Great plant for the Florida climate. As a butterfly gardener, I appreciate this not only as a fabulous nectar plant (especially for the Swallowtails), but also as a host for the Cassius Blue. It's a small butterfly, but if you've got this plant, you'll most likely have them nearly year-round flying around the plant. I've seen them flying on plumbagos lining a parking lot in downtown Tampa; that's how associated they are with this plant. They never stray too far from the plumbago, so be sure to plant some good nectar plants nearby, too. Oddly enough, I don't actually see them nectar on the plumbago. The Cassius Blues lay their eggs on the green stem just under the flower cluster, so keep that in mind when choosing to prune. And seriously, this plant draws in all types of Swallowtail butterflies as a nectar plant. They'll stay on it for minutes at a time, hitting each cluster of flowers, which gives me lots of photo opportunities!

Plumbago does get touched by frost occasionally in the Tampa area where I live, but I can't recall losing one in the many years we've had them. You do need to prune them once the chance of frost is past to pretty them up and kickstart the growing process. Periodic pruning is necessary to keep the shape of the plant, if so desired. I've found them to be drought tolerant, but also tolerant of the extremely wet summers we get. We also grow these in the butterfly garden at the Museum of Science and Industry where I volunteer in the butterfly garden.

Although it's not a native Florida plant, I would still recommend it because it's not invasive, it's hard to kill, and it does support wildlife. If you want to stay native, try Plumbago zeylanica, which has white flowers, instead.

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One of the very best landscape shrubs for warm, humid climates. It has an elegant, graceful sprawling habit but can be led up a support or fence to act as a screen. Takes very well to pruning, and easily kept to the right size and shape for any space. Once established it is carefree and drought tolerant, and the only pest I've ever had on mine were the Sri Lanka weevils, which took a shine to it one summer. They ate a few leaves, but they only inflicted cosmetic damage and are gone now. Blooms generously for at least 9 months of the year here in Florida.

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