Acalypha Achievers
![](https://neilsperry.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/8-07-19-Copper-plant-in-fall.jpg)
It was back around 1960 that some of the big Houston parks were showcasing copper plants in massed plantings spring clear ‘til frost. Mom and Dad and I did most of our shopping in Houston back then. (College Station was a town of 6,000 residents. Ducks and I wear 5-E shoes, plus I wanted to see those big Houston nurseries!)
In the 1960s Prof. A.F. deWerth grew another species out of the genus, Acalypha hispida, or chenille plant, as a container crop in the Texas A&M Floriculture greenhouses. I loved those plants with their graceful, caterpillar-like flowers set against bright green leaves.
![](https://neilsperry.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/8-08-19-Chenille-plant.jpg)
When I came back to Texas from two degrees at Ohio State and two fun years of teaching vocational horticulture in Shelby, Ohio, I took a job in the old red “castle” in Downtown Dallas where the county agent’s office was located. I was the county horticulturist, and our building was surrounded by beds filled with chenille plants. My bet is that my friend Phil Huey, himself a TAMU graduate in floriculture, learned to love them from Prof. deWerth. Parks, commercial landscapes and home gardens were all showcasing copper plants. I felt right at home.
Well, over the years these plants have fallen from favor. That’s a shame, because they’re easy to grow. Few pests bother them, and their colors are rich in the summer and they get several shades richer when fall’s cool weather rolls in.
![](https://neilsperry.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/8-08-19-Main-page-mixed-copper-plants.jpg)
I’ve noticed new types coming into nurseries and home centers, and my guess would be that there will come a time before very long when copper plants and chenille plants (not just the trailing redhot cattail hanging baskets) will stage a good comeback.
![](https://neilsperry.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/8-08-19-Variegated-copper-plant-white.jpg)
Chief selling points for these plants…
• They handle full sun.
• They rarely have insects, and I’ve never seen a disease bother them.
• They’re great in the backs of color beds, or you can showcase them in large patio pots.
• Their soil needs are minimal. Plant them into the same type of soil you would prepare for any good garden: several inches of organic matter and one inch of expanded shale rototilled 8 or 10 inches into the soil.
• Keep soil evenly moist. Plants will tolerate slight wilting without losing leaves (unlike many other sun-tolerant plants).
• Fertilize with all-nitrogen, lawn-type food applied and watered deeply into the soil every month or so.
• If plants begin to grow too tall for their surroundings, pinch out their growing tips to encourage side branching.