EYE ON SAN ANGELO
The Pride of Barbados plants are flowering all over San Angelo, and to the local pollinators, these blooms must look like Las Vegas at night, with their bright orange and red bursts of color.
Caesalpinia pulcherrima is a tropical plant in the pea family native to the Caribbean and South America, and it is the national flower of the Island of Barbados, hence the “pride.”
The intensely vivid flowers on these plants bloom all summer long.
Also called the flame tree, peacock flower, and flowering fence, this plant makes a fast-growing shrub or small tree that can reach up to 10 feet in height, and they can also tolerate pruning to help maintain shape and size.
Texas gardeners love them because they are drought-tolerant, full-sun plants that thrive in well-drained alkaline soils, like you find around here.
According to experts, this perennial is usually one of the last plants to come out of dormancy but lasts well into the fall.
— Photographs by Will McDaniel
