Mussaenda philippicaPhilippine Mussaenda

Mussaenda philippica produces small yellow flowers that almost nobody notices, because each one sits inside a rosette of greatly enlarged sepals in white, cream or soft pink that reads from thirty metres away as a solid mass of colour. The display runs right through the warm season.

It is a resort and hotel plant above all: soft, generous and unmistakably tropical, used in colour blocks along a driveway or as a loose informal screen against a wall.

Specifications

• Height2 to 3 metres, and readily held lower by pruning
• Width1.5 to 2.5 metres
• Native toThe Philippines
• FoliageSoft, oval, lightly hairy mid-green leaves; evergreen in warm climates, semi-deciduous where winters are cool
• Growth rateFast

Conditions

• SoilPrefers moist, well-drained soils rich in organic matter
• LightFull sun to partial shade
• WaterModerate to high; not drought-tolerant
• ClimateThrives in tropical and warm subtropical regions; frost sensitive

Additional Features

• FlowersSmall yellow flowers surrounded by large showy white, cream or pink sepals, carried through the warm season
• UsesIdeal for colour block planting, informal screening, resort and hotel driveways and tropical borders
• SpacingPlant 1 to 1.5 metres apart for a continuous block
• Low MaintenancePrune after the main flush to keep the plant compact and well furnished to the base
• Pest ResistanceGenerally resilient
• Seasonal AppealA single long display through the warm months rather than short repeated flushes
• Wildlife AttractionFlowers are worked by butterflies

Philippine Mussaenda delivers a soft mass of colour at shrub height, which is exactly what a resort driveway asks for.