| Plant Patent #13,876. Cultivar: 'Kelaidis.' Mesa Verde® is just a little better at everything it does than all other Iceplants! Its color -- an unusual salmon-pink -- is so bright you expect it to glow at night. Its flowers are a bit larger. It spreads a little faster, grows a little tighter, and lasts a little longer. In other words, it's the best Iceplant you can possibly choose for your garden! The starry flowers are only 1½ inches across, but that's big by Iceplant standards and quite showy, given the iridescent color. And it's not as if you just get a few -- from spring 'til frost this groundcover blankets the sunny garden in blooms! You'll like the cheerful yellow eye at the center of each bloom, as well as the way the petals darken at the base, for a ringed look. Very elegant and so easy! "Easy" really is the watchword of Mesa Verde®. It puts up with absolutely anything from drought to heat and humidity to cold (it was discovered at the Denver Botanical Gardens, so you can bet it knows something about tough winters!). Deer leave it alone, poor soil doesn't slow it down -- it's just ready to take off in any sunny, well-drained spot! A fine groundcover for the carefree sunny perennial border or bed, it froths at the feet of such trouble-free beauties as Sedum and Festuca 'Boulder Blue', in addition to looking great among flowering annuals and in the shrub border. If you want a really effortless, self-maintaining planting, consider this Iceplant as the basis! Reaching just 2 inches high but spreading 2 to 3 feet wide, Mesa Verde® has needle-like, succulent foliage of bold deep green. It looks terrific out of bloom, but don't count on too many of those times. Space the plants 12 to 18 inches apart and get ready for the show! Zones 4-8. |
