(Baja Fairyduster, Flame Bush, Tabardillo)

Baja fairyduster is a delicate-looking, bright-colored, evergreen shrub for very hot, dry desert gardens. It demands a frost-free climate and plenty of direct sun. It is native to sandy washes and rocky slopes of the dry cape regions of Baja California and Sonora, Mexico. The plant is thorny and deer-resistant. Branching is open and the narrow arching twigs are studded with soft fern-like, compound leaves.

This shrub blooms after the rainy season, whether spring or summer. Blooms may also appear...

(Fairyduster, Mock Mesquite)

Grown (and named) for its delicate and unusual winter blooms, fairyduster is a low, spreading, deciduous shrub from the southwestern United States and Northwest Mexico, where it grows in dry washes and gullies at low to middle altitudes. Gray, twiggy, often sprawling stems with small, alternating, pinnately compound leaves give rise to powderpuff heads of pink stamens in late winter and early spring. Their nectar attracts hummingbirds and other polllinators. Silvery seed pods follow the flowers....

(Powder Puff Tree, Stickpea)

Powderpuff tree puts on its show in fall and winter, blooming with distinctive magenta-red flowers. A native of Bolivia, this evergreen, large shrub or small tree is fast growing, attaining a rounded to sprawling habit with long, arching branches.

The fine-textured leaves are compound, made up of five to ten pairs of small oval leaflets that are coppery pink when young and mature to green. This plant can flower anytime year round, but blooms most when days are short, from fall to spring. The buds...

(Dwarf Powder Puff, Dwarf Red Powder Puff, Dwarf Stickpea)

The cute, mounding dwarf powderpuff puts on its show in fall and winter, blooming with distinctive magenta-red flowers. A native of Bolivia, this evergreen shrub is fast growing, attaining a rounded to sprawling habit with long, arching branches.

The fine-textured leaves are compound, made up of five to ten pairs of small oval leaflets that are coppery pink when young and mature to green. This plant can flower anytime year round, but blooms most when days are short, from fall to spring. The buds...

(American Beautyberry)

The arching branches and unusual violet purple berries of American beautyberry are the main selling points of this hardy deciduous shrub. Native to southeastern America from Texas across to Maryland, this interesting wild shrub is similar to Asian beautyberry species but has a rougher, more informal look. Mature specimens are large, bushy and develop either a horizontal or upright habit. Native populations exist in open woods and thickets.

American beautyberry has long arching stems lined with...

(American Beautyberry)

This is the naturally occurring white berried form of the normally violet purple berried American beautyberry. Native to southeastern America from Texas across to Maryland, this interesting wild shrub is similar to Asian beautyberry species but has a rougher, more informal look. Mature specimens are large, bushy and develop either a horizontal or upright habit. Native populations exist in open woods and thickets.

White American beautyberry has long arching stems lined with soft pale green leaves...

(Formosa Beautyberry)

Gardeners in warm temperate to subtropical areas can enjoy the deep lavender to pale purple berries in winter on the Formosa beautyberry. A deciduous shrub with an upright, rounded habit, multiple stem trunks are open with arching branches. This shrub is native to the mid-elevations of Japan's Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, southeastern China and northernmost Philippines.

Formosa beautyberry's green leaves are pointed ovals, sometimes oval lances. In mid to late summer, puffy clusters of small pink...

(Basket Plant, Chain Plant, Inchplant)

Thin, fleshy leaves that are light green and purple line the sprawling, octopus-like stems of chain plant and small fragrant white flowers appear in late winter. A succulent tender perennial from Mexico, it can become a large mounded mass of foliage outdoors or a lovely hanging basket specimen as a houseplant.

The long, lance-shaped leaves are a bright green with edges thinly or messily lined in dark purple. The leaf undersides are usually this same deep purple hue. These leaves are spiraled...

(Crimson Bottlebrush)

Named and grown for its fuzzy spikes of bright red flowers, crimson bottlebrush is a large, spreading, evergreen shrub or small tree native to eastern Australia. It has stiff, flat, narrow, lance-shaped, green leaves which are coppery colored when young and which emit a lemony aroma when crushed. The flowers appear in heaviest abundance in spring and summer, attracting hummingbirds. The fruits are cup-shaped, small and woody and release hundreds of tiny seeds. The bark is gray to grayish brown in...

Named and grown for its fuzzy spikes of bright red flowers, crimson bottlebrush is a large, spreading, evergreen shrub or small tree native to eastern Australia. It has stiff, flat, narrow, lance-shaped, green leaves which are coppery colored when young and which emit a lemony aroma when crushed. The flowers appear in heaviest abundance in spring and summer, attracting hummingbirds. The fruits are cup-shaped, small and woody and release hundreds of tiny seeds. The bark is gray to grayish brown in...