Name: Mussaenda

Botanical name:Mussaenda cultivars

Description: The luscious bracts of these shrubs appear to be as soft as clouds. They range from pure white to red, depending on the species or cultivar. Mussaenda philippica 'Aurorae' is white; M. erythrophylla has red bracts; M. 'Queen Sirkit' is a hybrid of both philippica and erythrophylla and is a beautiful pink. The flowers are small and either yellow or red. These shrubs want to be large and may climb over other plants, but can be kept smaller by pruning.

Height: 10 to 30 feet

Light: Full sun, then partial shade, especially in the afternoon.

Culture: Mussaenda likes regular irrigation. A deep layer of mulch can reduce the amount of water necessary to keep it happy. It doesn't like cold and will lose leaves if the temperature drops to 40 degrees or so (as it did the past winter), so a southern exposure would be an ideal location. As the shrub ages, it tends to get leggy, so a lower-growing and complementary shrub or ground cover will help disguise the bareness.

Prune in the spring. John McLaughlin and Joe Garofalo of the Miami-Dade Cooperative Extension Service recommend keeping mussaendas at about five feet.

Use a controlled-release fertilizer spring, summer and late fall, with foliar sprays of micronutrients three or four times a year. In Mussaendas for South Florida Landscapes, McLaughlin and Garofalo note that these plants are susceptible to lobate lac scale and pink hibiscus mealybug. Use Bayer Advanced Tree and Shrub Insect Killer according to bottle directions on lac scale. Natural predators such as lady bugs will attack the mealybug.

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