Pride of Barbados is a tropical shrub with red-and-yellow flowers, and it thrives on the kind of heat and dry spells that wear out most garden plants. Most of its care comes down to holding back: little water once it has settled in, little fertilizer, and no fussing in the hottest months. The one thing it won’t put up with is wet ground, and getting that right matters more than almost anything else you do for it. In places with cold winters, a plant that looks dead after a freeze usually isn’t, which changes how you handle the cold season.
Choosing The Right Spot Sun And Soil
Pride of Barbados blooms best in full sun and grows fastest in hot weather.1Texas Superstar® Plants. PRIDE OF BARBADOS It will grow in light shade, but you’ll get fewer flowers.2Urban Programs Travis County. Don’t Give Up on Pride of Barbados Plants
Soil matters mostly for how well it drains. The plant grows easily in alkaline to acidic soils as long as water moves through them.3Texas Superstar® Plants. PRIDE OF BARBADOS4mortellaros.com. Pride of Barbados (Dwarf Poinciana) It does not tolerate poorly drained soil, so in humid climates it is best grown in raised beds.5Urban Programs Travis County. Don’t Give Up on Pride of Barbados Plants It is also an Earth-Kind selection that thrives in the alkaline soils around Austin.6Urban Programs Travis County. Don’t Give Up on Pride of Barbados Plants
To test a spot, dig a hole about a foot deep and fill it with water. If water is still standing after several hours, the spot drains too slowly. Low places where rain puddles are poor choices.
Plant in spring, once the weather is warm. Dig a hole as deep as the root ball and about twice as wide, and set the plant at the same depth it sat in its pot. Water it in thoroughly right afterward.
Give it room. It can grow large even where it freezes back each winter, so leave space for it to spread. Heat reflected from walls and pavement suits it well, so a sunny spot beside a wall or driveway works nicely.
How Much To Water
Water new plants deeply one to two times a week, and more often if you plant in summer.7Rainbow Gardens. How to Grow and Care for Pride of Barbados Adjust for rain, and skip a watering after a good soaking.8Rainbow Gardens. How to Grow and Care for Pride of Barbados
Once its roots have had time to grow out, the plant becomes drought tolerant.9Rainbow Gardens. How to Grow and Care for Pride of Barbados It can then survive on rainfall alone.10Vivero Growers Nursery. Pride of Barbados Care Guide for Austin, TX A long drought may call for a couple of extra deep waterings.11Rainbow Gardens. How to Grow and Care for Pride of Barbados
A new plant is settled in only after it has grown through a full warm season, so keep watering on schedule through its first summer rather than stopping after a few weeks. Water slowly at the base so the moisture soaks down several inches. A quick sprinkle wets only the surface and encourages shallow roots.
Yellowing leaves and soggy soil point to overwatering. Wilting leaves in dry soil mean the plant needs a drink. Overwatering is the more common mistake, so check the soil a few inches down before you water.
Potted plants dry out faster than garden soil. Water one when the top inch or so of soil is dry, and make sure the pot has drainage holes.
Winter Dieback And Cold Hardiness
How it behaves depends on your climate. In frost-free places it stays evergreen as a shrub or small tree.12Texas Superstar® Plants. PRIDE OF BARBADOS In zone 9 it drops its leaves for winter.13Texas Superstar® Plants. PRIDE OF BARBADOS In zone 8 it comes back each year as a perennial.14Texas Superstar® Plants. PRIDE OF BARBADOS In colder areas like North and West Texas it grows as an annual.15Texas Superstar® Plants. PRIDE OF BARBADOS
Freezing back is normal. It dies to the ground after frost but comes back reliably by mid-spring in zone 8b,16Texas Superstar® Plants. PRIDE OF BARBADOS and plants have survived temperatures as low as 18°F.17Texas Superstar® Plants. PRIDE OF BARBADOS It usually grows tall again in the same season.18Plantly. Pride of Barbados Care: The IT Plant During Summer
The leaves and stems are the part that freezes, while the roots sit under insulating soil and often stay alive. That is why the plant can look finished after a freeze yet send up new shoots from the base once the soil warms.
Blackened, limp leaves and stems after a freeze need no emergency action. You can leave the dead stems standing through winter, since they give the base some shelter from further cold. Cut them back in late winter, once the worst freezes have passed, rather than right after the first frost.
New shoots may not appear until mid-spring, after the soil warms. Scratch a stem near the base and look for green tissue. Wait until late spring before deciding the plant is gone.
In borderline zones, a thick layer of mulch over the root area in late fall helps. Pull it back in spring so the soil can warm.
Pruning And Feeding
Cut it to the ground in late winter or early spring for a bushier, more compact shrub.19Urban Program Bexar County. “Pride of Barbados”-A Great Heat Loving Plant and Future Texas SuperStar Do this even in years when it doesn’t freeze back.20Rainbow Gardens. How to Grow and Care for Pride of Barbados
Left unpruned, the plant grows leggy and tall, with flowers held far out of reach at the tips. Because it grows quickly in warm weather, it recovers within the season, so the cut costs you little bloom.
