Plant Library

Other Names:  Cabbage Tree, Giant Dracaena

Description:

Striking leaves of deep burgundy-purple, edged in brilliant pink; spectacular when massed on the landscape; perfect for adding a lush, tropical look to the garden or containers

Ornamental Features

Dance™ Paso Doble Cabbage Palm features showy panicles of fragrant white flowers in early summer. It has attractive burgundy foliage edged in hot pink with hints of purple. The sword-like leaves are highly ornamental and remain burgundy throughout the winter.

Landscape Attributes

Dance™ Paso Doble Cabbage Palm is an open multi-stemmed evergreen tropical plant with an upright spreading habit of growth. Its relatively coarse texture can be used to stand it apart from other landscape plants with finer foliage.

This tropical plant will require occasional maintenance and upkeep, and should never be pruned except to remove any dieback, as it tends not to take pruning well. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Dance™ Paso Doble Cabbage Palm is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Accent
• Mass Planting
• Hedges/Screening
• Container Planting

Planting & Growing

This plant is native to the tropics and prefers growing in moist environments with evenly warm conditions all year round. In our climate, it is usually grown as an outdoor annual in the garden or in a container. If you want it to survive the winter, it can be brought in to the house and provided with special care, and then returned to the garden the following season. In its preferred tropical habitat, as a shrub it can grow to be around 6 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 5 feet. However, when grown as an annual or when overwintered indoors, it can be expected to perform quite differently, and its exact height and spread will depend on many factors; you may wish to consult with our experts as to how it might perform in your specific application and growing conditions.

This tropical plant does best in full sun to partial shade. It does best in average to evenly moist conditions, but will not tolerate standing water. It is not particular as to soil type or pH, and is able to handle environmental salt. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. This particular variety is an interspecific hybrid.

Dance™ Paso Doble Cabbage Palm makes a fine choice for the outdoor landscape, but it is also well-suited for use in outdoor pots and containers. With its upright habit of growth, it is best suited for use as a 'thriller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination; plant it near the center of the pot, surrounded by smaller plants and those that spill over the edges. It is even sizeable enough that it can be grown alone in a suitable container. Note that when grown in a container, it may not perform exactly as indicated on the tag - this is to be expected. Also note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.