Oscularia deltoides

Oscularia deltoides, Deltoid Leaved Dew Plant, is an unusual low-growing South African succulent with stunning glaucous foliage that is three-sided in shape with tips that are tinged with red. The new growth on the stems is also pinkish-red and turns woody with age, creating a low but upright many branched ground-cover covering itself in pink flowers in the summer. The contrast between the blue-grey leaves and the pink ice plant flowers with their yellow anthers is a visual treat.

Oscularia deltoides makes an ideal ground-cover in a warm sheltered aspect that has a very free-draining gritty and sandy soil. Throughout the summer months it apprecates a good cloud-given drink but extra watering is only necessary in the UK in the hottest of summer weather. It will take a few degrees of sub-zero temperatures and is best placed in a sheltered position ideally on a gradient - perhaps with some overhanging protection - or growing in the nooks and crannies of a stonewall or spilling out over the edge of a vertical drop. It looks fabulous is a low shallow terracotta bowl where the blue triangular wedge-like foliage contrasts well with the colour of the earthernware. Although the stems become woody and tend to grow in an upright manner, it can be grown as a hanging plant with the lengthening branches draping down over the sides of a basket or a tall longtom pot. Container-grown plants can be brought indoors and kept dryish to just-moist through the winter.