BEST GIFT PLANTS FOR EVERY OCCASION

Also called "First Love" (sometimes misspelled as YAshioka), this cultivar is one of the darkest green of all gardenias, it has a 3 to 5 inch bloom so perfect, it looks artificial. It was developed by Tadaoki Yoshioka while he lived in Hawaii, and he later brought it to Florida when he moved to Ft. Lauderdale with his family in 1954. The gardenia was named after his daughter, Aimee (Aimee Hironaka), who died in a plane crash in Dallas on August 2, 1985 (Delta Flight 191). Aimee gardenia grows openly and upright and blooms twice a year and slightly later than others. Flower Size 3 - 5".
See picture of flower,
page about gardenias, their cultivation and varieties.
See picture of actual plant for sale (1-2013).

This hybrid is very rare and hard to find. The intoxicating sweet fragrant blossoms are creamy white works of art. Huge double flowers up to 5-6" in diameter, large glossy oval leaves.

Lobster Claw, Parrot's beak. One of the most recognized and widely grown species, and one of the most beautiful. The inflorescence it produces is one of the most colorful you will ever encounter. The flowers last a long time and make an excellent cut flower. It is an easy grower in tropical areas but some room is required because the stalks can reach 7 feet in height. It can withstand temperatures in the high 20s. Can be grown in large pots

Wax Hearts, Sweetheart Hoya, Valentine Hoya, Heart leaf. Hoya kerrii - Sweetheart Plant - makes an ideal houseplant. It has become increasingly popular in recent years. Unusual and quirky "heart" shape leaves appeal to anyone looking for that special novelty gift for their plant enthusiast friend.

Variety with variegated leaves with neon-green center variegation of the leaf.
Wax Hearts, Sweetheart Hoya, Valentine Hoya, Heart leaf. Hoya kerrii - Sweetheart Plant - makes an ideal houseplant. It has become increasingly popular in recent years. Unusual and quirky "heart" shape leaves appeal to anyone looking for that special novelty gift for their plant enthusiast friend.

Variety with variegated leaves with white outline border or large white spots.
Wax Hearts, Sweetheart Hoya, Valentine Hoya, Heart leaf. Hoya kerrii - Sweetheart Plant - makes an ideal houseplant. It has become increasingly popular in recent years. Unusual and quirky "heart" shape leaves appeal to anyone looking for that special novelty gift for their plant enthusiast friend.

Aztec Sweet Herb, Sweetleaf - Mexican herb with an incredibly sweet leaf. Leaves can be eaten from the plant like candy or tossed into fruit salads for an unusual addition. It is used since the time of the Aztecs for coughs and colds.

Mansoa alliacea (Cydista aequinoctialis) - Garlic Vine. This is one of the most rewarding flowering vines that you can grow, unless that you are a vampire. Interestingly enough crushed leaves smell like garlic. It is one of the most wanted winter-flowering vines. When in full bloom, it looks like a cascade of blue-purple over a fence or trellis. Deep lavender flowers with white throat fading to a paler lavender within a few days, and you can see all three colors on the plant at the same time. Winter-Spring bloomer, it will also have some flowers on and off throughout the year. The vine has moderate growth rate and can stay compact in a pot as a specimen, and even can be grown as a house plant. It can tolerate some light frost.
Read Article about Garlic vine.
Watch video: Garlic vine keeps away the vampires!.

Brazilian plume, Brazilian red cloak - blooming size plants. This small to medium size shrub has large leathery leaves and spike of crimson to mauve flowers. It is amazingly hardy for such tropical looking plant and can survive light freeze without damage.

Miracle Fruit - unique fruit makes sour taste sweet.
It is one of the strangest tropical fruits. The miracle is that if lemon or other sour food is eaten after the miracle fruit, the sour tastes sweet, as if sugar has been added. A natural chemical in the fruit masks the tongue sour taste buds so that lemons taste like lemonade or lemon pie, or lemon candy. The sweet sensation lasts for half an hour to a few hours.
See Article about this plant.
See Growing instructions for this plant

Dwarf Everbearing mulberry. A beautiful ornamental bearing sweet, juicy fruit. Tree is of a dwarf habit (can be maintained 6-10 ft tall), extremely hardy and productive. Great for container culture. Disease and drought resistant. Beginning the very first year, you can enjoy its fruit almost year round.
"Revelation 22: Verse 2: In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month. and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."

Dwarf form of favorite Pandanus with large heads of cascading green and yellow thin leaves. You can have a nice exotic Screw Pine as a dwarf in a pot.

Devil's backbone, Zigzag plant, Jacob's ladder. Curious plant with showy growth habit - zig-zag stems, and interesting pink flowers. Drought tolerant, easy in cultivation, and as a houseplant.

