Florida Gardening: S FL Galloping Gardners-8/1/05, 1 by artcons

artcons wrote:
The last plant is a purple sweet potato #831 from Nancy's Lanai. I sent it because it seems to want to grow upright. It's getting pretty large. Do they grow upright? This was the plant I mentioned seemed to be a lighter color at Nancy's.

Successes not shown are Turk's Cap, Party time Alternanthera, solid color Elephant Bush, 6 canna's, Pink Porterweed and one tall thing I forgot to photograph (it's in a different area) It has a small pink? flower on a very tall stem, the stem is about 18" tall.

A ?plum and two croton's from Val are holding their own. A Blanket flower (which I already had) from Molly is doing fine.

Problem's for me are the necklace plant (1 out of 4) is still hanging in there and has a chance. The Beach Hibiscus from Nancy is barley hanging in there. It had been doing good but has taken a turn for the worse. I think I treated it too casually and took for granted it was easy. It may come back. I previously mentioned the Stevia. It is also more difficult than I originally thought. Three are still alive and look ok, except the stalk is turning brown way too early. One does show promise in that it has new leaf growth out of a stem.

A note about the terrarium method. Since the terrariums keep the area the plant is in humid, plants have a tendency to keep alive and we may think they are growing. Sometimes, as in the cases above, this is a false reading. The plants are just staying alive but not growing roots. This is the major flaw in using this system. You have to know how the plant needs to be treated. This method is not surefire and doesn't work all the time. On a positive note, it's much easier and does have a very high success rate. The plants this method produces will more quickly emulate the mother plant and do it much faster than any other method. Plants that need to be propogated via hardwood cuttings work only about two out of five tries using this system. It's something I need to experiment with more than I do now.

Thanks again for your help in identifying these plants for me.

Art

Art