[chrisinva]

Bring your bags. Plants are sitting in front yard. Vil of De Soto 2469 Woods Way.

RHOEO SPATHACEA OYSTER PLANT, MOSES IN THE CRADLE
Oyster plant is a short-stemmed, tender foliage plant that makes attractive, small, dense, spreading clumps . It forms a solid groundcover of upright leaves, approx. 12 tall max. The six- to eight-inch-long, sword-shaped leaves are green above and purplish below.

Throw an old sheet over it if temps get below 40 degrees.
Also read Dwarf Oyster Plant

Light :: plant grows in part shade/part sun; plant grows in the shade, also south facing gardens
Soil tolerances: sand; acidic; loam; occasionally wet
Drought tolerance: high
Plant spacing: 18 to 24 inches

[Bunny1]

Thank you for identifying this plant as I have some in the yard and wondering what they were!

[fdpaq0580]

Weird looking thing! Are the oysters any good?

[Whitley]

Originally Posted by fdpaq0580

Weird looking thing! Are the oysters any good?

Not as salty as the ones from the ocean, BUT not as slimy either. Good and bad.

[tophcfa]

Don’t handle cold well at all. We cover them when at our home but we arrived this winter right after the three night frost around Christmas and all of ours are dead. Would appreciate recommendations on smaller sized low maintenance frost resistant plants to replace them with.

[Ozzello]

Originally Posted by tophcfa

Don’t handle cold well at all. We cover them when at our home but we arrived this winter right after the three night frost around Christmas and all of ours are dead. Would appreciate recommendations on smaller sized low maintenance frost resistant plants to replace them with.

Having designed landscapes here for 40 years, I found oyster plants worth the trouble of protecting during or replacing after freeze. The size color, rate of spread, and ease of removal gives this plant high marks. Unfortunately slugs and snail have infested most every home in the Villages, and not only kill young plants shortly after planting, but make the more mature plants less vibrant at best, and quite messy looking in many cases.
I have replaced this ground cover with Blue Daze in most of my designs, but for people I trust will somewhat follow directions, I still use Oyster plants (as nothing really replaces this look) that I grow to a more mature size than is available at my growers and instruct the customers to use Iron Phosphate. Not only is this the 1 of 10 baits that won't be detrimental to plants, but most of the other ground covers and shrubs are all being attacked and don't look vibrant as they should due to the widespread snail and slug infestation in this area.