Caladiums

The official beginning having begun, upon surveying the potted containers for success and for potential as if starting from here and seeing blank spots now and failures upcoming I realized to match anything close to what I saw at Wade's I still need to squeeze some things in there tall and colorful varied something already mature and grown or something that grows fast.

One of the elements that works very well in combinations is the large red dinner plate size coleus. Two of those combine very nicely. I'd like to have more, I bought what I saw and I'd buy more if saw them. Those were started from seed too, but all those started from seeds were planted and drowned by rain. Of the mature plants, one is dark red and the other dark red with green trim. Both complete their own container combination.

The location gets good direct sun. Most of the day in shade. A full sun plant will not thrive, nor will a full shade plant. Color needn't be from flowers.

Red coleus ↑.

Container fail, needs more tall stuff. The elephant ear now a dot in the center late to develop is in the same family as caladium ↓.

Caladiums are tropical heart-shaped foliage plants that prefer shade and grow from rhizome type corm or bulb. They die back each year and the bulbs kept moist but inactive over winter then replanted in spring in locations where frost will kill them. They're inexpensive enough to be treated as annuals. There is a very broad range of sizes and colors and patterns and tolerances to sun available, there is a thick-leaf and thin-leaf variety, one type much more tolerant to sun. 

Different varieties grow to different sizes. Apparently, different sizes grow from the same type depending on the size of its bulb. That is, the bulbs of the same species are offered at different sizes at different prices at this site. It is the best that I found with little research, usually about $1.25 or so per bulb sold in packs of 10 with discounts for more.

But then shipping is outrageous. The cost of 10 bulbs. And you go, maybe I had just look around at nurseries and buy whatever I see there. And then you think all that driving around is worth something. Then come to find out they're shipping priority and you'll have them in days and it makes it sort of worth having so many extra. With thirty bulbs, I can probably give some away. This is my order.

Dig their eyes out.

Nice as this man is, that is what he tells us to do and so I will. These look familiar. I already planted dozens but they haven't come up yet. It'll be a surprise when they do.

Container planting of herb and flower combinations

A person I know not all that well recently killed himself thereby shocking everybody who knew him. A gentle and quiet soul, nobody sensed anything remote to this coming. There was a lot about the man that I did not know, chief among them his driving interest in plants. I never heard him speak on the subject. This one interest of his overlaps one of my own. I'd like to have some nice potted plants for my own terrace and for them to include the herbs that I use for cooking and a few vegetables too, but also flowers so the whole thing is attractive,  but frankly, I do not know what I am doing. I do have a knack for killing pretty much every plant I touch, and my efforts look like a mess. Up close they are a mess. From afar they are the envy of the whole building. People around here say so, "Oh, so you're the guy with the plants on the balcony." But that is only because everybody else is worse, or has no interest at all. 

When the friend died I looked through his pinterest page which turns out to be vast. Tons of plants are listed, all of them designer-type container plants. One of the pins said, "This picture is from a book by Pamela Crawford." I looked at her website that links to her YouTube videos. Read a bit, watched a few. I put her name in Abebooks search and bought the first book on potted plants that came up.

Easy Container Combos: Herbs and flowers. 

The idea is potted herb gardens can be jazzed up with flowers. The book is filled with ideas about what to keep in mind and how to go about to pull it off successfully.

I read the book last night. It is easy. Lots of pictures. As much a thick magazine as a book. It refers back to her site and to her own products. Profiteering? Possibly, she seems to make everything she talks about readily available. But it looks to me like she is actually trying to make things readily available for beginners to get started right off while profiting from that by the way. The cost of supplies seems reasonable. The impression I get is she learned through mistakes. 

This cheers me greatly. That is how I learn.

By making every mistake possible. 

More than once.

The reception was held at the dead person's house, a bit eerie being there the first time without him, the place claustrophobically packed with people, only a few of them I knew, but all were in outright awe of his front yard and back yard gardens composed of large planters surrounding the perimeters with every combination of flower, foliage, herb and vegetable known to gardening in striking combinations and in full leafage, full bloom, full fruition all around, bizarre combinations one might not consider unless they were driven, bursting out and pouring over large glazed ceramic containers. I noticed dark eggplants hanging among flowers, and chile plants pendant within non-chile plant foliage, strawberries where strawberries do not belong mixed with non-strawberry plants, and orchids with tons of various types coleus, sweet potato vines, spikey Ti plants jutting up all over the place, upright blooming fiery celosia, large elephant-ear type leafy Caladium leaves boldly suspended in mid air everywhere, fuzzy fennel and dill filling in, begonias all over the place, to name only a few.