(Paper Daisy, Strawflower, Wallaby® Orange Blaze Paper Daisy)

Strawflower (also known botanically as Bracteantha bracteata) is a large annual or short-lived perennial from Australia. Plants in the Wallaby® Series are compact and heat-tolerant with semi-double to double blooms. From late spring until autumn Wallaby® Orange Blaze produces unique frilly daisy-like flowerheads with papery orange bracts and golden yellow centers. The double blossoms open slowly from fat colorful buds. The erect calf-high stems are densely furnished with narrow gray-green...

(Paper Daisy, Strawflower, Wallaby® Flame Paper Daisy)

Strawflower (also known botanically as Bracteantha bracteata) is a large annual or short-lived perennial from Australia. Plants in the Wallaby® Series are compact and heat-tolerant with semi-double to double blooms. From late spring until autumn they produce unique frilly daisy-like flowerheads with papery white, yellow, orange, red, or pink petal-like bracts and a yellow central disk. The blossoms open slowly from fat colorful buds. The erect calf-high stems are densely furnished with narrow...

(Night Phlox)

Sweetly scented once the sun sets, night phlox bears pretty star-like or pinwheel-like white flowers in the summertime. An upright clumping tender perennial from southernmost Africa, it is relatively short-lived and often used as a bedding annual or cultured in containers.

The sticky, brittle stems that sprawl outward into a loose mound have dark green, slender leaves. Each leaf is also sticky to the touch. In summertime, long floral tubes that are maroon at their tips open in sunshine to reveal...

(Night Phlox)

Heavenly scented once the sun sets, night phlox bears pretty star-like or pinwheel-like white flowers in the summertime. A clumping tender perennial from Lesotho and South Africa, it is relatively short-lived and often used as a bedding annual or cultured in containers.

The sticky, brittle stems that sprawl outward into a low mound have green leaves that have tiny hairs that create a gray-green hue. Each leaf is also sticky to the touch, shape like a long oval with large teeth on the edges. In...

(Aroid Palm, Arum Fern, ZZ Plant )

A large, seasonally dormant perennial from eastern Africa, this curious aroid resembles a cycad or palm. It's known as the ZZ plant in the United States, as its botanical name looks intimidating to pronounce.

Waxy, feather-like, compound leaves with long upright stalks arise from clumps of fleshy cone-shaped leaf bases. The dark green leaflets alternate along the knee- to waist-high leaf stalks. Fallen or detached leaflets can root to form new plants. The foliage withers during dry seasons,...

(Black Ginger, Midnight Ginger)

Hybrid ginger ‘Midnight’ displays glossy, deep chocolate-black foliage touched with subtle hints of purple and deep green. The elongated leaves are held alternately on short, fleshy, light green stems, and are fragrant if crushed. In the heat of summer, large, cone-like bracts rise from the base of the plant. The bracts are yellow blushed with pink, and bear small, cream-colored flowers.

Grow this tropical beauty in full to part sun and moist, fertile, well-drained, acid to neutral soil. ...

(Garden Ginger)

True ginger is an ancient garden spice surrounded by lore and revered for its medicinal and culinary qualities. Its tan, fleshy, knobby rhizomes (underground stems) have that distinctive spicy, gingery flavor used to flavor everything from stir fry to cookies. The plant is a spreading, deciduous tender perennial native to tropical Asia.

The upright, stiff stems of ginger emerge from the soil when the spring rains begin. Its narrow, lance-shaped leaves are lush, green and glossy and release a...

(Beehive Ginger, Pinecone Ginger, Showy Ginger)

Creating one of the tropical world's most unusual flowers, showy ginger produces a beehive-looking cylindrical bract that displays small purple and white flowers during the warm months. This tender herbaceous perennial grows from a rhizome (an underground stem) and typically goes dormant when cool winter temperatures or seasonal drought develops. It is native to the streamsides and moist lowlands of Malaysia and southern Thailand.

With the return of warmth and rains in springtime, the tall stiff...

(Broad-leaved Ginger)

With fragrant leaves and rhizomes (underground stems), broad-leaved ginger is most interesting in the depths of summer when pine cone-like bracts house small pale yellow flowers. A seasonally dormant tender perennial from southern India and Sri Lanka, it is also called wild ginger or bitter ginger, alluding to the lower quality culinary use of its rhizomes.

Rather short in stature, this clump forming plant has stiff stems that emerge from the soil once warmth and moisture returns in spring. Individual...

(Oceanside Zinnia, Palmer's Zinnia)

Oceanside zinnia is a heat and drought tolerant shrubby perennial with bright yellow daisies. Often grown as a bedding annual, this native of Central America and Mexico creates a spreading mound with green to blue-green leaves. Its many small, single flowers have yellow ray petals that surround a central brown. The flowers occur from spring through most of summer and attract bees, butterflies and other insect pollinators. The dry seedheads are visited by songbirds.

Like most zinnias, full sun...