Calliandra surinamensis

Calliandra surinamensis, the pink powder puff, is a tender evergreen shrub whose flowers look like nothing else in the garden: rounded heads of tiny blooms whose long silky stamens are white at the base and flush to rose pink at the tips, so each cluster opens into a soft, glowing pompom. The ferny, bipinnate leaves fold up at night, and on a mature plant the flowers keep coming over many months rather than in one flush. At 23cm this is a substantial plant that earns its place on a warm patio all summer.

Hardiness and seasons. This is not a frost-hardy plant. The RHS rates it H1B, which means it can stand outside in a sheltered, sunny spot from around June to September but needs a year-round minimum of about 13C, tolerating brief dips to 10C at most. Protect it in winter: bring it into a conservatory, greenhouse or bright frost-free room well before the first cold nights of autumn, and move it back out once nights are reliably warm. Under glass it often flowers from winter into spring, so the winter quarters earn their keep.

How and where to grow. Grow it in a large pot of free-draining, loam-based compost so it can be moved with the seasons. Give it the sunniest, most sheltered position you have, ideally south or west facing and out of cold winds. Water freely in growth once the top few centimetres of compost have dried, feed monthly through spring and summer, and keep the rootball only just moist through winter. In the tropics it becomes a broad small tree of 4 to 8m; in a UK pot it stays a manageable shrub of roughly 1.5 to 2.5m and flowers freely when it gets enough warmth and light.

Using it in the garden. Use it as a summer centrepiece on a sunny terrace or balcony, beside bananas, cannas and other bold exotics, where the silky pink pompoms can be enjoyed close up. It sits naturally with its relatives Albizia and Mimosa, whose foliage it closely resembles. Prune lightly after flowering to keep it compact, and watch for red spider mite and mealybug while it is under glass.

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