(Tree Aeonium, Zwartkop Aeonium)

A wonderful plant for color and textural interest, Zwartkop tree aeonium is a heat- and drought-tolerant succulent that originates from Morocco. The words "zwartkop" or "schwarzkopf" mean "black rose or head," referring to the dark leaf clusters. Its branched stems are upright, each bearing a tight rosette of spoon-shaped near-black leaves. A leaf is rich in very dark red pigments, making it look black from a distance. In the spring, each mature rosette develops an upright stalk that reaches above...

(Aoenium, Pinwheel)

Easy to grow, this shrubby evergreen from the Canary Islands is prized for its handsome succulent foliage. It bears rosettes of fleshy light green spade-shaped leaves at the tips of branching knee-high stems, with new growth appearing in late fall and early winter. The leaves often have red-tinted margins. Where stems contact soil they will root, developing ever larger mounds with time. In spring, each rosette puts forth a large, single flower stalk topped with creamy yellow blossoms. The rosette...

(Aeonium, Saucer Plant)

Imagine a plant that looks like it was squashed to the ground as if stepped on by an elephant. That's saucer plant. This strange low-growing tender perennial forms a flat, rounded rosette of succulent foliage. It is native to the coastal cliffs of Tenerife in the Canary Islands and is well-adapted to salt spray and high winds. Each rosette survives as a biennial or short-lived perennial, reproducing by seed or small pups that sprout from the base of the mother plant.

Spoon-shaped, bright green...

(Aerides, Orchid)

The rich green foliage of this unique orchid sits atop a chain-like mass of long roots and bears a cluster of deliciously fragrant gold and fuchsia flowers in early summer. Houllet's aerides is a fairly large evergreen epiphytic orchid native to the hot, sultry lowlands of Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. It has a growth habit that is called vandaceous (like Vanda orchids) with extremely long aerial roots and a fan-like leaf mass atop the stem-like pseudobulb.

The leaves are short,...

(Basket Vine)

Aeschynanthus is a genus of approximately 140 species of evergreen tropical flowering plants native to the warm, moist regions of Asia and the Pacific Islands. These herbaceous gesneriads are often called lipstick plants due to their showy flowers that look like lipstick rising from a tube.

They may be shrubs or climbers and many are epiphytic (tree-dwelling) with pendent stems. The leaves are usually leathery or fleshy, opposite on the stem and come in pairs. The form and appearance...

(Basket Vine, Hot Flash Lipstick Plant, Lipstick Plant)

One of the prettiest and easiest to grow of the lipstick plants, 'Hot Flash' is a compact plant with large orange-red blooms with light color striations. The flowers are held upright in clusters at the ends of the branches. This vigorous, floriferous hybrid is a cross between Aeschynanthus evrardii and Aeschynanthus hildebrandii and a favorite plant for containers or hanging baskets. It was hybridized by B. Schwarz in 1984.

This tropical is a semi-trailing evergreen perennial...

(Zebra Basket Vine)

Imagine walking through the humid rainforests of Southeast Asia and encountering a plant with mottled, snake-like leaves dangling above your head in a tree. You eyes may fool you to think the sprawling, dangling stems are indeed a preying critter ready to attack. The zebra basket vine poses no such threat, but will intrigue you with its foliage and tubular flowers. This mounding to semi-trailing tender perennial subshrub is native to Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia. It is epiphytic - growing on another...

(Lipstick Basket Vine, Lipstick Plant)

Vibrant lipstick-red flowers adorn the sprawling stems of this tree-dweller ("epiphyte") from moist forests of Malaysia. In nature it grows in trunk crotches and other arboreal niches where leaf litter accumulates.

Pairs of glossy deep green leaves crowd the long, lax stems of this evergreen perennial. They may blush burgundy-purple in relatively hot, sunny sites. Pairs of dark red to nearly black buds develop at the branch tips, opening into tubular, hairy, vivid red blooms with five lobes,...

(Hybrid Basket Vine)

Aeschynanthus is a genus of approximately 140 species of evergreen tropical flowering plants native to the warm, moist regions of Asia and the Pacific Islands. These herbaceous gesneriads are often called lipstick plants due to their showy flowers that look like lipstick rising from a tube.

They may be shrubs or climbers and many are epiphytic (tree-dwelling) with pendent stems. The leaves are usually leathery or fleshy, opposite on the stem and come in pairs. The form and appearance...

(Parry's Agave, Parry's Century Plant)

One of the hardier agave species, Parry's agave is a beautiful succulent that originates from the alpine regions of Arizona and New Mexico. It is a more compact agave that sports wide, succulent gray-green leaves with fine, sharp, serrated edges of black. Its neat, evergreen rosettes slowly develop offshoots, or pups, which can easily be removed and replanted elsewhere if desired.

In summer mature rosettes put forth tall, upright panicles of fragrant, creamy yellow flowers. These may be pink...