Since the arrival of Lime Sizzler™ Firebush in 2014, gardeners everywhere have been eager to get their hands on this long-blooming addition to Mother Nature’s plant palette. This double-take dynamo has captured the eye of landscape design professionals, hummingbirds, butterflies and bees with its exotic lime-green and yellow foliage topped with sizzling trumpet-shaped, red-orange flowers chock-full with nectar (it’s a top-ten plant for attracting pollinators). Botanically, Lime Sizzler™ Continue Reading
Variegated Shell Ginger Is Made for the Shade
Now here’s a plant that literally earns its stripes in shade gardens throughout Florida’s zones 9B and 10: the light and billowy variegated Shell Ginger. Known for its massive spread, the anything-but-shy Shell Ginger flounces around large trees, fringes rows of tall shrubs with breezy abandon and can even steal the show as a circular-drive centerpiece. It’s the leaf that attracts all the attention –a bold, elongated feather shape striped in lemony yellows and Key West lime greens. Because Continue Reading
Walter’s Viburnum: One of Florida’s Forgotten Hedges
Often overlooked by Florida residents, Walter’s Viburnum is an excellent hedge choice for several reasons. But first, let’s answer the burning question: “What’s up with a plant named Walter?” Well, Walter’s Viburnum honors a colonial botanist named Thomas Walter (1740-1789). This English-born planter described the species in his catalog of South Carolina flowering plants, Flora Caroliniana. Today most folks think a guy name Walter discovered the species. But we digress. All we know is Continue Reading
Pitch Apple:Should Be Pitched as a Tree or a Shrub?
Let’s say you have a sad little bare area in your Bradenton landscape and think a playful ornamental would liven things up a tad. A tree sure would be nice, but on the other hand, what about a shrub or two? Allow us to pitch the Pitch Apple – a paddle-leafed plant that can be either. Also known as an Autograph Plant, this showstopper is native to Florida and can be used as a wide-spreading, densely foliated shrub or trained to grow into a tree. Why the nickname? Because the leathery leaves Continue Reading
