Lily Pond Garden

Everglades Palm

Acoelorrhaphe wrighti

Acoelorrhaphe wrightii is a clustering palm that is native to swamps and other low, wet areas in Florida, the Caribbean, and parts of Central America. Its leaves are fan shaped and can reach up to 2 feet wide. Yellow flowers bloom in spring and are followed by fruits that change color from green to orange to black as they mature.

  • Plant Type: Perennial tree
  • Water Needs: Medium
  • Mature Height: 20' - 35'
  • Mature Width: 15' - 25'
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun to Partial Shade
  • USDA Zones: 9a to 11
  • Colors: Green, Brown, Black
  • Bloom Color: White, Green
  • Bloom Season: Winter, Spring
  • Native To: Caribbean, Central America, Florida, Mexico, Colombia

Rock Purslane

Calandrinia spectabilis

Rock Purslane grows in clumps and produces pink, or sometimes white, flowers at the end of long stems. The flowers stalks can rebloom, so do not deadhead until all the blooms are completely spent.

  • Plant Type: Succulent
  • Water Needs: Low
  • Mature Height: 1' - 1.5'
  • Mature Width: 3'
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun
  • USDA Zones: 3a to 9b
  • Colors: Green
  • Bloom Color: Pink, White
  • Bloom Season: Spring, Summer
  • Native To: Chile

Giant Milkweed

Calotropis gigantea

Giant Milkweed, a large shrub or small tree that has been extensively cultivated in tropical areas around the world. It is noted for its upright growth, milky sap, pale purple or white crown. This giant milkweed is an important larval plant for monarch butterflies.

  • Plant Type: Broadleaf evergreen
  • Water Needs: Low
  • Mature Height: 8' - 15'
  • Mature Width: 8' - 15'
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun
  • USDA Zones: 11 to 12
  • Colors: Green
  • Bloom Color: Pale-purple and White
  • Bloom Season: Seasonal
  • Native To: India, southern China, Malaysia, and Indonesia

Canna Lily

Canna 'Peach Delight'

Cannas bring a touch of the tropics wherever they are planted. The "Peach Delight" canna has showy peachy-pink flowers. Cannas are attractive to bees and hummingbirds.

  • Plant Type: Perennial
  • Water Needs: Medium
  • Mature Height: 3' - 4'
  • Mature Width: 1' - 2'
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun to Partial Shade
  • USDA Zones: 8 to 11
  • Colors: Dark green
  • Bloom Color: Peach, Yellow
  • Bloom Season: Summer to early Fall
  • Native To: Hybrid developed by Florida Aquatic Nurseries, USA

Green Carpet Natal Plum

Carissa macrocarpa 'Green Carpet'

Natal plum is an easy-to-grow, spiny evergreen perennial shrub with dense leathery green leaves, fragrant white flowers, and showy edible plum-like fruits. It makes for good ground cover or hedge.

  • Plant Type: Evergreen shrub
  • Water Needs: Low
  • Mature Height: 5' - 7'
  • Mature Width: 12" - 18"
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun
  • USDA Zones: 9a - 10b
  • Colors: Fruit: Green, Purple/lavender, Red/burgandy; Leaf: Brown/copper
  • Bloom Color: White
  • Bloom Season: Spring
  • Native To: Kenya to South Africa

Medditerranian Fan Palm

Chamaerops humilis

Mediterranian Fan Palm is a clustering palm that has stocky trunks and a large, bushy, mounded form. It makes a nice barrier or group accent at the corner of the landscape. Use in containers for patio, deck or foundation areas. It's often used in commercial landscapes where its slow growth needs little maintenance. It may even be grown indoors as a houseplant.

  • Plant Type: Perennial evergreen
  • Water Needs: Low
  • Mature Height: 6' - 15'
  • Mature Width: 6' - 20'
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun to Partial Shade
  • USDA Zones: 8a to 11b
  • Colors: Blue-grey, Green, Brown
  • Bloom Color: Gold, Yellow
  • Bloom Season: Spring
  • Native To: Mediterranian coast of Europe and North Africa

Orchid Rockrose

Cistus x purpureus

Orchid Rockrose is a low-maintenance shrub with profuse blooms that open and drop daily. Single flowers display deep pink, burgundy-spotted crepe-paper petals and golden stamens. Leaves are narrow and resinous. Tolerates heat, poor soil, and seaside conditions. Attracts butterflies.

  • Plant Type: Evergreen shrub
  • Water Needs: Low
  • Mature Height: 4' - 6'
  • Mature Width: 4' - 6'
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun to Partial Shade
  • USDA Zones: 8 to 10
  • Colors: Grey-green
  • Bloom Color: Pink with Burgandy spots
  • Bloom Season: Spring
  • Native To: Southern Europe

Magenta Rockrose

Cistus x purpureus 'Sunset'

Magenta Rockrose is an evergreen groundcover that grows low to the ground. It has wavy-edged, slightly fuzzy leaves. In spring and summer, its bright magenta flowers appear with yellow stamens at their centers.

  • Plant Type: Evergreen Shrub
  • Water Needs: Low
  • Mature Height: 2' - 3'
  • Mature Width: 6' - 8'
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun
  • USDA Zones: 7 - 8
  • Colors: Dull grey green
  • Bloom Color: Pink with a dark red spot at the base of each petal
  • Bloom Season: Spring-summer
  • Native To: Europe, Southern Europe

Crassula arborescens 'Blue Waves'

Crassula arborescens 'Blue Waves'

Silver Dollar Jade is a succulent shrub that forms a stout trunk and dense foliage. Wavy-edged leaves are waxy, narrow, and bright green with fine red margins. Star-shaped flowers bloom in white to pale pink. Can be grown indoors.

