Flower Fest - D for Delosperma Cooperi
A hardy perennial, originally from South Africa, the Delosperma cooperi is an evergreen succulent that is about the only plant that I have successfully grown since moving to Colorado! I hope I am not saying this too soon as we still have the winter ahead of us! Maybe it's because they tolerate heat very well and do not need much water. Perfect candidate for a xeric garden, just what we need in Colorado!
I have the cultivar known as the Hardy Pink Ice Plant in my little rock garden. The pink blooms are more a metallic deep shade of magenta than pink. These little beauties are late-risers and open up every morning by about 10 a.m. - well, they used to do that before the last winter storm dumped about 10 inches of snow on us! They retire early, too, with the sun.
The dainty flowers are about 2 inches in diameter and the plants grow to about 6 inches in height. The leaves are long and cylindrical in shape, almost like slim but fleshy fingers! Cuttings of these leaves will take root and spawn new plants. They do also propagate by seed. 
This is my entry for the letter D in the Flower Fest - the A - Z of Flowers.
Flower Fest is the brainchild of Nature & Me and Sree. Every two weeks, the focus will be on a letter of the English alphabet. The current letter is D. I am submitting photographs of flowers as my entries.
Tags: Flower Fest, Delosperma cooperi, hardy ice plant, xeric
4 introspections:
That's a pretty (unusual) colour. I sd be having a bunch of these (but in other colours) this winter in my garden.
Another easy plant(also xeric) for Colorado wd be the California Poppy. And, have you had a chance to go to the Botanic Gardens in Denver?
I loved the succulent look of the plant and the color of the flowers. I have two types of this - plant and one did not flower at all and the other kept going. The one that did not flower did not spread as quickly, is a lighter green and is much denser.
We haven't yet made it to the Botanic Gardens. If they are open in winter then it will be a fun thing to do. So far our trips, whenever we got the time, have been to different parts of the RMNP. We can't seem to get enough of that place!
Thanks for the tip on California Poppy - I'll be looking into doing a little more with my garden from next spring as I seem to have learned a little bit more about gardening here in Colorado. I used to think I had a green thumb. No longer. I even kill houseplants now. Sigh!
Sounds like this one might grow in the hotter areas of India as well!The bloom kind of reminds me of the gerbera.
Sree, the outer ray flowers are daisy-like but the inner disk flowers are different from that of a daisy.
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