Chinese hibiscus

Loropetalum chinense is an evergreen shrub native to woodlands and thickets across southern China, Japan, Taiwan, and adjacent parts of Southeast Asia, valued in gardens for its distinctive ribbon-like flowers and, in the popular purple-leaved forms, year-round burgundy foliage. It thrives in zones 7-9 as a bold structural shrub or hedging plant, blooming most heavily in late winter to early spring. The honest catch is its absolute dependence on acidic soil: even slightly alkaline pH triggers iron chlorosis, and in the Southeastern US a bacterial crown gall disease can cause rapid branch dieback and plant death, making site preparation and soil testing non-negotiable before planting.

Copperleaf (also called Jacob's coat or fire dragon plant) is a fast-growing tropical evergreen shrub from Fiji and neighboring islands of the South Pacific (Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, the Bismarck Archipelago, and Tuvalu), grown almost everywhere else for its foliage. The species has large, broad, coarsely toothed leaves mottled coppery green and red; the pink, cream, gold, and ebony-purple leaf patterns sold in the trade belong to named cultivars such as 'Blackie', 'Bronze Pink', 'Java White', and 'Tricolor', not to the plain species described here. The flowers are tiny and insignificant, carried in slender catkin-like spikes on the same plant: long hanging male spikes and short female spikes that are often hidden among the leaves. It is frost-tender and reliably hardy only in USDA zones 10a-11b; everywhere colder it is grown as a warm-season annual or as a container plant brought indoors for winter. In a frost-free landscape it can reach 8 to 12 feet tall and 6 to 8 feet wide, though as a container or bedding plant it usually stays around 3 to 4 feet. Treat it as an irritant: the RHS lists the cultivar 'Obovata' as a skin and eye irritant and harmful if eaten. It is listed as introduced in Florida, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico, but UF/IFAS does not consider it a problem species in Florida at this time.

Firebush (also called scarlet bush, hummingbird bush, and Mexican firecracker) is a fast-growing, evergreen, soft-stemmed shrub in the coffee family (Rubiaceae) and a Florida native: it grows wild from central Florida south through the Florida Keys, and on through the Bahamas, the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America into South America as far as Argentina. In a frost-free landscape it forms a dense, spreading shrub of 6 to 12 feet, occasionally to 15 feet, with whorls of oval leaves that are red-hairy when young and speckled red or purple at maturity, reddish stems, and terminal clusters of slender, tubular, orange-red flowers 0.5 to 1.5 inches long nearly all year. Hummingbirds and butterflies work the flowers, and birds eat the small berries, which ripen from red to black and are edible. It is frost-tender: a freeze can kill it to the ground, it regrows from the roots through zone 9, and farther north it is grown as a 2 to 3 feet summer annual or container plant. Buy with care, because several non-native firebushes are sold under the same name: plants labeled 'African', 'Dwarf', 'Compacta', or 'Firefly' are often Hamelia patens var. glabra, a variety from southern Mexico to northern South America with smooth leaves and mostly yellow flowers, and 'Bahama firebush' is a different species, Hamelia cuprea. Florida's native form is Hamelia patens var. patens, the plant this record describes.

Heavenly bamboo is an evergreen (semi-deciduous in cold winters) shrub native to eastern Asia from the Himalayan foothills to Japan, valued for striking year-round foliage that flushes pink-red in spring, turns green in summer, and blazes red-purple in autumn and winter, plus panicles of white summer flowers and persistent bright-red berries. It is adaptable, drought-tolerant once established, and undemanding in most soils from full sun to part shade. The honest catch is dual: all plant parts - especially the berries - contain cyanogenic compounds, and excessive consumption of the berries can be lethal to cedar waxwings and is toxic to cats and livestock, making it a poor choice wherever birds congregate to feed on winter fruit; and in the southeastern United States it is classified invasive (Florida Category I) and is best replaced with a non-invasive native alternative.

Japanese holly is a dense, small-leaved evergreen shrub native to Japan, Korea, eastern China, and adjacent regions of eastern Asia, widely grown as a boxwood substitute for formal hedging and topiary. It tolerates heavy shearing well and thrives in acidic soils in a range spanning USDA zones 5b-8b. The honest catch is twofold: the glossy black berries are toxic to humans and pets (a genus-wide trait of Ilex), and the species is listed as invasive in parts of the eastern United States, where bird-dispersed seedlings colonise native woodland edges.

Japanese pittosporum is a dense, evergreen shrub native to warm-temperate and subtropical coastal forests of Japan, China, Taiwan, and Korea, prized for its leathery whorled foliage and intensely fragrant white flower clusters in spring. In suitable climates (USDA zones 8b-11) it is exceptionally tough - tolerating salt spray, drought, compacted soils, and heavy pruning - making it a staple of coastal landscapes, hedges, and mass plantings. The honest catch is twofold: it is frost-tender and will be killed or severely damaged below about 15°F, ruling it out for most of the continental US interior; and in mild Mediterranean-climate regions it escapes cultivation from bird-dispersed sticky seeds, where a Madrid study ranked it among the shrubs most associated with damage to native vegetation.

A colorful warm-climate screen and hedge palette for frost-light gardens: flowering shrubs, scrambling color, wildlife nectar, and dry-season structure.