  • Plant Type: Evergreen Succulent
  • Water Needs: Low
  • Mature Height: 3' - 4'
  • Mature Width: 2' - 3'
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun
  • USDA Zones: 8 to 11
  • Colors: Grey-green
  • Bloom Color: White
  • Bloom Season: Spring, Summer
  • Native To: South Africa

Sago Palm

Cycas Revoluta

The Sago palm is a member of an ancient plant family known as cycads which dates back 200 million years. It is very slow-growing and requires very little maintenance.

  • Plant Type: Evergreen
  • Water Needs: Low
  • Mature Height: 3' - 10'
  • Mature Width: 3' - 10'
  • Sun Needed: Partial Shade
  • USDA Zones: 9a-12b
  • Colors: Green, Brown
  • Bloom Color: Yellow, Gold cones
  • Bloom Season: Fall
  • Native To: Southern China, Japan

Flax Lily

Dianella revoluta 'Baby Bliss'

The Flax Lily forms clumps of grass-like foliage. Its blue-green leaf blades are strappy and slightly arching. Loose clusters of pale violet star-shaped flowers are followed by lustrous purple fruits.

  • Plant Type: Evergreen perennial
  • Water Needs: Low
  • Mature Height: 1' - 2'
  • Mature Width: 1' - 2'
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun to Partial Shade
  • USDA Zones: 7 to 11
  • Colors: Blue-green
  • Bloom Color: Violet
  • Bloom Season: Spring, Summer
  • Native To: Australia

Spotted Porcupine Mangave

Mangave x 'Spotted Porcupine"

The stunning Mangave ‘Spotted Porcupine’ is a unique hybrid succulent that combines the beauty of Agave toumeyana bella and Bloodspot. This plant features striking spotted foliage and a compact growth habit, making it a perfect addition to any succulent collection. Ideal for containers and small spaces.

  • Plant Type: Succulent
  • Water Needs: Low
  • Mature Height: 2'
  • Mature Width: 2'
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun to Partial Shade
  • USDA Zones: 9 to 11
  • Colors: Green
  • Bloom Color: Red/Burgandy, White
  • Native To: Man-made Hybrid

Phormium 'Rainbow Sunrise'

Rainbow Sunrise New Zealand Flax

Phormium 'Rainbow Sunrise' is also known as Phormium 'Maori Sunrise'. Its leaves grow from the center of the plant with central new growth coming in pale pink to pale yellow and a narrow bronze-green band along the leaf margin.

  • Plant Type: Perennial
  • Water Needs: Moderare
  • Mature Height: 8' - 10'
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun to Partial Shade
  • USDA Zones: 8 to 11
  • Colors: Pink, Bronze, Green
  • Bloom Color: Insignificant
  • Bloom Season: Spring-Summer
  • Native To: New Zealand

Phormium 'Sundowner'

Sundowner New Zealand Flax

Sundownder New Zealand Flax is a cultivar that usually grows 6-8 feet, but that can grow up to 10 feet. It grows upright with wide leaves that are a bronzy green with pink margins. New foliage often grows in fully rose pink.

  • Plant Type: Evergreen perennial
  • Water Needs: Moderate
  • Mature Height: 8' - 10'
  • Mature Width: 4' - 6'
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun to Partial Shade
  • USDA Zones: 8 to 11
  • Colors: Pink, Bronze, Green
  • Bloom Color: Insignificant
  • Bloom Season: Spring-Summer
  • Native To: New Zealand

Royal Palm

Roystonea regia

Roystonea Regia palm leaf bases overlap to form a smooth region above the trunk called the "crownshaft". Royal Palms drop their dying, old leaves, about one dead leaf per month. They also produce cream colored flowers and reddish-black fruits in the summer.

  • Plant Type: Evergreen Perennial
  • Water Needs: Medium
  • Mature Height: 50' - 70'
  • Mature Width: 20' - 25'
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun to Partial Shade
  • USDA Zones: 10a to 11
  • Colors: Green. Grey
  • Bloom Color: Yellow, Cream
  • Bloom Season: Summer
  • Native To: Florida, Cuba

Bald Cypress

Taxodium distichum

Taxodium distichum may look like a needled evergreen, but it is deciduous and loses its leaves in the summer becoming 'bald', which is where it gets its common name. It is native to swamps, bayous and rivers in the Southern United States where it grows in swampy water with its branches covered in Spanish moss. Its yellowish-green foliage turns a rusty orange-brown in the fall.

  • Plant Type: Deciduous
  • Water Needs: Medium, High
  • Mature Height: 50' - 70'
  • Mature Width: 20' - 45'
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun
  • USDA Zones: 4 to 9
  • Colors: Bright Green, Orange
  • Bloom Color: Produces brown cones
  • Bloom Season: Non-flowering
  • Native To: Southern United States

Cardboard Palm

Zamia furfuracea

Cardboard Palm is a cycad native to the coastal mountains and sandy sea cliffs of Veracruz, Mexico. It grows slowly producing leaves that are oblong and coarse (like cardboard). Female plants produce cones that need to be fertilized by pollen from the male plants. Once fertilized, orange seeds mature on the cones.

  • Plant Type: Cycad
  • Water Needs: Low, Moderate
  • Mature Height: 3' - 4'
  • Mature Width: 4' - 7'
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun to Partial Shade
  • USDA Zones: 9a to 11b
  • Colors: Green
  • Bloom Color: N/A
  • Bloom Season: N/A
  • Native To: Mexico
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