GARDENING : Jatropha Adds Spice to O.C. Yards

Imagine a plant that flourishes in sun or shade, dry or moist spots, isn’t subjected to disease or insect infestations, thrives on benign neglect and produces clusters of showy red flowers nine to 10 months a year. Sound too good to be true?

It isn’t. The little-known shrub or small tree is spicy Jatropha (Jatropha integerrima), native to Cuba, grown extensively in tropical and subtropical countries in Asia, Africa and South America, and only just starting to appear in Orange County gardens.

The plant is so little known and used in California that it isn’t even listed in the “Sunset Garden Book,” the much-honored reference work for this region. Nor is it included in the respected Encyclopedia of Garden Plants compiled by the American Horticultural Society.

The few people who seem to know much about it are the growers and the few hundreds of gardeners who have tried it since its introduction six years ago.

Spicy Jatropha can be grown as a shrub or trained as a patio tree. It doesn’t grow taller than 10 feet and can be pruned to stay at a manageable four or five feet. The spread is about six feet. The plant has bright green leaves, which drop in late November or December. From early spring through December, it produces small clusters of brick-red, five-petaled, one-inch-diameter flowers, each highlighted with golden stamens. It’s one of the showiest and most treasured plants in a local miniature rose nursery.

“It’s one of our favorite plants because it’s so easy to care for and so colorful almost all year long,” said Laurie Chaffin, who with her mother, Dorothy Cralle, owns Pixie Treasures Nursery in Yorba Linda.

Although they don’t sell the plant, they have it prominently displayed along the main driveway, where it shares a bed with roses and perennials. Another grows against a chain-link fence densely shaded by a towering pine tree. A third grows in a hot, dry site along a perimeter fence. Chaffin also grows one at her Buena Park house where it’s against a block wall. She’s had experience with its different environmental preferences.

“The Jatropha produces continuous flowers, early spring through late winter, whether it’s growing in shade or sun,” Chaffin said. “The plant also thrives whether it’s regularly watered or neglected.”

It also doesn’t seem to care if it receives fertilizer. At Pixie Treasures, the one along the driveway is fed once a month, with the roses and companion plants.

The one in the dry spot receives water “only when we remember, and that’s often once in two weeks, and it doesn’t get any fertilizer,” Chaffin added.

The one in her own garden also isn’t fertilized, although it receives abundant water because it’s interspersed with roses. The only difference she’s noticed in performance is the spicy Jatropha in the shaded spot is only four feet tall but the others are six feet.

“It seems to prefer sun, but the flowering quantity and length of time is the same for all of them,” she said. “It’s a great landscape plant and should be used more often.”

Frank Burkard, owner of Burkard’s Nursery in Pasadena, agrees. He’s planted two at his house in San Clemente, where they grow as accent shrubs in a formal courtyard.

“It’s a great plant; it’s so silly that it’s hardly used,” he said. “Although it’s frost-tender, it can grow wherever hibiscus do and is easy to protect if a rare freeze hits.”

He especially likes the airy appearance of its long branches and small flower clusters. He agrees that it’s an undemanding plant and said it can be planted with or mixed into a wide variety of landscapes.

“It gives a tropical feel when it’s mixed with other plants,” he said.

Spicy Jatropha is primarily grown by Monrovia Wholesale Nursery in Monrovia, which first introduced it in 1987. It’s available as one- and five-gallon patio trees or one- and five-gallon shrubs.

“We started growing it because the long blooming habit promises great potential for landscaping uses,” said Audrey Teasdale, the Monrovia’s staff horticulturist.

“We first became aware of it when a nursery in Africa sent it to us in 1984 for our evaluation,” she added. “We decided to introduce it because of its tremendous landscape potential.”

But it’s been a quiet introduction. Gardeners have learned of spicy Jatropha only by seeing it in other gardens or occasionally at nurseries. Monrovia Nursery records indicate that only a few thousand have been sold, although the demand has slowly been increasing as people see it in garden settings.

Part of the reason for its relative obscurity may be that the appearance of young stock offered in nurseries can be deceiving. Like many plants, flower production increases with age and pruning.

“I saw a shrub at a local nursery when I was with a friend of mine who is a landscape designer,” Chaffin said. “I begged her to buy it, but it wasn’t in bloom and looked scraggly. She couldn’t understand what I was making a fuss about. Then months later she spotted the spicy Jatropha in my own garden. It was late spring, and the plant was a real eye-catcher. As she exclaimed and said she had to have one herself, I reminded her I tried to get her to buy one months ago.”

Although the plant is very easy to care for, the appearance can be enhanced by occasional light pruning. Teasdale recommends tip pruning in February or March (after frost danger) to shape and encourage more branching.

In March or April, spicy Jatropha begins its lengthy flowering period. It’s a continuous rather than a cyclical bloomer, so the flowers appear nonstop until November or December. At that time, the plant enters a brief dormancy when leaves drop. Any remaining flower buds linger, awaiting early spring to resume their growth.

The origin of the plant’s name is also a mystery.

No one growing the plant can detect a fragrance, although the name alludes to one. Someone reported detecting a spicy scent once on a late fall afternoon.

“It’s possible that the flower is fragrant in the humidity of tropical climates,” Teasdale said.

Even if it doesn’t appeal to the nose, spicy Jatropha is sure to be an eye-catching addition for garden buffs who want a touch of the unusual.

The primary grower of spicy Jatropha in the area is the Monrovia Nursery, a wholesale supplier. It can be ordered from nurseries throughout Orange County by special request.