Plant details
Common name: bloodleaf
Botanic name: Iresine herbstii
Description: a soft-wooded, subshrub from Brazil, growing to around 1m (3′) tall with an open, loose habit. This frost-tender plant is grown for its beautiful foliage. The waxy leaves range in colour from green with yellow veins to purple with pink veins. Cultivars include ‘Aureo-reticulata’ (green-red leaves with yellow veins), ‘Brilliantissima’ (rich crimson leaves with beetroot pink veins) and ‘Wallisii’ (dwarf cv. with purple-black leaves). The flowers are insignificant and probably sterile, so fruit is not normally produced. In the tropics and subtropics iresine is grown as a permanent garden plant, but in cool areas it is often treated as an annual.
Best climate: frost-free areas of Australia.
Uses
bedding plant
border plant
pot plant
Good points
colourful foliage all year
fast growing
easy to propagate
Downside
frost tender
insignificant flowers
Care
Iresine likes well-drained, moderately fertile soil. It does best in a partly shaded position (full sun tends to make the foliage fade). Iresine is frost tender and its stems are soft and brittle, so it needs protection from frost and strong winds. At the end of the cold weather when all risk of frost has passed, prune to keep the plant compact and bushy. Propagate from soft-tip cuttings in spring.
Getting started
If your nursery does not stock iresine, ask them to order it in for you. Expect to pay around $10 for 140mm (5″) pots.