Radiator plant, False Philodendron. This perfect houseplant has bright emerald leaves and is a very fast grower and requires minimum care. It has glossy elongated heart-shaped foliage evenly spaced along long stems. Leaves resemble those of Philodendron scandens, hence the common name. This plant makes a great hanging basket or cascade in a planter. Great for beginners!
Allow getting slightly dry between waterings.

Burle Marx is an easy to grow, prehistoric looking, low growing variety of Philodendron well suited for interiorscapes, containers and tropical landscape mass plantings. The jungle green, elliptical leaves are thick and leather-like and arranged in a upright formation. Burle Marx makes a wonderful border or ground cover plant. An Incredibly Easy Growing Ground Cover!
Can be grown indoors or out, and will be a lush and resilient addition to your garden. This plant has shiny, slender, bright green, heart-shaped leaves and reddish stems. Used as a ground cover, it will grow in a clump about 2 feet tall. If planted against a tree, it will climb vertically up the trunk. Prefers partial sun and moderate soil moisture, tolerates more sun than other philodendrons, and once established, tolerates mild drought.
Native to the tropical jungles of Brazil, this philodendron is named for the eminent Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx who championed the use of native plants in modern landscape design.
Read the article about this plant.
See Article about Philodendrons.

Betel leaf - very popular Indian spice with medicinal properties. Great for wrapping food (similar to grape leaves). See Article about this plant.

Chaa-plu, Vietnamese Pepper, Lalot,Wild Betel. Eaten raw in salads or cooked with other greens or dishes, or wrap meats and cook in oven or on stove or grill. It is used medicinally in India and South China as well as Indonesia for feverish diseases, for digestive disorders, and toothache, to treat pain in the bones. When the root is chewed with betel nut, it is said to be helpful for the treatment of coughs and asthma. The leaves are used as food (food wraps) in Vietnam.
See Video and Article about this plant.

Patchouli, Pucha-pat - fragrant herb yielding a volatile oil by distillation. It is used in coarser perfumes and in 'White Rose' and 'Oriental' toilet soaps. Sachets are made of the coarsely-powdered leaves. Often grown in Indian gardens for home use.

Spectacular bloomer! With foliage resembling an Orchid Cactus (Epiphyllum), Blue Flame is a rare epiphyte from the rainforests of the Amazon jungle. This is a spineless tropical cactus that blooms bright purple flowers. Flowers emerge along the leaf edges from late spring through early summer, and blooms for a couple of weeks. Early springtime flowers are magenta, but summer flowers have the distinctive blue tip on the magenta flower. Mature leaves are about 12" long. Blue Flame prefers a hot, humid environment similar to its jungle habitat. Grow in porous cactus soil or Adenium Mix in partial sun to bright, indirect light.

Red Rhipsalis. Arched then completely pendant flat tapeworm stems turn deep violet red in high light; tiny flowers followed by ornamental shell berries lining both edges of the ribbon stems most attractively.

Orchid Cactus, Thanksgiving Cactus, Christmas Cactus, Crab Cactus...
Spectacular, large-flower variety that flowers twice a season, 'New Deal' is a remarkable "Christmas cactus" hybrid, completely lost to the trade today, which is being offered here for the first time after it was originally offered for purchase at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden over 80 years ago. That institution was having a special rare plant sale on the day of the famous presidential election on November 8, 1932, when F.D.R. was historically voted in as the next American president. Not only is New Deal an exceptionally obscure, heirloom cultivar especially easy to grow under average house plant conditions, it reliably produces almost an overabundance of brilliant violet-pink and white flowers which are easily an inch larger than any other variety. The plants we are offering are all 3rd generation vegetative propagation from an original specimen (still alive btw). Its name is identical to President Franklin D. Roosevel main campaign slogan.
You could call Schlumbergera New Deal a long-blooming holiday cactus or a Thanksgiving-to-Easter cactus, since it often flowers first around Thanksgiving and Christmas, then produces a second flush closer to Easter.

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Upright green foliage shooting out flowers with purple petals and white brush strokes and a yellow center. Beautiful color to add to your landscape. This beautiful perennial is a terrestrial growing, primary orchid hybrid. The tropical ground orchid hybrid requires warm hot temperatures and a location in full sun or partial shade. During the growth season roots should be kept moist, but not wet, whilst waterings should be restricted during the winter rest.
See video about Ground Orchids.

This Spathoglottis is gorgeous. The flower buds come in a range of warm colors, yellow, red, orange and brown in a tie dye like effect. Once the flowers open up, bright yellow sits on all the petals and sepals, outlined in pinkish red. These gorgeous flowers bloom off of a tall inflorescence and stick around for a long period of time, blooming frequently one after the other Spring through Autumn.
See video about Ground Orchids.

Spathoglottis Rainbow - beautiful hybrid with multicolored flowers, spectacular combination of purple, orange, pink, yellow.
See video about Ground Orchids.