Crotons

Any tropical garden could easily achieve color, texture, and a warm, relaxed ambience by adding a variety of Crotons (Codiaeum). Mixed with greens or flowering shrubs, the amazingly-varied patterns lend a dash of visual excitement to an otherwise redundant or predictable scheme.

You'd want to grow colorful Crotons for its glossy, leather-like leaves whose shapes vary from oval to linear, rounded to pointed. Some are ruffled, some are spiral, some are curled, and we even have one with teaspoon-like extensions (above)! Colors are a broad spectrum of warm tropical hues: canary yellow, brick red, chocolate brown, and tangerines.

And then there are the patterns! Some have spots, others have specks and look like they've been dusted with powder. Some leaves have contrasting outlines, some have one singular stripe, while others have smudges smeared on the edges. And a lot of them have different colors and shades simultaneously on the same trunk and change as they age!

Locals collectively call them "San Francisco;" how that came about, I do not know. They're no longer as popular as before but I like them and it looks so good in the gardens.