If you’re searching for a plant that’s easy to grow, look no further than Portulaca. Also known as Moss Rose, this genus comprises somewhere between 40 and 100 species native to both Old World and New World locales. Fast-growing on thick reddish stems and featuring fleshy leaves, it literally thrives in the absence of attention. Topping…
Read more
Fewer plants have a stranger appellation than Monstera deliciosa, but at least the name is half right! This sturdy aroid has been described by one prominent botanist as “probably the finest foliage plant ever introduced into horticulture.” But it is even more than that, because it produces a delicious fruit that combines the tastes of…
Read more
No less a publication than Southern Living magazine has long recommended our native Firebush, Hamelia patens, to its readership. And it’s no wonder. The species has many endearing qualities. First, if not foremost, it’s rather cold-tolerant. The Florida Native Plant Society regards it as suitable for planting through Zone 9a, whose northern limit is along…
Read more
If you’re not already familiar with Duranta erecta, now is a good time to get acquainted with this very attractive New World flowering species. Like a lot of plants, it comes with its own little bag of mysteries: Its current specific epithet, erecta, means upright. Yet an older epithet, repens, means creeping. That sounds like…
Read more
Bixa orellana, the Lipstick Tree, has to be one of the most fascinating plants found anywhere. It has been valuable, versatile and popular for so long that no one knows exactly where in the New World Tropics it originated. The species name honors Francisco de Orellana, a Spanish conquistador of the 16th century, who, according…
Read more