Ice Plant

Delosperma cooperi

‘Jewel of Desert Grenade’

del-oh-SPUR-muh  koo-PER-ee

Syn.

Mesembryanthemum cooperi

mes-em-bry-ANTH-ee-mum  koo-PER-ee

Delosperma cooperi (Hook.f.) L.Bolus is the accepted name for the Ice Plant. It was described as such by Harriet Margaret Louisa Bolus in Flowering Plants of South Africa in 1927. It was first described as Mesembryanthemum cooperi by Joseph Dalton Hooker in the Botanical Magazine in 1877.  

Joseph Dalton Hooker (Hook.f) was a 19th-century British botanist and is considered the founder of geographical botany. He was Charles Darwin’s closest friend. He served as the director of the Royal Botanical Garden at Kew for 20 years, succeeding his father, William Jackson Hooker (Hook.).

The genus, Delosperma N.E.Br., was named and described by Nicholas Edward Brown in Gardener’s Chronicle in 1925.

As of 10-19-23 when this page was last updated, Plants of the World Online by Kew lists 170 species in the Delosperma genus. It is a member of the plant family Aizoaceae with 120 genera. Those numbers could change as updates are made on POWO.

Delosperma cooperi, commonly known as Ice Plant, is native to South Africa. They can form a vigorous growing ground cover if they like their conditions. Although they are considered evergreen, in cooler parts semi-evergreen is most likely. They like it dry most of the time which is likely why they don’t survive in areas with cooler, wet winters. 

THERE ARE SEVERAL LINKS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE FOR FURTHER READING.

I bought this Delosperma cooperi ‘Jewel of Desert Grenade’ from Wildwood Greenhouse on May 5, 2018. My sister and niece had come down from Kansas City to go plant shopping at the four local Amish greenhouses. She also bought one of these plants.

USEFUL INFORMATION:
SIZE: Under 6 inches tall x 1-2’ wide
SPACING: 9-12” apart.
LIGHT: Full sun
ZONES: 5a-10b
FLOWERS: Multi-colored red, orange, pink & white
BLOOM TIME: Mid-summer through early fall
WATER: Dry

It seemed to have its ups and downs for some reason but it still flowered pretty well. I had moved the potted plants to the back and front porches on July 4 because of a Japanese Beetle invasion in the other area. I put the Ice Plant on the back porch in full sun and it seemed to do better.

Here, in the above photo, it was looking much better…

The above photo was taken late in the afternoon and its flowers had closed up for the day. I took this photo the day I moved the plants inside for the winter. I moved it inside, too, but after a while it fizzled out.

I hope you enjoyed this page and maybe found it useful. If you have any comments, questions or suggestions, I would like to hear from you. Please click on “like” if you visited this page. It helps us bloggers stay motivated. 🙂 You can check out the links below for further reading. The links take you directly to the genus and species of this plant.

FOR FURTHER READING:
PLANTS OF THE WORLD ONLINE (GENUS/SPECIES)
WIKIPEDIA (GENUS/SPECIES)
LLIFLE (ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LIVING FORMS)
DAVE’S GARDEN
PERENNIALS.COM
GARDENIA