Red bauhinia is a dense, semi-climbing, evergreen shrub with deeply-cleft, 2-lobed leaves that resemble the hooves of cattle (Fig. 1). The flowers of this sprawling plant are orchid-like in appearance, brick-red in color, and borne in few flowered racemes. The 1 1/2-inch-wide flowers of red bauhinia occur in the spring and summer and put on quite a show if the plant is trained on a trellis. The fruits are 5-inch-long pods that appear in the late summer, and these may be a litter problem.

Red bauhinia is nice in the landscape as an espalier, specimen, border, ground cover, and container plant. It climbs a fence nicely, producing most of the flowers near the top. It is a bit asymmetrical, perhaps even unkempt looking, making it best suited for the large-scale landscape planting.

Red bauhinia requires a location in the landscape in which it receives full sun and grows best on a well-drained, sandy loam soil. It often suffers from a deficiency of micronutrients in soil with a pH above 7. Preventive fertilizer applications help keep the foliage green. This plant requires little maintenance once it is established but may need early spring pruning or shaping for growth control.

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fp061