﻿ dracaena


Aspley Nursery 


Home    Plant Descriptions     Terms and Conditions    General information   

Dracaena species are a hardy landscape plant - Draco, marginata and colourama are the most popular but reflexa species have a place as well in the garden . They make excellent pot specimens or as feature plants in the landscape.

D. colourama    D. Draco    D. marginata     D. Song of India

Dracaena Colourama

Dracaena colourama is used as a feature plant both in pots and in the landscape. It will happily grow in full sun or part shade. The upright foliage, born on canes, has a mixture of bright red, orange, cream and green.

Light pruning keeps the foliage fresh and colourful, I would recommend pruning at different levels.

This plant can get quite large so allow for that in planting.

Dracaena draco

Dracaena draco will eventually grow into a mushroom shaped tree but it will take years. Initially it grows on a single stem that eventually branches out into multiple stems. Each of those stems follow the same pattern growing singly for years and then branching.

Once mature it flowers with cream fragrant flowers followed by a crop of berries.

These are great for creating a structural element in a garden design.

Dracaena marginata

Dracaena marginata is a very upright plant with stiff dark green leaves featuring red margins. It's fast growing, very hardy and will happily grow in sun or shade. They can be grown in pots or in the landscape but they can get very large.

I have one that is 25 years old in the ground and it has a base of 800mm and is 5m high. The good news is that they can be pruned heavily so as to keep them in shape.

They can drop older leaves especially if in a drought situation but with minimal care they can be a stunning feature plant.

Dracaena reflexa Song of India

dracaena Song of india Dracaena reflexa Song Of India is a smaller leafed dracaena with a strong variegation in the leaf It's an upright columnar form that responds well to pruning to create a colourful column of foliage. It will grow in sun or shade and can be used as a feature plant or as part of a tropical garden.

There is variability within the variety as can be seen by the two different colours in this photo from our stock gardens.

It is just as hardy as the other species in this useful group of plants.