The scientific name of ice plant is Carpobrotus edulis, a native to South Africa. This plant is a succulent and is common amongst chaparral habitats all over the world. This plant is also found in the Mediterranean, California and Australia, but became a threat to the native vegetation due to its invasive nature. Ice plants have an attractive and decorative look. The leaves are covered with small fibers that sparkle like ice in the sun. Ice plant flowers are of multiple colors and the plants also bear edible fruits. Despite its beauty, the plant causes ecological nuisance in California and other native areas. This plant is also known by common names, such as Delosperma table mountain.

Before you start growing ice plant in your garden, you must know the basic steps for ice plant growth. Ice plant care is also essential for maximum blossoming of ice plant flowers.

Choose the Species

Get the particular type of ice plant seeds from nurseries nearby. You can also start growing ice plants with small starter plants sold in nurseries. Select healthy looking plants that have signs of new growth with young leaves and flower buds.

Soil Preparation

Ice plants prefer light sandy soil. It also requires dry hard packed area for better survival and free from growth of other plants. If you are sowing seed, the soil should be loosely scratched, so that seeds can make good contact with soil and surroundings. The soil must also be well drained. You can also spray some organic fertilizer for getting better quality of ice plant flowers.

Sowing Seeds

Seeds fail to germinate if not exposed to proper sunlight. Planting plants or sowing seeds should be done in early spring. The plants are in their growing period during this time. The seeds must be sparsely spread. It should be watered and lightly raked into the soil.

Ice Plant Care

In winter season, it should be planted indoors in window baskets for maximum exposure to sunrays. For maximum foliage, occasional heavy soaking is beneficial. Old and dead stems should be cut off. Prune the spent flowers for a tidy growth in the garden. Once you take care of the plants, you garden will be spread with a bed of beautiful ice plant flowers.

If this plant hinders growth of other plants in your garden, you can control its growth by spraying chemical herbicides. The only way to get rid of this succulent variety is to uproot the plant. That is quite labor intensive and after removing the plants from its roots, the soil needs to be mulched to prevent re-colonization or re-invasion by this plant. The only disadvantage of this plant is that, it must be grown alone and not with others plant varieties in garden. You can also grow ornamental trees in the surrounding landscape.

If you are really interested in gardening ice-plant, you need to treat it as the only possession in your garden. The ground covered with colorful ice plant flowers looks indeed beautiful. All you need to do is to trim it timely to prevent its invasive nature. This spring, let ice plant flowers fill your garden.

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A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Magnoliophyta, also called angiosperms). The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs. Flowers may facilitate outcrossing (fusion of sperm and eggs from different individuals in a population) or allow selfing (fusion of sperm and egg from the same flower). Some flowers produce diaspores without fertilization (parthenocarpy). Flowers contain sporangia and are the site where gametophytes develop. Flowers give rise to fruit and seeds. Many flowers have evolved to be attractive to animals, so as to cause them to be vectors for the transfer of pollen.

In addition to facilitating the reproduction of flowering plants, flowers have long been admired and used by humans to beautify their environment, but also as objects of romance, ritual, religion, medicine and as a source of food.

Many flowers have important symbolic meanings in Western culture. The practice of assigning meanings to flowers is known as floriography. Some of the more common examples include:

Red roses are given as a symbol of love, beauty, and passion.
Poppies are a symbol of consolation in time of death. In the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia and Canada, red poppies are worn to commemorate soldiers who have died in times of war.
Irises/Lily are used in burials as a symbol referring to “resurrection/life”. It is also associated with stars (sun) and its petals blooming/shining.
Daisies are a symbol of innocence.

Flowers within art are also representative of the female genitalia, as seen in the works of artists such as Georgia O’Keeffe, Imogen Cunningham, Veronica Ruiz de Velasco, and Judy Chicago, and in fact in Asian and western classical art. Many cultures around the world have a marked tendency to associate flowers with femininity.

The great variety of delicate and beautiful flowers has inspired the works of numerous poets, especially from the 18th-19th century Romantic era. Famous examples include William Wordsworth’s I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud and William Blake’s Ah! Sun-Flower.

Because of their varied and colorful appearance, flowers have long been a favorite subject of visual artists as well. Some of the most celebrated paintings from well-known painters are of flowers, such as Van Gogh’s sunflowers series or Monet’s water lilies. Flowers are also dried, freeze dried and pressed in order to create permanent, three-dimensional pieces of flower art.

The Roman goddess of flowers, gardens, and the season of Spring is Flora. The Greek goddess of spring, flowers and nature is Chloris.

In Hindu mythology, flowers have a significant status. Vishnu, one of the three major gods in the Hindu system, is often depicted standing straight on a lotus flower. Apart from the association with Vishnu, the Hindu tradition also considers the lotus to have spiritual significance.For example, it figures in the Hindu stories of creation.

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