Firespike can really fool you. You might think that a plant native to Central America would perform poorly in cold weather, but this species is capable of doing quite well along a huge swath of the U.S. running almost uninterrupted from southern South Carolina to southern Washington. And it’s beautiful to boot! This evergreen shrub, known botanically as Odontonema…
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Judging from some of the recent news headlines, one might get the impression that southern Florida is setting records for cold weather. Nothing could be further from the truth. The winter of 2009-2010 was the coldest since 1940, and there was another cold outbreak in December 2010, but since then we have had unusually warm…
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When you hear the word ‘Bonsai’, you usually think of temperate zone conifers, Japanese maples, and other assorted deciduous trees. However, in South Florida, ‘Bonsai’ takes on a whole new connotation. The choices for plant material are almost endless. There are our natives to choose from, such as the Stoppers, Lignum-vitae, or Christmasberry to name…
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The survey of palm species available at Richard Lyons’ Nursery in 3-gal. containers concludes this week: Dictyosperma album var. album is commonly known as the Princess or Hurricance Palm. It is a pinnate, self-cleaning palm that features a yard-tall, waxy crownshaft. Endemic to the Mascarene Islands in the Indian Ocean, it is reported to be…
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The survey of palm species available at Richard Lyons’ Nursery in 3-gal. containers continues this week: Sabal mauritiiformis is probably the fastest-growing of the 20 or so species of Sabal. Native from northern South America to southern Mexico, this palm produces fairly large, deeply-split circular leaves — reminiscent of those of Licuala — even before…
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