Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

How to make perfect ground cover: this colorful house plant thrives outdoors!

🍀 How to make perfect ground cover: this colorful house plant thrives outdoors!

✳️ Did you know that there is a showy houseplant that makes an excellent ground cover in southern gardens?
✳️ The Iresine, also known as Beefsteak Plant or Chicken Gizzard, is an evergreen perennial that grows up to 3 feet tall. It showcases bright mauve, or variegated puckered foliage that adds a pop of color to any space.
✳️ Perfect for both indoor gardening and warm climate gardens, it thrives in both shady or full sun areas and requires regular water when actively growing, with moderate watering afterward.
✳️ Its striking "Blood Leaf" features purplish-red, oval-shaped leaves with notched tips on vibrant red-maroon stems, forming dense, bushy clumps. It grows fast and spreads fast, making a perfect ground cover.
✳️ You'll find delightful varieties: the traditional Iresine herbstii Acuminata, with its sharply pointed blood-red leaves, and Iresine Aureo-Reticulata, or "Chicken Gizzard Plant," boasting bright yellow-veined, apple-green rounded leaves. And don't miss the Confetti variety, with its leaves sprinkled in green, red, and yellow!
✳️ Whether used indoors or as a ground cover outdoors, Iresine is a colorful choice that deserves a spot in every garden!