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FLORIDA NURSERY GARDEN NEWS 
Plant your home to make Florida more beautiful 
VOL. II 
NOVEMBER, 1954 
NO. 1 
IN HAWAII IT'S LEHUA HAOLE - CALLIANDRA T0 YOU! 
HOW TO GROW CALLIANDRA 
This is one plant with which you will have little trouble, 
since it adapts itself to almost any soil condition as long as 
it is well-drained. In planting, a 50% peat and topsoil mix, 
with a little organic fertilizer added, will get the plant off to 
a good start. Be sure to select a plant for the space. If you 
want a large tree, be sure to allow more room than if you 
plan to keep it cut back. 
An application of fertilizer three to four times per year, 
plus watering as needed in dry periods, will be all the care 
necessary. If you get a few mealy bugs or scale, a spraying 
will usually clear this up quickly. 
We can't all go to Hawaii and wear leis of Powderpuff 
blossoms, but we can grow our own Powderpuffs with 
thousands and thousands of brilliant blossoms borne along 
the branches for many months of the year! These exotic 
blooms will make your garden a showplace every day! 
No, Calliandra are not native to Hawaii—the Hawaiian name signifies 
that they were brought in by the white man—but they are widely 
grown there. Calliandras came from Tropical America and the 
Islands. 
The name CALLIANDRA is from the Greek for beautiful stamen, 
and it is the stamen which compose the powderpuff which is so 
attractive in the bright colors. The foliage is a dainty compound 
type and is a very pleasing green all year. The foliage folds up in 
late afternoon and remains closed during the night. The seedpods 
are flat with thickened margins, but since the seedlings do not come 
true, air-layering is the primary method of propagation. 
Florida Nursery and Landscape Co. is proud to have introduced Calli- 
andra to our area, and we have tested each variety before offering 
it to the public. Here are some varieties which we can recommend: 
GIANT RED POWDERPUFF 
Botanically known as Calliandra haematocephala, this is probably one 
of the most widely grown varieties. It blooms for about five to seven 
months of the year in great profusion. It grows rapidly and makes 
an attractive and spectacular shrub or small tree to twenty feet. The 
foliage is a shining green, two pinnate with five to ten pairs of leaflets. 
The Powderpuff-like flowers, from which the plant gets its common 
name, are borne in hemispherical heads 2%-3 inches across. The 
bright crimson stamen with the black anthers make a brilliant show. 
WHITE POWDERPUFF 
The fragrant white flowers, powderpuff in appearance, make quite a 
show and this comparatively new variety is rapidly becoming a fa- 
vorite. Botanically known as Calliandra portoricensis, this variety 
grows a little more slowly than the giant red. The flowers are borne 
in clusters along the branches during the winter months and early 
spring. 
PINK POWDERPUFF 
This is a particularly dainty spreading shrub with paint-brush-like 
flowers made up of white stamen tipped bright pink This variety 
produces hundreds of the bright flowers all up and down the branches, 
and blooms about eight to ten months of the year . . . during the 
spring, summer and fall. The foliage is much smaller and more dainty 
in appearance also. 
DWARF RED POWDERPUFF 
Calliandra emarginata is a summer flowering, low growing Powderpuft 
from Puerto Rico. It spreads well, and works nicely in border plant- 
ings. The flowers are a deeper red than the giant Powderpuff, and 
are very attractive. 
RAINBOW POWDERPUFF TREE ... 
This charming and unusual variety has brightly variegated foliage 
with cream and light green along with the green foliage when the 
new growth comes on. This produces red blossoms also, and blooms 
in the late winter and early spring. 
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