UF/IFAS Okeechobee County Extension Service

458 Highway 98 North

Okeechobee, FL 34972-2578

Phone: (863) 763-6469

E- mail:  dfculbert@ifas.ufl.edu 

January 4, 2006

Quick Links:   Dwarf Red Powderpuff     Wild Indian Date Palm    Florida Thatch Palm     Amethyst Falls Wisteria    References

Dan Culbert, Extension Horticulture Agent

For release week of  January 8, 2006

More Plants for 2006

Happy New Year!    Last week I introduced a few new plants for your Florida Yard in 2006.  Here are a few more suggestions for landscape plants from the Florida Nursery Growers & Landscapers Association, our state-wide organization of professional growers and landscapers. 

FNGLA growers have been busy producing these plants to make them available to consumers.  If you see something below that works for your landscape, try contacting a local FNGLA member nursery or garden center that encourages these high levels of professionalism.  

This second group of plants described today will include plants that will fit into the landscape: a flowering shrub, two landscape palms and a flowering vine.   

Several different species of shrubs have been named powder-puff.  They are named for their fuzzy puff-ball flower clusters that come in various shades of red or pink. They are all members of the bean family, and are medium to large in size.  Powderpuffs produce several trunks with low branches that are covered by compound leaves that stay green all year.

The Dwarf Red Powderpuff (Calliandra emarginata) is a bit different because of its smaller size, and can be maintained at heights as short as 3-4 feet. This smaller height can make it suitable for growing it in containers.  It has brilliant red colored flowers throughout much of the warm season.  The 2-3 inch round puffballs are actually flower clusters that occasionally produce seed pods.  

A native of southern Mexico and Central America , it is well adapted to our local climate, and does best in full sun and moist (but not damp) soil. Powderpuffs are reported to be good for attracting hummingbirds.    

If properly placed, it will have few pest problems.  However, in the spring these shrubs are sometimes visited, but rarely bothered by, hordes of thorn bugs, which I wrote about in a column a couple years ago. (Let me know if you’d like a copy, or get it on-line - click here Powderpuffs and Thorns.)  

The Wild Indian Date Palm (Phoenix sylvestris) is a specimen plant that screams out “Welcome to the tropics.”   With its slightly curving fronds and bumpy trunk, it is adding interest to many Florida Yards.  

The date palms are known for their drought tolerance and fairly slow growth.  They are well suited to Florida conditions if they are not over-watered and are provided with regular applications of palm fertilizer.  The date palms have the typical diamond-shaped leaf scars on the trunk of the tree, and produce feather-shaped fronds with nasty sharp spines at the base of these leaves.  Most are single trunked palms, including the Wild Indian Date Palm.

This Plant of the Year is different from other Date Palms due to its bluish-green leaf color.  As it matures, a skirt of aerial roots will be seen at the swollen base of the trunk. It is reported to be faster growing that the Canary Island Date Palm, so it should be a little bit less expensive to purchase. Date plans hybridize easily, so be sure of what you are buying.

Also known as the Toddy palm, the Wild Date is native to India and Pakistan.  It grows to 40 feet tall and is hardy in most of Florida.  In its native areas, the sap from the flowers stalks is collected and boiled down for sugar or fermented into an alcoholic beverage (toddy).

Florida Thatch Palm (Thrinax radiata) is a much smaller specimen palm and is a Florida native.  It may be found in the coastal forests of South Florida,   Mexico, Central America, and much of the northern Caribbean islands.

It is an attractive, medium sized (to 20 feet) solitary-trunked fan palm.  With a slender, smooth trunk, the fronds are dark green, glossy, circular fan-shaped leaves with drooping leaf tips.  (A close relative is the Key thatch palm, which has shorter bluish fronds.)  

It is well adapted to sunny, well drained, lime rock based soil, in the tropics and sub-tropics.  Noted for its salt tolerance, the Thatch Palm may be a bit more cold-sensitive than some would like for our area of the Sunshine State.  If you have a frost-protected area, consider this slow growing native for your Florida Yard.

Our final selection for the 2006 Plants of the year is a flowering vine similar to one known to northern transplants.  Amethyst Falls Wisteria (Wisteria frutescens ‘Amethyst Falls ) is a selection from a North American native plant that is a tamer version of its invasive Japanese and Chinese cousins.

Wisteria vines can rapidly grow to cover trellises or fences, and through most of the growing season produce clusters of brilliantly bluish flowers. ‘ Amethyst Falls ’ has been described as a miniature version of the Chinese or Japanese varieties.  Its growth rate is less than the exotic varieties.  In a few years it may reach 10 to 15 feet tall, but lacks the strength to tear down any wooden supports. 

It does not appear to produce seedpods, unlike the exotics that reseed readily.  It has an aromatic scent that most find attractive, but some persons say it is musky. The blooms are attractive to hummingbirds and butterflies.  And, a very young plant will bloom early, sometimes in the nursery pot, which is unheard of for either Chinese or Japanese wisteria.

  If you would like a copy of last week’s column on the other 2006 Plants of the Year, or the FNGLA brochure that has photos and descriptions, call or stop by our office.  I’ve placed more information on our Okeechobee web page, http://okeechobee.ifas.ufl.edu.  If you need additional information on these 2006 Plants of the Year, please email us at okeechobee@ifas.ufl.edu or call us at 863-763-6469.  Local residents can stop by our office at 458 Hwy 98 North in Okeechobee, and visit our Okeechobee County Master Gardeners on Tuesday afternoons from 1 to 5 PM .  Happy New Year from YOUR County Extension office!

   -30-

References

Browne, Michele.   Native Wisteria Vine Makes Good Landscape Choice (Plant of the Month) Marietta: Cobb County Georgia Cooperative Extension Service, 6/04   http://county.ces.uga.edu/cobb/Horticulture/Factsheets/wisteria/wisteria.htm 

Gilman, Ed.  Powderpuff  Calliandra haematocephala.  [Fact sheet ST- 108].  Gainesville:  UF/IFAS Cooperative Extension Service, 11/93.  http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/trees/CALHAEA.pdf   

ibid.,  Pink Powderpuff  Calliandra surinamensis [Fact sheet ST- 109].   Gainesville:  UF/IFAS Cooperative Extension Service, 11/93.  http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/trees/CALSURA.pdf     

Witt, Dave  Observation on the culture of the Wild Date Palm (website forum)   Orlando: Central Florida Palm & Cycad Society, August 2003.   http://www.plantapalm.com/centralfl/ObservationSpecies.asp?PalmID=350

Eric Schmidt  Observation on the culture of the Florida Thatch Palm (website forum)   Orlando: Central Florida Palm & Cycad Society, January 2004. http://www.plantapalm.com/centralfl/ObservationSpecies.asp?PalmID=457