(Bamboo Palm)

The airy, upright reed palm is a graceful, easy to grow and thrives in low light conditions. It remains short and manageable and forms suckering clumps of palm canes. Native populations exist from southeastern Mexico to Honduras and naturally inhabit the understory of moist, forested areas. It has been introduced to southern Florida where it tends to be found in disturbed forested areas.

Ferny, pinnately compound leaves of rich green crown this graceful palm year round. In summer, mature...

(European Fan Palm, Mediterranean Fan Palm)

European fan palm has large, rounded, palmate leaves that are deeply divided and sit atop long, sharply toothed petioles. Foliage is either green or blue-green on top and has silver-green undersides. Its trunk(s) is clothed in a sheath of fibers and old leaf bases. In summer, these palms bear bright yellow flowers that rise from short stalks among the leaves. These are followed by ovoid brown to yellow fruit.

European fan palm requires well drained soils and can tolerate partial shade, but prefers...

(Geraldton Waxflower)

Needle-thin leaves on tall, thin stems contrast in texture and color with Geraldton waxflower’s lush clusters of light-pink flowers. An open, fine-textured evergreen shrub for warm climates, it is native to the Shark Bay region of extreme western Australia. The leaves are short, thin, and bright-green to dark-green, depending on the season. Crush a leaf and a pleasant scent of lemon escapes. The branches are smooth and grayish-brown, but on older plants become shaggy. Young twigs can be slightly...

(Desert Fern, Lipfern, Rock Fern)

Imagine a drought-tolerant fern -- not overly particular to soil type -- that's native to a subtropical habitat with dry winters and rainy summers. This unusual plant exists and is known as the rock or desert fern. It grows from a clumping rhizome and produces attractive evergreen fronds.

(Mexican Tea)

Long prized in Mexico as an herb and medicinal plant, this weedy annual or short-lived perennial from tropical America is naturalized worldwide from the tropics to the temperate zones. Plants form clumps of erect, waist-high stems with alternate, oval, toothed leaves. Bruised leaves emit a pungent, disagreeable odor. In summer, long spikes of small greenish flowers appear at the stem tips and leaf axils. Tiny greenish single-seeded fruits follow the flowers. Plants readily self-sow.

Mexican...

(Red Tussock Grass)

A densely leafy evergreen plant, red tussock grass brings a a graceful spreading form with thin, coppery leaves to the landscape. A New Zealand native, it flowers on lightly weeping stems among or fully above the leaves in early summer, with the flowers sparsely spaced on short branches at the top of the flowers stems. It is mostly admired for the color of the leaves, which range from a metallic golden tan to a dramatic coppery red. In winter the leaves tend to be beige at their tips, with coppery...

(Spider Plant)

Probably the most popular houseplant of all time, spider plant produces a spreading clump of broad, arching, green blades. It is typically grown as a hanging basket specimen because it produces long, pendulous, wiry stems with lots of spidery plantlets at the tips, hence the common name. The most popular variety in commerce is the variegated form, ‘Variegatum.’ The species is native to South Africa where it exists in upland and lowland forests, so it naturally grows well in shade.

The long,...

(Spider Plant, Variegated Spider Plant)

The variegated spider plant is the most commonly grown form. It has attractive thin strap-like leaves of green edged with white. The plants are tender, but vigorous and prolific.

Chlorophytum cosmosum is indigenous to South Africa. It is a clump-forming tender perennial that’s primarily cultivated as an annual or houseplant. Spider plant spreads slowly by thick rhizomes (underground stems) that are easily divided. Its grassy strap-like leaves are delicate, green and white-edged....

(Spider Plant, Variegated Spider Plant)

Forming a clumping tuft of dark green and ivory leaves that often arch or curl backwards, 'Vittatum' is a showy selection of the common spider plant. Indigenous to South Africa this is a frost-tender, clump-forming perennial that is often used as a tropical groundcover or hanging basket houseplant. Spider plant spreads by rhizomes (underground stems) and by young plants borne on the sprawling or dangling stems.

Grass-like leaves are dark green but with a central band of ivory. Plants produce small,...

(Mexican Orange, Mexican Orange Blossom, Mock Orange)

Sweet, citrusy-smelling white flowers adorn the branches of Mexican orange from very late winter to autumn. An evergreen subtropical shrub from the higher elevations of Mexico, it has glossy, compound foliage, each leaf composed of three, oval leaflets that are fragrant if crushed. In late winter, clusters of five-petaled white blossoms cover the plant, emitting an intoxicating fragrance like that of orange blossoms, and attracting honeybees. The first blooming season lasts for weeks, and then flowering...