(African Mask, Amazon Taro, Elephant Ear)

What an amazing Amazon beauty! The arrowhead-shaped leaves of Amazon taro are deepest metallic green with skeletal whitish leaf veins and wavy or incised margins. This vigorous tropical hybrid elephant ear is a cross between Alocasia watsonia and A. sanderiana. During the growing season, greenish white spathe and spadex flowers appear but are generally overshadowed by foliage.

Amazon taro prefers full to moderate shade and protection from scorching sun rays. It requires moist,...

(Amazon Taro, Polly African Mask, Polly Taro)

With a more compact form and strudier foliage, Polly African mask has dark leaves with curvaceous edges and silvery veins. It is a frost tender tropical hybrid elephant ear parented by Alocasia watsonia and A. sanderiana. Loved for its large glossy, leathery, and green-black arrowhead leaves, the two pointed lobes and the wavy edges make 'Polly' look like an exotic African tribal mask. These edges are accentuated with a silvery pale green outline and midrib. During the growing...

(Lace Aloe, Torch Plant)

A cute, cold-hardy, ground-hugging aloe from eastern South Africa and Lesotho, this little charmer is an excellent choice for container gardens indoors and out thanks to its tidy form and vivid flowers. Succulent, lance-shaped, evergreen leaves dotted with white warty protuberances and tipped with white tail-like bristles are densely packed into round, perfectly symmetrical rosettes that offset to form clumps. Loose conical clusters of tubular red flowers are borne atop calf-high stems in summer....

(Soap Aloe)

A small, stemless, suckering aloe from drylands of southern Africa, this succulent evergreen is valued for its ornamental leaves, compact dense habit, and showy flowers. Broadly lance shaped, light- to dark-green leaves with oblong white speckles and brown-toothed margins are borne in ground-hugging rosettes that spread to form large dense clumps. In late spring and summer they give rise to dense heads of drooping tubular flower on branched knee-high stems. Adapted for pollination by sunbirds, the...

(Fan Aloe)

The succulent, strap-shaped, evergreen leaves of this tree-like aloe are paired in opposite fan-like ranks, in dramatic contrast to the spiral rosettes of most other aloes. This native of the West Cape region of South Africa is also coveted for its tall, multi-stemmed habit and for its showy spikes of bright flowers in late winter. The numerous tall spires of tubular orange-red or yellow blooms lure hummingbirds in droves. In its native haunts it is pollinated by sunbirds.

This beautiful...

(Coral Aloe, Striped Aloe)

The large, uniform rosettes of coral aloe are comprised of thick, smooth leaves with toothless margins. These are silvery gray-green and produce showy spikes of coral orange flowers from late winter to spring. This standout succulent originates from South Africa where it inhabits open, dry, rocky, hilly locales.

Coral aloe develops a substantial rosette of broad, thick, pointed leaves that are entirely smooth. These are silvery gray-green and some variants have thin, dark, longitudinal lines,...

(Aloe Vera, Barbados Aloe)

True aloe is an outstanding ornamental succulent that is cultivated outdoors, where winters are frost-free, and indoors as a potted plant for sunny exposures. It is believed to have originated from northwestern Africa to the Arabian Peninsula, but because of a long history of widespread human distribution its true nativity is unknown.

This clump forming succulent plant produces rigid upright rosettes of light green, thick, lance-like leaves edged with tiny yellow teeth. If broken, they emit...

(Zanzibar Aloe)

This is a little jewel box aloe that is at home in frost free gardens, pots on the porch or indoors where there is bright light. As its name suggests, this ground hugging Aloe originates from the dry climates of Zanzibar, a small island off the coast of Tanzania.

Zanzibar aloe develops little upright rosettes that elongate over time and travel horizontally, rooting as they go. In addition, it produces lateral plantlets, or pups, over time to form colonies. Sometimes the original point...

(Lemon Verbena)

Lemon verbena to North American gardeners, Herb Louisa to European gardeners, Aloysia triphylla is a tender deciduous shrub grown for the odor of its leaves, an extraordinarily pleasant and sweet lemony scent released by untouched leaves and by bruised or crushed leaves alike. The flowers, which appear in late Spring, are white to pale lavender and insignificant and the ornamental value of the plant lies in its canopy of narrow leaves.

Lemon verbena grows best on well-drained, slightly...

(Sweet Almond Shrub, Sweet Almond Verbena)

Perfuming the air, the white flowers of sweet almond verbena attract bees and butterflies. Native to the drier subtropical parts of northern Argentina, this fast-growing evergreen shrub is almost ever-blooming. It is an upright plant but will look rounded with its many horizontal, weeping branches. The oval, gray-green leaves have small teeth on their edges, and overall have a fine sand-papery texture. Towards the tips of the new growth, many small flowerspikes jut out horizontally from the leaf...