(Aoenium, Pinwheel)

Easy to grow, this shrubby evergreen from the Canary Islands is prized for its handsome succulent foliage. It bears rosettes of fleshy light green spade-shaped leaves at the tips of branching knee-high stems, with new growth appearing in late fall and early winter. The leaves often have red-tinted margins. Where stems contact soil they will root, developing ever larger mounds with time. In spring, each rosette puts forth a large, single flower stalk topped with creamy yellow blossoms. The rosette...

(Aerides, Orchid)

The rich green foliage of this unique orchid sits atop a chain-like mass of long roots and bears a cluster of deliciously fragrant gold and fuchsia flowers in early summer. Houllet's aerides is a fairly large evergreen epiphytic orchid native to the hot, sultry lowlands of Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. It has a growth habit that is called vandaceous (like Vanda orchids) with extremely long aerial roots and a fan-like leaf mass atop the stem-like pseudobulb.

The leaves are short,...

(Aerides, Orchid)

The graceful aerides-with-five-wounds orchid bears a fragrant drooping cluster of small, ivory and fuchsia-violet spotted blossoms in summer and autumn. A large evergreen epiphytic orchid, this species is native to forested tropical highlands of Malaysia and the Philippines. It grows from a short pseudobulb with dangling aerial roots that clasp to tree trunks for support.

The medium green leaves are leathery and strap-like with two lobes at their ends. In early summer into fall, a long drooping...

(Basket Vine)

Aeschynanthus is a genus of approximately 140 species of evergreen tropical flowering plants native to the warm, moist regions of Asia and the Pacific Islands. These herbaceous gesneriads are often called lipstick plants due to their showy flowers that look like lipstick rising from a tube.

They may be shrubs or climbers and many are epiphytic (tree-dwelling) with pendent stems. The leaves are usually leathery or fleshy, opposite on the stem and come in pairs. The form and appearance...

(Basket Vine, Hot Flash Lipstick Plant, Lipstick Plant)

One of the prettiest and easiest to grow of the lipstick plants, 'Hot Flash' is a compact plant with large orange-red blooms with light color striations. The flowers are held upright in clusters at the ends of the branches. This vigorous, floriferous hybrid is a cross between Aeschynanthus evrardii and Aeschynanthus hildebrandii and a favorite plant for containers or hanging baskets. It was hybridized by B. Schwarz in 1984.

This tropical is a semi-trailing evergreen perennial...

(Zebra Basket Vine)

Imagine walking through the humid rainforests of Southeast Asia and encountering a plant with mottled, snake-like leaves dangling above your head in a tree. You eyes may fool you to think the sprawling, dangling stems are indeed a preying critter ready to attack. The zebra basket vine poses no such threat, but will intrigue you with its foliage and tubular flowers. This mounding to semi-trailing tender perennial subshrub is native to Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia. It is epiphytic - growing on another...

(Lipstick Basket Vine, Lipstick Plant)

Vibrant lipstick-red flowers adorn the sprawling stems of this tree-dweller ("epiphyte") from moist forests of Malaysia. In nature it grows in trunk crotches and other arboreal niches where leaf litter accumulates.

Pairs of glossy deep green leaves crowd the long, lax stems of this evergreen perennial. They may blush burgundy-purple in relatively hot, sunny sites. Pairs of dark red to nearly black buds develop at the branch tips, opening into tubular, hairy, vivid red blooms with five lobes,...

(Hybrid Basket Vine)

Aeschynanthus is a genus of approximately 140 species of evergreen tropical flowering plants native to the warm, moist regions of Asia and the Pacific Islands. These herbaceous gesneriads are often called lipstick plants due to their showy flowers that look like lipstick rising from a tube.

They may be shrubs or climbers and many are epiphytic (tree-dwelling) with pendent stems. The leaves are usually leathery or fleshy, opposite on the stem and come in pairs. The form and appearance...

(African Lily, Blue Danube Lily-of-the-Nile, Lily-of-the-Nile)

The vigorous lily-of-the-Nile, 'Blue Danube', bears large rounded clusters of light violet-blue flowers on very tall stems. Often listed as a variant of the South African Agapanthus africanus, it is actually a hybrid. Where hardy, it is best grown in the landscape but in colder climates it may be maintained as a container specimen if provided a large spacious pot. Flowering is most profuse from late-spring through summer.

The long strap-like leaves of this tender perennial are medium...

(African Lily, Lily-of-the-Nile)

The Blue Umbrella lily-of-the-Nile is a dramatic tender perennial grown for its large sky-blue flower clusters borne on long stalks above clumps of grassy dark green foliage. Often listed as a variant of the South African Agapanthus praecox ssp.orientalis, it is actually a hybrid. Where hardy, it is best grown in the landscape but in colder climates it may be maintained as a container specimen if provided a large spacious pot. Bloom time is variable, depending on the local climate...