Justicia carnea 'alba' - White Brazilian Plume

Beautiful white blossom.

Beautiful

You're probably not going to believe this, but I bought the pink version of this one about 6 years ago, I left it in the ground knowing it wouldn't come back, being it was listed as being a zone 9 plant in all the gardening books many years ago. But guess what, that's right , it came back and has been coming back for 5 years now, turns out it's hardy to zone 7. the newer, updated gardening books still say zone 8, but they are closer nowto the right zone, than they were..lol.

I do believe this...they are very hardy plants. I have seen them listed as being hardy to 28 degrees. I know this not to be true. I was living in the San Francisco Bay Area and in 1990 we had the worst freeze ever recorded in history...the city where I lived in had one morning reading of 22 degrees and about 6 mornings of around freezing and my plant wasn't even damaged.
I lived in Hayward which is USDA zone 10A.

Marguerite,

Actually, the leaves are very soft and the plant takes a least a couple of years to become woody at the base. The branches and leaves break very easily in the wind. They are more of a understory plant...as they are native to the tropical jungles of Brazil.