plants

Caladium update. This is a rectangular stone planter brought up to a bench to be photographed. This side showing faces outward to full on sun when the sun shows, harsh and direct where I live, and this type of plant does better in shade. So there's a mistake right there and still it does okay. Behind it is a pot situated in a corner filled with morning glory vines that grew ten feet to the top and bent over but their leaves are all spotted because they need more hours of direct sunlight. A reversal of errors there. Between them a fountain made of copper tubing and discs to resemble lotus leaves inside a large pot.

The birds stopped landing here when I began shooting them with rubber bands for pooping all over and tearing up the pace. Plus the guy from India is feeding them. He owns the bottle shop downstairs and has a soft spot for pigeons. There are always crumbs scattered directly outside the store, he's often standing there inside watching them.

He purposefully creates a mess on the sidewalk in front of his business that invites an even greater mess of pigeon poop always right there on his sidewalk, metered street parking for his business.

This is an uninteresting but convoluted entry to two businesses featuring a few architectural alcoves that invite an open shelter to street-people in need of a rest, a place to tuck in, sometimes with sleeping bags. It invites drinkers who collect there, sometimes unable to hold their water or whatever liquid, a place with stains and other evidence of sloppy living, packages, wrappers, litter, clothing, wet patches, vomit, broken bottles, cigarette butts in planters. It could be nice but the place attracts a struggling clientele. Compared to the humanity down on their luck and unable to cope and drinking beyond capacity right there in the same spot the pigeons are lovely by way of contrast crumbs poop and all. And around the corner you'll notice the sidewalk dotted with spit out chewing gum, a ton of black and gray dots, another surface altogether to walk on, a Jackson Pollock sidewalk created by teens waiting in line for tickets to raves, I'm noticing no difference in class regarding sloven street-level disregard.

It is the pot that I drew when they started to show. Since a layer was packed without proper spacing they were expected to grow crowded, and they did.

One thing about living in a largely insect-free zone is there aren't any bees to pollinate plants. There are insects around and I see their damage, but not many of them. There were a lot of little flowers on the vegetable plants but only these three tomatoes and a few other things.

The caladiums did well and saved the project. The order was doubled at the end of their season and those plants are only now poking up through the dirt in patches here and there. They are expected to salvage raggedy pots up to Fall. 

baby caladiums

They're the cutest little things. This rectangular planter is loaded with a layer of bulbs for these things. Three contrasting types. This is just the very beginning. I can see groups of spears coming out of the dirt. It's going to get crowded. When as a kid and I would draw a jungle then this is the shape leaf I imagined jungles had most of. These plants are turning out to be fun. I recommend them.

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.