FREE: 20 Pride-Of-Barbados SeeDs

The listing, 20 Pride-Of-Barbados SeeDs has ended.

The Pride-Of-Barbados has long been a favorite for hot tropical landscapes where it provides a fiesta of vibrant color throughout the year. Even botanists recognized this plant’s beauty as the word “pulcherrima” in the scientific name, Caesalpinia pulcherrima, means very pretty. This Caribbean native celebrates the warm summer season, hitting its stride in flowering during the toughest part of summer when most of our color plants are languishing in the dog-day sun. Some of the alternate common names, such as flame tree, peacock flower, and flowering fence hint at its showy nature.
Spectacular terminal racemes up to 20 in. long begin to appear in spring in south Texas, during summer in central and north Texas. Individual flowers open progressively from the base of the raceme to the tip with the longest pedicles on the lower flowers, giving the raceme a cone or pyramidal-shaped outline. Racemes last for an extended time as the individual florets sequentially open up the stem. Florets are 1½ to 2 in. wide with five showy red to orange, occasionally yellow, petals arranged like a shallow cup with bright red stamens extending 2 in. beyond the petals. Cool looking waxy lima bean-shaped 3 to 6 in. long pods follow the flowers, starting green, flushing red, and eventually turning shiny brown. One can either enjoy the fruit development or deadhead the spent flowers to hasten the next flush of blooms. As if the flowers were not showy enough on their own, nature has made them attractive to hummingbirds and butterflies which add movement and excitement to the summer spectacle!