Tropicals & Tender Perennials: 'Phoenix' bird or paradise, 1 by dyzzypyxxy

dyzzypyxxy wrote:
Hm, the groundcover creepy thing might be prostrate jasmine of some kind (there are 3 or 4 different kinds). I've got Texas Longleaf under the mango tree and also Tricolor (see pic) planted under my robellinis out front last year. It's great once it takes hold, covers well, smothers weeds, eats up leaves (works well under oak trees) and needs very little water or fert. Only down side is it can take a while to cover. Get yourself a really cheap serrated knife (mine was $2.95 from WalMart) for trimming it. Works great. I go along the edges of mine about every couple of months in the summer to keep it from creeping across the walkway. That might be ok for disguising the milkweed plants, too. Once the monarchs have lunched on them, you can cut them down to the level of the jasmine groundcover (once it's established, it will be 7in. or so deep) to hide them.

I love portulaca, too. Great colors. Did you know you can eat the leaves and they're very nutritious? They have Omega-3 (or something?) in them. Tasty in a salad - slightly tart as I recall. The weedy sister of your pretty hybrid portulaca used to grow wild in my garden in Utah. Until I started putting it in salads, that is.

Cheers Elaine ps. Confession here - the serrated knife is actually my favorite garden tool, I have several of them hiding around the yard stuck into pots. You can prune, edge, dig, transplant, work plants out of pots and cut open bags of compost and mulch etc. with it. I once felled a 12ft. banana plant with my old bread knife! (watery stem, not really a woody trunk like you might think . . . )