Cordyline – Color for the Landscape

Cordyline (Cordyline fruticosa) can add color for the landscape at your house whether used inside or out. The colors of this plant can range from glossy green to reddish purple to a combo of colors (red, purple, white, or yellow) and this is just the leaves! The plant can produce red or yellowish flowers that smell sweet.

The trunk of this evergreen shrub that is palm like is most of the time is not branched and can grow as tall as 10 feet. We are more familiar with the smaller version as a houseplant prior to the trunk fully developing.

The leaves as stated above can come in a variety of colors. They are about 12 to 30 inches in length and about 4 to 6 inches in width. The flowers this plant produces are ½ inch wide and grow in clusters in 12-inch panicles. These can have fruit in the form of berries that are red.

Cordyline Sports

Most of the cordyline varieties we find in the landscape or used in flora arrangements originate with the species fruiticosa

Here are a few of the more common varieties currently grown:

• Cordyline ‘Red Sister’
• Cordyline ‘Schubert’
• Cordyline ‘Xerox’
• Cordyline ‘Peter Buck’
• Cordyline terminalis
• Cordyline ‘Anti-lu’
• Cordyline ‘Black Magic’
• Cordyline ‘Pink Diamond’
• Cordyline ‘Bolero’
• Cordyline ‘Kiwi’

Origin

Cordyline fruticosa most likely originated in the city of Papua, New Guinea and Southeast Asia. It was transported through the Pacific Ocean area but the early Polynesians. They used the plant rhizomes as a starchy food source. At present, this plant grows in the eastern part of Australia, Hawaiian Islands, and many other islands of the Pacific.

Growing Conditions Required

Cordyline is good grown in US zones 10 – 12. This plant does not like 55 degrees and below in temperatures.

This plant likes partial shade to almost full sun. When in full-sun the plant should be watered more often. If this plant is being gown indoors, put it in a bright spot but no sunlight that is direct.

Allow the soil to dry out in between watering. Keep air humid (especially indoors) though so mist every so often.

These plants can be easily propagated from stem cuttings. Take a stem from a mature plant and cut it to about 3 to 5 inch sections. Be sure to remove all leaves and place the cuttings on a layer of sand. This needs heat from the bottom. The stem’s eyes are what grow into shoots. Then when the shoots have about 4 to 6 leaves place in potting soil.

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