Use sharp loppers or pruners and cut stems a few inches above the soil. Wear gloves, since the stems can be prickly. Clear away the dead stems so new shoots get light.
As a legume, or pea-family plant, it makes some of its own nitrogen.21Grow Plants. Pride of Barbados: Growing Guide & Care Tips It flowers well with modest, balanced feeding, and heavy nitrogen or high-phosphorus “bloom” fertilizers aren’t needed.22Grow Plants. Pride of Barbados: Growing Guide & Care Tips Too much food shows up as lots of leafy growth with few flowers, and as weak, floppy stems. A single spring feeding is usually plenty.
Growing In Containers
Keeping it in a container helps make sure it survives winter.23Plant Answers. How to Grow and Care for Pride of Barbados A pot about the size of a 5-gallon nursery container is fine for several years.24Plant Answers. How to Grow and Care for Pride of Barbados It blooms best in full sun but does well with morning sun.25Plant Answers. How to Grow and Care for Pride of Barbados Move it to a protected spot when freezing temperatures are forecast.26Plant Answers. How to Grow and Care for Pride of Barbados
A garage or a cool, bright room works for winter. The plant may drop leaves while it’s indoors, and it needs only sparing water through the season. Move it back outside after the last frost.
Use a fast-draining potting mix in a pot with drainage holes. Move up to a bigger pot when the roots fill it.
Starting New Plants From Seed Or Cuttings
Sow in spring, once temperatures stay above about 70°F.27Garden Vive. How to Grow Pride of Barbados from Seed The seed coat is hard and waterproof, which lets the seed wait for the right conditions but also keeps water from reaching the embryo. Clip a small piece off the seed’s tip so water can get in,28Garden Vive. How to Grow Pride of Barbados from Seed or wear through the coat with a file.29Houzz. How to plant Pride of Barbados seed pod Nick only the coat on one side and avoid cutting deep, since damage to the inside of the seed can prevent it from sprouting. Then soak the seeds in warm water for an hour, or until they visibly swell.30Garden Vive. How to Grow Pride of Barbados from Seed
To collect your own, let the pods dry and turn brown on the plant, and pick them before they split open. Store the seeds dry until spring.
Plant the seeds about half an inch deep and keep the soil moist but not soggy. Seedlings appear in a few weeks. Plant them out once they are sturdy.
For cuttings, dip the cut end in water and then in rooting hormone.31reporternews.com. Pride of Barbados can be a slice of paradise in your garden Set it in a pencil-sized hole in a small pot of well-drained potting soil.32reporternews.com. Pride of Barbados can be a slice of paradise in your garden Roots should start forming within a week or two.33reporternews.com. Pride of Barbados can be a slice of paradise in your garden
Pests And Problems
Spider mites are so tiny that the damage is often done before you notice them.34Joy Us Garden. How to Control Plant Pests (Spider Mites and Whiteflies) To check, hold light-colored paper under a leaf and tap it. Red, green or brown specks that fall onto the paper and start to crawl are likely mites.35Joy Us Garden. How to Control Plant Pests (Spider Mites and Whiteflies)
Spray the leaves with a strong stream of water, including the undersides. Insecticidal soap helps. Mites thrive on dry, dusty plants in hot weather, and repeating the treatment weekly until they’re gone keeps them from rebounding.
Wet soil is the most common reason these plants fail. The main sign is wilting even though the soil is wet. Fix the drainage rather than adding more water.
Pollinators And Safety
Butterflies are its main pollinators and carry its pollen on their wings.36The Journal of Ecology. Butterfly Pollination of Caesalpinia Pulcherrima, with Observations on a Psychophilous Syndrome The yellow center on its red flowers works like a target that guides them to the nectar.37The Journal of Ecology. Butterfly Pollination of Caesalpinia Pulcherrima, with Observations on a Psychophilous Syndrome Hummingbirds, bees and giant swallowtails visit when other perennials stop blooming in the heat.38Rainbow Gardens. How to Grow and Care for Pride of Barbados
The plant contains many active chemicals.39South African Journal of Botany. A critical review on the phytochemistry, pharmacology and toxicology of Caesalpinia pulcherrima (L.) Sw. In rabbits, a leaf extract affected liver activity and raised blood sugar.40Pakistan Journal of Nutrition. Effects of Aqueous Leaf Extract of Pride of Barbados (Caesalpina pulcherrima) on the Activities of Some Liver Function Enzymes and Blood Glucose Concentration in Normal Rabbits Animal findings don’t give a safe dose for people, so don’t use it as a home remedy. Wash your hands after pruning or collecting pods.
Keep seed pods away from children and pets, and gather fallen pods regularly. Call poison control if any part is swallowed.
It has escaped gardens in South Texas, the Gulf Coast and South Florida, and can be invasive there.41Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Transplanting and germination of Pride of Barbados in Adkins, TX If you live in one of those areas, remove pods before they ripen and pull up any seedlings that come up nearby.