Nothing in our garden is more capable of thriving on neglect than this plant: Florida Beauty, Dracaena surculosa 'Punctulata'. Of course, most of our plants are neglected most especially during the dry season, when they really don't receive any supplement water at all because it is always a big problem here. It started as a few stems growing on water in a vase, then transferred to a pot, which eventually conquered its size. I then transferred it to the ground with limited top soil, sitting on the calcareous rock. It doesn't seem to mind that condition, it still produced tall canes which produced leaves and branches at the top portion. They are so tall that i cut them to just a meter high during the dry months. When the rains come, it resumes its prolific growth.
There are some variations in the types of spotting in Florida beauty. So it is commonly called spotted Dracaena or Gold dust Dracaena. Ours is the more green variety, which grows taller than the other varieties. As it has more chlorophylls to make food it tolerates wide ranges of growing temperatures and very easily adopts to growing light conditions. But we should be careful with our cats and dogs, as this plant is poisonous to them. Although i think they know not to eat it, no matter how starved they are.
the branch overlapping it is the blue duranta growing above it now
white drooping scented umbel flowers
white flowers turn yellowish as they mature
fruits are mostly ~1cm in diameter changing color from green to orange and red when fully ripe
they are like small red lanterns
sometimes there are more berries in a single bunch
