Plant ID request

[Toni]

Photos on:

Plants were purchased as simply "ice plants" and the retailer neither remembers them nor knows what they are. They are a marvelous ground cover that is doing very well in sunny, hot, and dry South Florida conditions, and I would love to recommend them to friends if I actually knew what they were...

Once identified then can we talk about propagating them? I assume stem cuttings taken during an actively growing season?

Thanks

[Cereus-validus.....]

They are Aptenia. They are not cold hardy further north but since the flower the first year from seed they can be grown as annuals. They can also be propagated from cuttings.

yellow flowered plant is Aptenia (formerly Platythyra) haeckeliana, the purple flowered is Aptenia cordifolia. The two will hybridize in cultivation. The cultivars 'Red Apple' and 'Sunny Sue' are such hybrids.

[Toni]

Thank you!! I see they're considered invasive in California- no wonder they are doing so well. It is just a rare thing to find something so lovely which tolerates both my very dry winters and the /deluges/floods of summer and fall.

[escape]

I love the variegated variety.

Need a good, cheap, knowledge expanding present for yourself or a friend?

[Cereus-validus.....]

You may have noticed that the captions for the variegated forms of Aptenia cordifolia and Aptenia lancifolia were inadvertently switched. (Aptenia lancifolia has an elliptical leaf blade not rounded at the base.) Both are purple flowered. The variegates do not come true from seed and must be propagated from cuttings.