Parry's agave

A clumping, multi-stemmed evergreen perennial from South Africa, grown for its unmistakable crane-head flowers - a horizontal green-and-pink spathe from which bright orange sepals and vivid blue petals emerge like the crest of an exotic bird. Bold, paddle-shaped blue-green leaves on long stalks form a 3-4 foot fountain of foliage. Winter hardy only in USDA zones 10-12 (frost-free subtropics); everywhere colder it is grown as a houseplant or summered-out container plant. It blooms reliably only from a well-established, somewhat crowded clump, so patience is the key to flowers.

A near-indestructible architectural houseplant grown for stiff, upright, sword-shaped, succulent leaves banded in grey-green - yellow-margined in the popular "Laurentii" - and long known as the snake plant or "mother-in-law's tongue". POWO records it as native to tropical West Africa, and its currently accepted botanical name is Dracaena trifasciata (it was reclassified out of Sansevieria), though the nursery trade and most gardeners still know it as Sansevieria. It is famously tough: it tolerates low light, deep shade to bright indirect light, neglect, and irregular watering, which makes it one of the most forgiving plants you can grow indoors. HONESTY: the commonest way to kill it is OVERwatering - soggy soil rots the rhizome - so the real skill is letting the mix dry out between waterings, not watering more. It is toxic to cats and dogs (saponins cause vomiting and diarrhoea if eaten), and the popular "releases oxygen at night and purifies the air" reputation is overstated at realistic room densities. RHS treats it as a tender houseplant (H1B), frost-tender and grown under glass or indoors except in frost-free climates.

Kalanchoe tomentosa is a slow-growing, evergreen succulent subshrub endemic to the rocky granite outcrops of east-central Madagascar, where it tolerates seasonal drought in arid and semi-arid scrubland. In gardens it excels as a tactile, silver-felted container or houseplant prized entirely for its velvety, brown-tipped foliage; it rarely flowers in cultivation. The honest catch is toxicity: the plant is toxic to cats and dogs and mildly toxic to humans, so it must be kept out of reach of pets and children - making it a poor choice for households with either.

Aloe maculata (soap aloe, also called zebra aloe; long sold as Aloe saponaria) is a clumping, stemless succulent from southern Africa with broad, triangular leaves marked by distinctive "H-shaped" pale spots. It is grown for its flat-topped racemes of tubular flowers in shades of orange-red to coral and yellow, held on tall branched stalks that draw sunbirds, bees, and other insects. A tough, drought- and salt-tolerant groundcover that spreads by suckers, it suits rock gardens, dry borders, coastal plantings, and containers in warm climates. It is frost-tender: the RHS rates it H1C (roughly USDA 9b-11), so leaves are damaged below freezing and it needs protection or indoor wintering where frosts occur. The leaf gel is used traditionally for skin and other ailments, but the plant is recorded as harmful if eaten (handle with care; seeds are reputedly poisonous), so treat it as not for casual consumption around people and pets.

A long-lived native perennial of central and eastern US woodland borders and prairie meadows with deep blue pea-shaped flowers in late spring, blue-green leguminous foliage, attractive black seed pods for winter interest, and a nitrogen-fixing root system (Fabaceae). Larval host for 6 documented butterfly species per NC State (orange sulphur, clouded sulphur, frosted elfin, eastern tailed-blue, hoary edge, wild indigo duskywing) - among the highest Lep-host-count perennials in the eastern flora.

A bold, moisture-loving native perennial of eastern North America that dies back to a woody base each winter and returns to throw up stout 2 to 6 feet stems topped with enormous 4-8 inch saucer-shaped flowers - white, pink, red, or burgundy, each with a contrasting central eye - from June into September. NC State Extension describes a herbaceous perennial hardy across USDA zones 4a-9b that thrives in wet to constantly moist soils, tolerates heat, humidity, and even brief flooding, and draws hummingbirds, butterflies, and other pollinators. The tropical-looking dinner-plate blooms make it a dramatic focal point for rain gardens, pond edges, and the back of a sunny border.