Container Renovations 3! (smile)

I’m starting a new thread as the last one was getting way too long. (continued from http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/847230/)

Oh!…I had the best day today. They had this Hibiscus festival in a little Park in Punta Gorda, where about 20 vendors were set up and selling their plants. Funny thing is, I didn’t see much Hibiscus but they sure had some other great and unusual plants. My favorite nursery in the world was there – Crowley’s from Sarasota.

I would say that I did extremely well! It's pouring rain right now (YEAH!) and I can't wait to get out and plant tomorrow!

This is really pretty – Pyramid Clerodendrum

I’ve gone nuts lately for succulents and some cactus varieties and I picked up some really nice ones. I want to mix them in with my other containers as I think it really gives a cool look.

Here's another beauty! (Although he kind of got dropped on the driveway while unloading! Yikes!)

Lots of buds ready to open on this Tibouchina organensis...(Tropical Princess)

A big fat pot of Rosemary

I have no clue what this plant is - any idea?

Now this is cool! A Loofah vine! You know those little exfoliating sponges you buy? Apparently the vegetable is good to eat also. I just thought it was interesting!

I really liked this cute little succulent - The variety was called E.T. (as in ET call home) but I can't remember the plant name. Also the plant in the back is called Juncus Spirales - it's kind of unusual also.

It was a great plant day!

Kat

Looks like you got some great plants - I didn't know mine was called Devil's trumpet 'till I looked it up on DG - I put the elephant ears, purple heart, red penta, in with the canna - found one of the other plants on DG - pineapple sage - still trying to ID the other one - right now I need to stop buying and planting - I think ' tryin'n to do myself in or something - My gardenia needs pruning and my honeysuckle needs trimming - and their beds need weeding - Good news - my cyclamen didn't bite the dust - they are dormant - the nursery guy said that they had grown long enough to have enough roots to revive in the fall - once it's cooler and we get rain - sure enough last week when we got a really good rain - a couple of them came back up and are blooming now! Yeah- so in the fall I'll buy more - cramm them in so no more weeds can grow! I put some spreading purple verbena in the bed with the Devil's trumpet , hibiscus, and bananas. I have 3 huge fucshia blooms on my hibiscus - The one that got knocked over by our storm last week - glad it's OK

Happy planting Kat,

Kitty

Kat, WOW, what a score! You did great! Those are nice plants!

The luffa vine is a gourd I believe.

Trust me Kitty...I'm the same! Keep buying and my yard is one huge mess of dirt and pots - tomorrow is my day for clean-up. Everything has just grown so fast in the past month, it's hard keeping up. Glad your plants came back. I've had a similar thing happen with this gorgeous double-rangoon creeper I bought last year. I relocated it a couple of times and it just looked completely dead. Nearly pitched it and low and behold - it's coming back! Makes me wonder about others I actually have gotten rid of!

You need some Devils backbone with that Devils trumpet!

We had one hellacious storm last week too! We need rain badly, but dumping it all at once is a problem. Blew out some of my pool screens and of course they are the high ones - one on the roof of the cage! Arrrrggghh. My gorgeous copper leaf plant got totally pelted and broke a lot of the stems. Oh well, the way things are growing, they'll be back in a month! haha.

Jeanne - I sure did good! I could have bought more, but it was starting to pour! They sure had some healthy offerings. I just love sales like that!

Kat, You HAVE TO post pictures of the Tibouchina organensis (Tropical Princess) when it blooms. It's beautiful!

JLP - Yes I believe it is a gourd. Healthy looking vine and I can't wait to see what becomes of it!

That's one of the first one's I've seen around here. There was one blooming and it was gorgeous!

I just updated my photo-site and added a new section. Many of these photo's have been posted on this thread but it really is a relaxing slide-show.

http://albums.phanfare.com/katg/1709026

This message was edited Jun 15, 2008 1:11 AM

great house & garden Kat

Kat I'm trying to remember if the adeniums drop leaves when dormant and I want to say no at least not all of them. With you being in Florida, I wonder if yours will go dormant. This past winter I got hubbie to help me put plastic around half of my patio and my adeniums and tropicals did well and actually bloomed (just a few blooms on adeniums) some over the winter months. I was so pleased and will do that each winter. We have fairly mild winters with very few freezes but stuff like adeniums, pluemerias, crown of thowns, and caricature plants do not like the colder nights and will really take a hit even if we don't have a freeze. This year they did so much better because of the plastic on the patio during the months of Jan-Mar.

