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Bulbine frutescens 'Tiny Tangerine' (Tangerine Stalked Bulbine) - This is a nice smaller selection of the orange form of Bulbine frutescens, a succulent groundcover that has narrow fleshy bright green foot-long leaves, which form an open rosette of leaves to 1 foot tall and spreads by short rhizomes to create dense 4 foot wide clumps. Pale orange flowers with frilly yellow stamens form atop long stalks that rise above the foliage in the spring through the summer and often through to winter.
Plant in full sun to light shade in a well-drained soil and provide occasional to very little irrigation. Evergreen and hardy to 20 degrees F but its ability to freeze down and resprout from underground has some listing hardiness down to 10°F. A great plant for a small-scale groundcover or mixed in with succulents in the garden or in large pots. It has a bloom period that extends into the summer along the coast but has somewhat of a summer dormant period in hot interior gardens then reblooms in the fall.
Bulbine frutescens comes from the southern coast of South Africa north up to Mozambique. The name for the genus comes from the Greek word 'bolbine' and Latin 'bulbus', a general word for a bulbous or onion-like plant but is somewhat misleading as these plants do not have a bulbous base. The specific epithet comes from the Latin word 'frutex' meaning "shrubby" and is in reference to the way this plant forms solid stands, looking much like a low shrub. Bulbine frutescens is sometimes commonly called Jelly Burn Plant as it contains glycoproteins, the ingredient in several aloe species, and is touted for similar healing properties as Aloe vera such as to ease burns, rashes and itches. These properties have also caused it to be called cape balsam (from the Africaans name balsem kopieva) - other common names include snake flower, cat's tail and and geelkatstert.
'Tiny Tangerine' is a cultivar selection made by Mountain States Wholesale Nursery in Phoenix, Arizona and they hold an Arizona State trademark on the name. We grew this plant from 2013 to 2017 but discontinued growing this selection to focus on continued production of Bulbine frutescens 'Hallmark', which is slightly taller and has darker flowers. We also grow the yellow flowering form of Bulbine frutescens.
The information displayed on this page about Bulbine frutescens 'Tiny Tangerine' is based on the research we conducted about it in our nursery horticultural library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include some of our own observations made about this plant as it grows in the nursery gardens and other gardens that we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we have received from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information that will aid others to better grow it.
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