New! Pandorea jasminoides (Lady Di) (White Bower Vine)

A beautiful climbing plant native to Australia. Pandorea Lady Di™ has beautiful clusters of fragrant white flowers. This Pandorea has wonderful glossy foliage and grows quickly to 3m tall.

Growing Pandorea Lady Di ™

Pandorea Lady Di ™ is best grown in a full sun to shade position. It is best grown in well draining soil. Keep the soil fairly moist, but don’t let it water log. Pandorea will tolerate very light frosts and is fairly salt tolerant. Fertilise with a controlled release fertiliser for natives.

Pandorea uses

Pandorea Lady Di ™ is excellent as a fast growing plant to cover trellises, old fences or ugly walls. It grows well in pots or as ground cover. It would look beautiful growing up pergola’s or carports. Keep it well pruned to maintain shape & flowering vigour.

New! Liriope gigantum

Liriope gigantum – Turf Lily

Liriope is a beautiful, evergreen grassy type ground cover. It bears gorgeous little purple flowers and grows to 50-70cm tall, and 50cm wide. The strappy leaves are dark green, glossy and narrow.

Liriope, or Turf Lily is very tough and adaptable. It thrives without care in almost any garden. It is well suited to growing in pots, as a ground cover or as a border around a garden. Liriope is also often used as a lawn substitute, it doesn’t require anywhere near as much water as the lawn does to look good! Liriope is best grown ‘en masse’, with a whole bunch planted all together for maximum effect.

Liriope is best grown in full sun to part shade. It prefers well draining soil and is highly drought tolerant. Once established, this plant does not require any maintenance or water. You can lift and divide Liriope clumps, and plant the divisions elsewhere to create additional plants.

New! Gazania Daybreak var. Pink Shades (Gazania rigens)

Gazania Daybreak Pink Shades (Gazania rigens)

A Hot Summer Survivor!

About Gazania Daybreak var. Pink Shades

Gazania Pink Shades is a gorgeous ground cover with sensational colour, suitable to even the most hot & dry gardens. Daybreak Gazania’s have won many awards for garden performance. They come from South Africa and have beautiful light & dark pink 3” flowers. Flowers close every night, and reopen in the morning. Foliage is feathery and bright green, and plants grow to 25cm high. The plants are nice and compact and flower freely.

Growing Gazania Daybreak var. Pink Shades

This is a true easy-care plant. It will produce amazing flowers in even the driest soil, and it’s best grown in full sun. Gazania is very heat tolerant and fast growing. Fertilise with a liquid fertiliser every 2-4 weeks, or apply an organic fertiliser per directions on the packaging. Best grown in a frost free position.

Space your plants 15 - 25cm apart for a nice clumping groundcover. Also suitable as potted plant, for borders or edging.

New! Lampranthus (Ice Plant) Pink & Mixed

 

Lampranthus (Ice plant)

Lampranthus is a beautiful, ground covering succulent with deep purple flowers. They are native to Africa and are very drought hardy. Lampranthus is suitable for rockeries, banks or pots, and provides a lot of colour in the garden.

Lampranthus belongs to the Ice plant family, or Aizoaceae. Foliage is very succulent and short, and blue green in colour. Flowers come in all colours such as purple, white, red, yellow, and pink. Flowers are produced year round, and they open in the morning and close at night.

Growing Lampranthus or Ice Plant

Don’t overwater your Ice plant; almost the only rule you need to abide by. They are very easy to grow, and are best placed in a full sun position. They will grow in almost any kind of soil including poor, well draining soil. Most Ice Plants will be able to tolerant some very slight frost, but they are best grown in a position protected from frost.

Meaning of the name ‘Lampranthus’

The name Lampranthus comes from the Greek words lampros and anthos, meaning ‘bright flower’.

Cycas revoluta (Sago Palm) Twin

Here’s what we found today – a Sago Palm Twin! Two plants shot out of the one seed…

Very special Double-headed Dwarf Coconut

Here's a double headed coconut baby, grown by Roger Goebel up in North Queensland. I could only find information on 1 other double header, in Tonga, and a three-header in Africa. The three-headed palm in Africa is for sale for 1 million dollars - better start saving! Usually, multi headed palms have their branching occur due to insect attacks etc., but this one? Let's hope we will see it develop into a beautiful palm, it may yet become a tourist attraction!

Malaysian Orchid (Medinilla Magnifica) Plant

Medinilla Magnifica 01, originally uploaded by chanicy2000.

One of the most spectacular flowering plants available, with exotic pink flower trusses reaching up to 50cm in length, which hang down from the main plant. Leaves are very large, up to 30cm long, glossy dark green and oval.
Medinilla magnifica is an epiphyte (like staghorns, orchids & Bromeliads), and is often found growing in trees in native habitat, where they reach a height of 2m. In cultivation, it will more likely be close to around 1m. Fantastic plant for tropical gardens, or stunning as potted specimen in conservatories down south, or indoors!
Water regularly when compost dries out slightly. Malaysian Orchids benefit from liquid fertilizing every 2-3 weeks, and is best grown in rich, organic, well draining soil. Add lots of peat, vermiculite, humus and mulch to your soil mix. Read & view more at http://cactusisland.com.au/

Lipstick Palm / Red Sealing Wax Palm (Cyrtostachys renda)

Small, Medium & Large Lipstick Palms are now available at National Tropical Plants.  


 
Cyrtostachys renda, originally uploaded by tanetahi.

It wouldn't be right to start this blog with any other plant than the Lipstick Palm. This truly is our favourite!
The Lipstick palm (or Red Sealing Wax Palm) is a stunning feather palm with a brilliantly, almost unbelievably vivid red trunk & crown shaft, found in lowland coastal swamps in SE Asia.
(It is also known as 'Cyrtostachys lakka', which has now been included under 'Cyrtostachys renda'.)
It’s a medium sized, to about 6m, clumping palm. One of the most spectacular and colourful tropical palms and extremely popular as garden and landscaping plant.
Cyrtotachys renda is very cold sensitive and should not be grown in the garden outside the tropics, but I still recommend you give it a go if you aren't in the tropics. Find a nice warm place inside your home, or in a conservatory or glass house. Take it outside in summer & love it like it deserves. It makes for a wonderful and spectacular potted specimen for the house and patio (on warm days). It should not be exposed to temperatures under aprox 10 degrees, preferable above 20 degrees.
In the tropics it’s very easy to grow, provided it gets lots of water and sun/overhead light. Soil should be rich, moist and loamy, and plants should be fed monthly with a tropical plant or palm fertilizer.
Definitely worth the effort and a must for every palm lover/collector! Red Sealing Wax Palm recommendations: I recommend you soak them in some seaweed solution on arrival, for up to a couple of hours right before potting up. Water in with some Fungicide like Fongarid & leave to dry out for a couple of days, then water regularly.
Keep in high humidity in bright light, but no full sun. Add some slow release fertiliser for tropical plants or palms, and keep up regular foliar sprays with seaweed solution.

Small, Medium & Large Lipstick Palms are now available at National Tropical Plants.