usda hardiness zone 12

This bushy Asian tropical plant is used commonly in cold climates as a houseplant or as a container plant outdoors. Although it is a familiar plant, it hasn’t adopted a nickname. A. nitidum has long-stemmed, long dark green leaves blotched and streaked with creamy white markings.

needs fertile, well-drained soil and is best grown in filtered light, either indoors or out.

With a lush crown of green feathery fronds that can be pendulous, macaw palm is well-known for its tan trunk that is protected by thousands of thin black spines. A solitary-trunked palm from the Greater Antilles (except Cuba), it is truly a graceful palm with a lovely rounded canopy native to the rainforest understory.

The young leaves are dark green with lighter green undersides; these juveniles leaves are also covered in thin black spines. Once mature and much larger, most of the spine of the...

Lovely green leaves with short pointed lobes adorn the zig-zagged branches of Chinese alangium. Blooming in early summer and again in mid-autumn, the small oval fruits turn dark blue in autumn, too. A large shrub to small tree that is evergreen in frost-free climates but deciduous elsewhere, it is native to a large expanse of southern Asia's Himalayas eastward into the highlands of southeast Asia. Natural variant forms can also be found in eastern Africa.

The leaves are rounded when young, having...

No tropical garden is complete without a giant alcantarea! Larger than a bushel basket, the rosette of strappy light green leaves eventually forms a towering red flower stalk with curving yellow bracts and ivory flowers. This evergreen perennial bromeliad is a lithophyte (growing among and upon rocks) native to the montane cliffs in extreme southeastern Brazil.

Each leaf is light green, occasionally with speckles or a casting of gray, and strap-like. It tapers to a soft point while the base...

No tropical garden is complete without a fragrant alcantarea! Larger than a bushel basket, the rosette of strappy light green and silver-banded leaves eventually forms a towering red flower stalk with canary yellow flowers. This evergreen perennial bromeliad is a lithophyte (growing among and upon rocks) native to the montane cliffs in extreme southeastern Brazil.

Each pointed, strappy leaf is light green to silver with phantom bandings. It tapers to a soft point while the base of the leaf congregates...

Handsome foliage that is maple-like and a frosty gray and green, candlenut produces flushes of pretty white flowers year 'round and crops of green fruits that have dark seeds rich in flammable oils. A tropical, evergreen tree that has many economic uses, it is native to the lowland forests of Southeast Asia and the southwestern Pacific. Although the state tree of Hawaii, it is not native and is actually considered quite invasive there and in other tropical regions. It attains a rounded, spreading...

One of the most salt and drought tolerant palms, Allagoptera arenaria or seashore palm from the coastal regions of Brazil is also one of the most beautiful. Based on fossil records, it is regarded as the most ancient of palms, the predecessor of all others. This small palm is suitable for dune stabilization, landscapes and containers.

Long pinnate (feather-like) leaves emerge directly from an underground stem at many angles giving this palm a fluffy mounded look. Occasionally, the...

Allamanda is a small genus of 12 species of evergreen climbers and shrubs native to the tropical areas of Central and South America; however it has escaped cultivation and naturalized throughout the tropics.

Habit varies from species to species. Allamanda can have a shrubby habit, long and arching branches or be twining woody vines. The bark is commonly brown, furrowed on mature stems and yellow-green on younger branches. These emit a milky irritating sap when broken. The leaves...

Cherries Jubilee Allamanda is an tropical evergreen climbing shrub growing from 5 to 10 feet in height. This hybrid is an excellent clambering shrub for full sun and coastal exposures. The bell-shaped flowers are a muted salmon and burgundy with a dark red throat and blooms nearly year-round in tropical climates. Hummingbirds may check out the flowers.

Give the Cherries Jubilee allamanda a full to partial sun exposure in a well draining soil. Overly alkaline or dry sandy soil will result in...

A large, evergreen climber native to the tropical areas of Central and South America; purple allamanda is a striking addition to any frost-free landscape.

Pretty violet-shaded flowers are trumpet-shaped, very showy and appear all year in consistently warm climates. This vine has thin, arching, twining woody branches. The bark is brown, furrowed on mature stems and yellow-green on younger branches. These emit a milky irritating sap when broken. The leaves are elliptical in shape, slightly fuzzy,...