Delosperma Granita® Orange Ice Plant: The Icing on the Cake
Delosperma ‘Granita Orange’ Photo by John Stireman
It’s great to have Granita® Raspberry Ice Plant in your bag of tricks when you’re looking for a dazzling, evergreen groundcover for full sun, but having another color option is icing on the cake! Add Granita® Orange Ice Plant (Delosperma PJS01S) to your palette when you want the warm glow of orange instead of raspberry.
Granita® Orange Ice Plant’s flowers are small but mighty, entirely covering the succulent foliage at the peak of bloom in late spring, then flowering repeatedly through fall. The flowers range from bright orange to burnt orange and they all have a glistening sheen which adds even more icing to the cake.
Working with opposite colors on the color wheel creates showstopping vignettes in your garden. Skirt spring blooming purple plants like Wee One Lavender (Lavendula angustifolia ‘Wee One’) or Platinum® Sage (Salvia daghestanica) with Granita® Orange Ice Plant. Or pair it with other warm colors like yellow Engelmann’s Daisy (Engelmannia peristenia) or Chocolate Flower (Berlandiera lyrata) for a sunny combo.
Speaking of sun, Granita Orange revels in it! Native to the mountains and high country of Africa, it is happy with our dry climate and high UV sunshine. Plant it in rocky or sandy soils and water weekly in the height of summer. Enjoy the evergreen foliage in the winter and then prune out any unsightly stems in the spring. Easy!
This is an excellent pollinator plant for honeybees and then, when it sets seed, the seed capsules open when they are wet (which is the best time for them to disseminate) and close when dry! Aren’t plants incredible?
View the plant profile here.
Height: 1-2”
Width: 10-14”
Blooms: late spring (peak) to fall
Sun: Full sun
Soil Moisture: Dry-moderate
Hardiness: USDA zones 5-8
Culture: Loam, rocky, sandy
Elevation: Up to 6200 feet
Thanks to Bev Shaw of Plant Select® for this piece.
I had the Granita and Raspberry ice plants in a mass, within a raised bed; they spread quickly and were magnificent! Unfortunately, during the 22-23 frigid winter and wet spring, both died out. I replaced all of the plants and the plants are doing well. For this upcoming winter (23-24) I am wondering of the ice plants should be covered with a frost blanket … perhaps all winter, or only during the most frigid spells. Please advise.
Sorry this is coming to you kind of late. If your raised bed is a shallow container or off the ground, you might want to mulch this planting. If it’s just in a raised bed with soil that reaches the ground, Granita Raspberry should be fine. Last year was a tough year on plants. So far it has been mild for the Front Range of Colorado.