(Delta Maidenhair Fern, Pacific Maid Maidenhair Fern)
Pacific maid maidenhair fern is an evergreen fern native to tropical America. 'Pacific Maid' is a compact growing maidenhair with large leaflets and roughly triangular, 3- or 4-pinnate fronds that have deep divisions. Dark, black stalks emerge from short rhizomes. Newly emerged fronds are light green but darken with age. The sori are located at the edge of the leaflet where the tip the leaf tissue rolls over to enclose it.
Pacific maid maidenhair fern should be grown in partial sun or diffused...
Pretty, glossy, dark-green leaves and scores of small, planet-like flowers in summer highlight the beauty of Chinese buttonbush. A deciduous shrub with a rather open, spreading and arching habit, it is a native of China. The reddish brown twigs bear matching pairs of perfectly-shaped elliptical leaves that are shiny green. By summertime, small flower clusters in the shape of balls appear that on close inspection display tiny white flowers with burgundy tips and a long white floral tube. They are...
Carol Cloud Bailey
(Aechmea , Bromeliad, Urn Plant, Vase Plant)
Urn plant is a tree-dwelling tropical bromeliad native to Brazil. In its native habitat it lives under the rain forest canopy where it clings to tree branches and trunks. Plant enthusiasts grow it for its ornamental leaves and long-lasting pink blooms.
The huge, lance-shaped leaves of this Aechmea are gray green and silver with subtle horizontal stripes and spiny edges. They are bowed and often curve downward as they lengthen. Each plant produces one very long-lasting flower spike...
Bishop's Goutweed is a fast-spreading Eurasian groundcover that has become naturalized across the whole of North America. It spreads via rhizomes (rooting underground stems) and has green compound leaves with three to nine leaflets. The equally weedy garden variety, 'Variegatum', is the most common form in cultivation and has leaves mottled with ivory.
In mid-spring to summer, goutweed produces umbels of tiny white flowers that are insect-pollinated and produce lots of brown seeds that spread...
Gerald L. Klingaman
(Bishop's Goutweed, Snow-on-the-Mountain, Variegated Bishop's Goutweed)
Snow-on-the-Mountain is a rapidly spreading groundcover that is native to Europe and western Asia and has rampantly naturalized in North America. 'Variegatum' has three to nine widely divided, white and light green aromatic leaves that travel by way of fibrous roots and rhizomes. In mid spring to summer it produces umbels of tiny white flowers that turn to seed that will eagerly broadcast itself and freely germinate. (Removing seed heads when possible curtails unwanted volunteers from germinating)....
Michael Charters, www.calflora.net
Grown for their architectural and often colorful foliage, aeoniums are evergreen succulent perennials or shrubs found mainly on the Canary Islands. They bear fleshy, spoon-shaped leaves in rosettes at the tips of one to several stems, with new growth appearing in late fall and early winter. Typically bright green to blue-green, the leaves are variegated, purple, or golden on some selections, and may have red-tinted margins. Many aeoniums are low mat-forming plants with short rosette stems; others...
(Aeonium, Kiwi Aeonium, Variegated Aeonium)
Its colorful foliage makes this low evergreen succulent a real stand-out in mild climate gardens. It may be a hybrid of Aeonium haworthii developed in Australia. Kiwi aeonium produces dense mounded rosettes of fleshy light green leaves that are chartreuse upon emerging in fall. The somewhat hairy, spade-shaped leaves have crimson margins and may develop pinkish variegation in cool weather. The rosettes are borne on short stems which root on contact with soil, resulting in a spreading mound...
James H. Schutte
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...
JC Raulston Arboretum at NC State University
Beautiful and fragrant white flowers, decorative nuts, and glossy leaves make the California buckeye one of the more interesting and pretty buckeyes for the garden. Native to the canyon hills and ranges of central California, this dry-season deciduous large shrub also boasts smooth silver-gray bark that arguably makes the plant look more stunning when no leaves are present.
The warmth of spring finds the new, light green foliage emerging, with hand-like (palmate) leaves with five to seven leaflets...
JC Raulston Arboretum at NC State University
Wavy-edged glossy green leaves, amazingly pretty pink and white flowers and orange-red fall foliage make Indian horse chestnut the rare plant collector's dream. A medium-sized, deciduous tree from the northwestern parts of the Himalayan Mountains, it is not adapted to high heat and humidity. The dark green, palmate (hand-like) leaves have seven leaflets, infrequently five or nine, each with wavy edges. New foliage in spring is bronze. By late spring, the branch tips develop very showy upright clustered...