again. An air layer from this plant was at the auction.

In another thread, Jeff questioned if this was Heaven (fka Scarecrow) and said it did not resemble his mother plant. Explaining that I got it from one of the Extravaganza Sales, he remained skeptical. A month later he had some pretty heavy storms at his house. A couple of trees went over and lots of branches were blown to the ground. About two months after that, I visited his garden and we did a croton walkabout. He had not been at the very rear of the property visiting plants for awhile, just doing maintenance. Then we saw his heaven colored up like mine. The tree canopy had been thinned out and his Heaven had much more sun exposure.

My situating Heaven in a sunny aspect and the thinning of Jeff's canopy, we learned that this croton can take more sun then most cultivars. It maintains very nice orange and orange-red colors year round as long as it stays well fed and hydrated. Its only lost its nice coloration when it got hammered by a scale infestation.
 
I asked because I know I had one with me from the move. Matter of fact, I think you gifted it to me. One of these is clipper. Leaning towards last pic due to it's size. I have a hard time telling the difference.
 

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I asked because I know I had one with me from the move. Matter of fact, I think you gifted it to me. One of these is clipper. Leaning towards last pic due to it's size. I have a hard time telling the difference.

Bren - I think the last one is your Heaven. My experience is the Heaven is a faster grower then Clipper.
 
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