PlantFiles: Drago, Dragon Tree
Dracaena draco

Although Sunset's garden book list it as hardy in SF bay area zones 16 and 17..I have found it to be very marginal. Mine was leaf damaged last winter in a 30f frost. And its a rooted thick cutting about a foot tall. Its going into the ground now,and any real cold this winter I plan on covering it. Like most subtropical's, hardiness gets better with size..I hope!

Edit November 2012: What a surprise..after a year in a pot,I found that it hadn't grown a single root. Most leaves are still there,the trunk stem and new shoots feel solid-no mush. So in September '12 I planted it anyways in ground. As of November it hasn't changed.
Rooting these is not easy,or fast. They are NOT Yucca or other succulent easy.

I received two Draco seedlings last April from a Texas nursery, and they are flourishing! I started them in small pots, transplanted a few months ago, and they have grown from 6-8 leaves each to dozens, and one now has almost 2 inches of young "trunk." As leaves shed, I can see thin traces of red which I like to believe is an early sign of the red "Dragon's Blood" sap that makes this tree so very special. Truly, this is a slow-grower which is so unusual for anything in Florida! Think long term and give this baby a try. I'd like to hear any other experience, particularly how long I might wait for my first bloom.

I bought a seed in summer of 07. Put in a pot and waited. Two years later and he is about a foot high. I put him in the ground in a cactus bed and now he is really taking off. I guess I will cover him with a trashcan for the frosts and freezes here in zone 9a.

A beautiful plant and has grown well for me in container. Mine is about 5' tal and growning in a 30 gallon wash tub. Has survived into the upper 20s with no damage.

I have no chance what so ever to grow dracos outside because I live in Finland, but as long as they can fit inside a house and I can find or make a large enough pot I will be growing them.
I bought 5 seeds from a northern seed company and two of them sprung (spring 2005). To get them to sprung better I robbed them clean with a sandpaper and then let them swim in handwarm water for 48 hours. Then saw them in well moist properly prepaired soil, covered lightly with sand, moistured more and placed on sunny and warm spot on windowshelf covered with transparent plastic. It took them about 6 weeks to appear.
It's a shame though that I have to give them away (probably donate them to our local botanical garden) in three years because I'm moving to Romania. Oh well.. I'll just start over :)

This has become quite common around new suburbs in Auckland, NZ. Seem to grow well- have seen a few large (8ft plus) specimens. I have one in back yard that is fairly new but seeming to do fine. I love them when the head "splits" into 2 or more. winter here slows them a bit- can get into 40s F or even upper 30s at night.

I bought some seeds of this plant online and began the germination process, and i found that the easiest way to start these seeds off correctly, is to place them on a hotplate, however ensure the temp. stays around 80 F, in a terracotta pot works the best, soak the soil and place the seeds on top, cover the top with plastic, and place in an area in direct sunlight for most of the day, and check daily, however, my first batch took about 2 months to sprout, but the second batch only took about 2 weeks. now they are all growing perfectly.

It has been about a 1 1/2 months and have small seedling, with two little leaves. This is one seed out of about 6. I am excited to watch my little dragon grow.

I happened upon some seeds at the nearby botanical garden. I haven't had any luck with them yet. another website said that the seeds needed to be processed but didn't say how.

I purchased some seeds on a visit to Tenerife in 2001 and brought them back to my home in Yorkshire, England.

At 1000 feet above sea level I wasn't sure if the seeds would take but they did, and I now have two plants growing quite happily.

Yorkshire isn't famous for it's high temperatures, although we do occasionally get nice warm summers. The weather here is usually cool and wet though it has been getting milder in the winter. The temperatures range from...70's in the summer (if we're lucky)... through to -6 in the winter, and it has dropped to -10 with a wind chill.

I've grown the Drago in a pot on a sunny window ledge and this year transfered it to a larger pot and put outside in a protected location in full sun. It's doing really well and has now grown to about 18inches. It has good, strong leaves at about one and a half inches wide with red razor edges (makes me think of a dragons tongue). Before winter I will move the tree back inside and into our conservatory.

My plan is to keep it inside for the winter months and outside for the summer months. I'm hoping that one day when it's mature enough that it may be able to witstand our winters and grow happilly outdoors on it's own for the rest of it's life. We shall see. This tree is special to me and I don't want to harm it. The fact that it is growing at 1000 feet above sea level is a good start. We'll see what happens in a few years.

The other plant...if you're wondering, is at my parents home accross the valley.

This is one of the generea I am studying on the Canary Islands, for 14 years. I know several locations where we can still find these trees in the wild. The number is every year a bit smaller, a lot of this plants are rooted up for selling to hotels and local authorities - the officials who are supposed to protect them in the wild.

I found last year ONE PLANT that had red flowers! This must be studied, and I hope to give you later the result of the investigations and analyses.

I am also studying the genus Aeonium, Greenovia, Monanthes and Ceropegia I am on the islands every year during April/May and October.