It don't get better than THIS, folks! The BEST delospermas by far....

RED MOUNTAIN^® Flame ice plant

Delosperma 'PWWG02S'   (Year of Introduction: 2016)

I can't think of another groudcover that can even BEGIN to hold a candle to Flame (to mix metaphors)...the flowers are simply enormous: almost 3 inches across. They're produced with ridiculous abandon (check the NEXT picture) and bloom for weeks and months on end. I am astonished that this plant isn't growing in every other garden. It was bred by David Salman: guru and originator of High Country Gardens--one of the best of the dozens of plants he has conjured! By the way, if you click on the bold caption under the picture you will be sent to Plant Select which is marketing these plants for even MORE information...but I have an axe to grind (as you will see) in doing my own little drum roll for them....(more mixed metaphors: that red will do it for you!)

FLAME blazing in the Steppe Garden at Denver Botanic Gardens

So you don't like red flowers? Honestly, get a life! Those woosey pinky bluesy pastels are so last Millennium! In Russian "красный" means BOTH red and beautiful. Tell the Chinese you don't like red! They'll laugh at you. In Spanish "Colorado" means red...but it also means "colored"....red, vermilion, scarlet, crimson, carmine--BLOOD red, Fire engine red. Ripe Tomato red: you gotta love it. This plant takes the cake (a very red, tasty cake I might add). If you aren't growing it you're missing out on the most spectacular plant to come down the pike since Fire Spinner (we'll get to that eventually!).

RED MOUNTAIN^® ice plant

Delosperma dyeri 'Psdold'  (Year of Introduction:  2007)

Here is one of the parents of RED MOUNTAIN FLAME--but well worth growing in its own right. It's a rather rare plant only known from a handful of locations in the East Cape of South Africa. I will never forget my shock when I first grew this when the truly red flowers opened. And opened--it blooms for a long time and is a classic in and of itself--not to be totally overshadowed by its absurdly red offspring!

I love the different shading in the flowers.

STARBURST^® ice plant

Delosperma floribundum (Year of Introduction: 1998)

I shall never forget the metallic sheen on the petals as we drove by this one late afternoon as my friend Koos (J.P. Roux) drove across the high steppe leading to Maseru in the Orange Free State. Masses lined the highway near the town of Springfontein. This has a wide distribution in the summer rainfall karoo--and it was the first hardy ice plant to be marketed by Plant Select. Unlike the much more purple red D. cooperi, this has a bright white center to the bloom and it is sub-shrubby rather than ground covering. Like D. cooperi, however, it will bloom consistently and heavily for months provided it gets watered.

Here's one that decided to jump ship and grow in a wall at Denver Botanic Gardens. If you look carefully you can see a sheen on the leaves akin to the crystals on the Mesembryanthemum species responsible for giving the family its common name of "ice plant".

TABLE MOUNTAIN^® ice plant

Delosperma 'John Proffitt' (Year of Introduction: 2002)

Superficially like the classic Delosperma cooperi, which was introduced a decade before Plant Select took off (and helped pave the way for the program) this mesemb has flattened leaves and tolerates more heat, humidity and shade. It is a vigorous grower that thrives over a wide swath of the USA and elsewhere.

MESA VERDE^® ice plant

Delosperma 'Kelaidis' PP 13,876   (Year of Introduction: 2002)

I suppose I should blush, since the cultivar name shares my surname. That's because I was the first to notice a few rogue seedlings in our large plantings of hardy ice plants we laid out roughly where "The Hive" restaurant at DBG now stands. We were growing a variety of species to compare performance, and the genes from a yellow one (either D. nubigenum or D. congestum) obviously crossed with a purple flowered one to produce this dusky pink gem, which do recall the adobe red sandstones of the ancient Pueblo monuments in Southwesternmost Colorado that provide the Marketing name...

Alan's Apricot ice plant

Delosperma 'Alan's Apricot' (Year of Introduction: 2016)

I suppose we SHOULD call this "Son of Kelaidis"--Alan Tower, a talented garden designer, nurseryman and photographer from Spokane (and now Tucson) grew this from seed, and it is definitely distinct in tone and color from the parent. It is also extremely vigorous and hardy: I say grow both and see which one YOU prefer!

Here is 'Alan's Apricot' growing in my home gardejn: it's a killer.

Lavender Ice ice plant

Delosperma 'Psfave'  (Year of Introduction: 2009)

Blue does not occur in any of the thousands of species and hybrids of the family Aizoaceae (the ice plants). and some would argue this is more pink than blue. Well, let's call it lavender then! This is a seedling of 'John Proffitt' (TABLE MOUNTAIN) that occurred at Perennial Favorites--a nursery in Rye, Colorado. It has tremendous vigor, and an extremely tough constitution. It is also one of the more consistently re-blooming ice plants.

And here it is making a vast swath in the Steppe Garden at Denver Botanic Gardens.

GRANITA® Raspberry ice plant

Delosperma 'PJS01S'  (Year of Introduction: 2018)

Two of the most recent Plant Select intros in the gens were created by John Stireman, an extraordinary gardener who lives in Sandy, Utah. This one has flowers that open crimson, but age to a gorgeous purple maroon: the combination of tints on a plant in full bloom is astonishing. As is the toughness of the plant and long season of bloom.Put this on our list if it ain't there yet!

An enchanting planting of GRANITA RASPBERRY on the South African berm in the Steppe Garden at DBG.

GRANITA® Orange ice plant

Delosperma ‘PJS02S'  (Year of Introduction: 2019)

John's other fruity hybrid--a glowing orange...

Oh, to have a spread of this in your OWN garden...

FIRE SPINNER^® ice plant

Delosperma 'P001S'  (Year of Introduction: 2012)

For years my namesake (MESA VERDE) was the top-selling plant in Plant Select. Then this rascal came along and sold more plants in 2012 than what every Plant Select delosperma had sold beforehand. It has become an instant classic and thrives across most of the USA and Europe.

I can't think of another plant with such a lurid, shocking color combo. I know there must be others--but do they sing and dance and spread and grow like this one? Helllll NO!

One can't just have one picture of this plant...

 Or even just two...

We almost had to offer free sunglasses when this mass came into bloom...

Forty years ago when we obtained our first hardy ice plant, we knew it only as "Mesembryanthemum species Basutoland": it was a bit of a saga--seeking help from Bruce Bayer and John Wurdack at the Smithsonian before we determined for certain that this was Delosperma nubigenum! Since that time we have grown dozens of species in Denver, and now hybridizers in a dozen countries are churning out hybrid seedlings--many of which have spectacular flowers, and some bloom for months on end.

BUT NO HYBRIDS I HAVE GROWN HAVE ANYWHERE NEAR THE TOUGHNESS, COLD HARDINESS OR LONG TERM PERFORMANCE THAT THESE PLANT SELECT INTRODUCTIONS POSSESS.

By all means grow the competition in containers or annual borders. But if you want to have a perennial ice plant, stick to Plant Select's! And here you have a nice anthology of all that are in the program at present!