Imagine: It can be a shrub or a vine. It has tons of flowers and crazy drought tolerance

Pineland allamanda (Angadenia berteroi) is among Florida’s most colorful natives, with large, golden-yellow blossoms nearly year-round.

Hardy in all but the coldest locations in Central Florida, this versatile plant can be grown as a sprawling shrub or a twining vine that climbs up to eight feet high. Amazingly drought tolerant, it flourishes in full or part-day sun in poor, sandy soil.

Because of its adaptability, pineland allamanda (aka wild allamanda and yellow mandevilla) is suitable for informal settings – spreading over a group of saw palmettos, for example. But it’s equally appropriate in more formal applications – such as in front of a house, where its gold flowers might complement blue blossom plants such as plumbago.

Pineland allamanda can be distinguished from exotic Allamanda plants by its much smaller foliage. Propagate with warm-season cuttings. Note: the plant’s white, sticky sap can be irritating. Pineland allamanda is often available locally.

Ti plants – love them or leaf them

Whether you love ti plants or consider them garish and gaudy, there’s no doubt that their  leaves are eye-catching.

Challenged for flashy foliage only by caladiums and crotons, ti plants (pronounced “tea”) are difficult to ignore. Remarkably hardy despite their South Pacific origins, ti plants grow in sun or shade on any well-drained site.

They consist of six- to eight-foot-tall unbranched canes with a cluster of broad, bi- or tri-colored leaves in shades of red, pink, green and cream. Some specimens develop basal branching and acquire a shrubby aspect. Often going unnoticed are ti plants’ mildly fragrant, long-lasting, red or pink flowers that open during the warm season.

Many ti plants – which are best installed in groups – eventually become leggy and – depending on the situation – require cutting back to nodes that will generate new growth. The cuttings can simply be stuck into the soil, where the majority of them will take root.

Although extremely adaptable, ti plants (Cordyline fruticosa) perform best on moderately enriched sites in bright, filtered light.

Death by a thousand cuts

Cambium is a thin, green layer of tissue that lies between a woody plant’s bark and wood. Cambium cells are responsible for increasing the plant’s girth and for creating new vascular tissue.

Blue porterweedThis native perennial blooms year-round and is loved by butterflies and other pollinators

Removing the cambium in a sufficiently wide swath quickly kills the plant, and that’s what happens to vast numbers of woody trees and shrubs because of careless use of string trimmers.

So be careful when wielding trimmers or, if you use a landscape maintenance company, watch workers carefully.

Plant to ponder: Coleus hybrids

Unmatched for the color combinations their foliage offers gardeners, coleus hybrids grow one to three feet tall in bright, filtered light, though many tolerate full sun if regularly irrigated. The species (Plectranthus scutellarioides) is native from Southern China to Australia. Propagate with warm-season cuttings.