Bold Colors, Many Shapes
One produces blindingly bright flowers. Another has spiky, bronze-red leaves that point straight up. Yet another has delicate foliage covered with glistening dots that look like ice crystals.
Ice plant can be sprawling, shrubby and even bushy.
It comes in a dizzying array of colors and shapes, but most nurseries have only a few varieties in stock now. Many more will be available in the spring. It is fire-resistant, quick-growing and drought-tolerant. Its blooms are most prevalent in the warm months.
Here’s a rundown, from local nurseries and Sunset magazine’s Western Garden Book, of some of the myriad forms:
* Rosea (Drosanthemum). Two varieties, one that grows to six inches and one that grows to two feet tall. The taller has showy, one-inch purple flowers; the shorter has trailing stems and sheets of pale pink flowers. Both have ice crystal-like dots on their leaves. Plant 12 to 18 inches apart.
* Lampranthus. A shrubby variety that gets woody at the base and blooms in colors so bright they are almost gaudy. L. productus, or purple ice plant, is the most common, but it also comes in golden yellow, pink, rose-pink and red. It grows to 15 inches tall, spreading 18 inches to two feet. It blooms heavily from January through April with scattered blooms at other times. There’s also a bush variety. Plant 12 to 18 inches apart.
* White trailing ice plant (Delosperma alba). Good ground and bank cover that spreads quickly. Has small, fleshy leaves and tiny flowers that are barely noticeable. Set plants in direct sun one foot apart for fast cover.
* Red apple (aptenia). Botanically speaking, aptenia is not really ice plant. But it is closely related, and most nurseries sell it as ice plant. The shrubby perennial has stems that trail to two feet with heart-shaped or oval leaves that are bright green. It flowers in spring and summer. There’s a variety with purplish-red flowers as well. Plant 12 to 18 inches apart.
* Carpobrotus (Hottentot fig or sea fig). This is the plant most people think of as ice plant. The leaves are coarse, two inches long and seem to fairly burst with moisture. Impervious to disease, insects or smog, the plant is fast growing and fire-resistant. Rosy purple flowers bloom in the summer. Difficult to find in nurseries now because of its reputation for sliding down hillsides, carpobrotus is probably the stuff in your neighbor’s back yard. It is not a good variety for steep hillsides and should be anchored with deeper-rooted shrubs and other plants. It grows easily from cuttings, which should be planted 18 to 24 inches apart.
* Cephalophyllum (Red spike). A clumping plant three to five inches high, it spreads slowly to 18 inches wide. This one has cerise flowers and spiky, bronze-red leaves that point straight up. It blooms in winter with scattered bloom at other seasons. Plant six to 12 inches apart for ground cover. Tolerates cold well.
* Yellow trailing ice plant (Malephora). Resistant to heat, wind, exhaust fumes and fire, this plant is used often in roadside plantings. It has light gray-green foliage with flowers over a long season. Blooms are scattered rather than in sheets. Space plants a foot apart.
* Mesembryanthemum. The summer annual grows wild in parts of the state. Sprawling plants a few inches tall and several feet wide, they have leaves that are oval, flat and stalked and up to four inches long. The foliage turns red in the dry season; flowers are white to pinkish. Plant up to two feet apart.