Love the new plants and can't wait to see how you use them in your arrangements.

Patty

Kat, here's a photo of four of the devil's backbone flowers...finally. They're each about a 1/2" long.

Is the devil's backbone pedilanthus? Are yours variegated? TKS

Kat -

Don't know about a religious grouping - but what about a gothic one - Devil's trumpet, Devils backbone, black magic elephant Ears, Black prince snapdragon, pentas, etc? Have any Gothic friends?

Don't have a working camera right now - can't id the other plant I put in the pot with the canna - maybe you'll know what is is - upright stem - opposing leaves - very dark green almost black foliage, lavender, bluish bell shaped flower on top - does it sound at all familiar? done one ton of searches on DG - this is really buggin me

Kitty

Kat - check this plant out - I think it's pretty close to your new hanging basket - http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/12762/

edited for typo

This message was edited Jun 15, 2008 1:26 PM

Dp, I must admit I have no idea what pedilanthus is; but, yes, it's variegated.

It's very odd, though, that I started a new one from a cutting off this one, and the new one has larger leaves. The second plant also sprouted a stalk with solid green leaves, while the rest are variegated. I'm guessing they'll become variegated later. It looks like a completely different plant
from the original; and with that solid-colored stalk, it even looks like two plants in one. The second one has grown much faster than the mother plant, too.

Thanks bivbiv - I have that variety and it's about 4' now and haven't had any blooms...I have that strange white growth on it though. Devil's backbone trying to act Virginal! Yeah right! hehe

Kitty...Goth sounds great! I don't have any Goth friends, but I'm sure I can find some! hehe. I put the mystery plant on Plantfiles and it was identified as "Elephant Bush". Very cool plant and grows incredibly here in Florida and HUGE!

Sorry...Plant doesn't come to me...why don't you just post the description on Plantfiles...there are so many sharp people there that might know it. It sounds great...I'm into black and unusual plants. Ummmm...I can't believe I just limited myself...I'm into all plants! hahahaha

Today was a really good day and I set out with all intentions of planting my new plants and old ones and cleaning up my potting area full of dirt in the Lizard Lounge. Well it didn't quite happen like that...

I had a few people drop by and I wanted to cook a really good dinner for my dear Man for fathers day, (who also fertilized my lawn this morning - What a Sweetheart!). I actually did manage to get a lot planted though and really don't have too many plants left over. Pickings were very slim in the Lizard Lounge store as I usually have a few filler plants hanging around.

As I mentioned before, I'm really loving the succulents and cactus...

I planted this adorable faux bois container with a succulent garden - most of these plants I bought at the Hibiscus Festival yesterday.

Another view...

The only thing I could fit into this frog planter was a pot of Blue Daze...He's so cute though! Lowes was having a sale on pots last weekend and I picked him up for 18.00.

I ordered these new varieties of Thai Caladium bulbs and needed to plant them in one place - Why not plant them in a Pig?

This is a strange one! I bought this plant about a year and a half ago and it was about 4"...It's a member of the licorice family. It was sprawling and looking sad a few weeks ago and I decided to tie it up or braid it. It's done well in being secured like this and I just planted a few Coleus today as underplantings...

OH! This is one gorgeous plant - Pagoda Flower, part of the Clerodendrum family. As I mentioned, the Lizard-lounge store is a little bare for filler plants, but I managed to find some purple salvia and this yellow daisy-like plant for underplantings.

This is another strange one...I had these dwarf papyrus growing in the "I don't know what to do with these plants" pot. Picked up this plant yesterday (bottom curly stuff) called "Juncus Spirales". Figured they both need a lot of water and would do well together in a shell with no drainage hole!

Another Black Elephant Ear! Planted it with some fairly mature yellow Crown of thorns, wth a little diamond frost in front. Looks a little sad right now...but when it perks up I think it will be good.

This message was edited Jun 16, 2008 1:24 AM

Grouping of container plants...

More lizard lounge groupings...

When I was building this house, this extended area was an after-thought. I'm so glad I did it...

Here's the other side. Up until a couple years ago, I had no idea how beautiful non-flowering, foliage was. Here's a big mixture of Coleus,, Sweet Potato Vine, Iresine, Caladiums, and Chinese Perfume Plant (that smells amazing too!)...

And there's always a Yorkie supervising the plant renovations!