Campfire Coleus and Crinum

Crinum asiatica purple and Campfire coleus are two stars in one of my most successful container groupings. They’re potted together in the biggest pot, the Crinum in the center, surrounded by 3 coleus. The coleus were freebies, also known as plant ho plants. Ball Horticulture sent them this spring, and I posted about them on my other blog. Here’s a link.

I love the color of the coleus with the purple Crinum. The coleus has done great in full, blazing, Alabama sun, but I probably should have chosen something shorter. I have to pinch it back every couple of weeks. This next picture was taken just after I trimmed it.

1-DSC_0055The three plants in the pot on the left, Ipomoea ‘SolarPower™ Lime’, Lantana ‘Lucky Pot of Gold’ and Hibiscus ‘Little Zin’ are also plant plant ho plants. The Hibiscus would probably be much bigger, but the Japanese beetles ate it to sticks earlier in the summer. It’s just now starting to look good again. I should have taken the time to hand pick the beetles everyday, but I didn’t.

The sweet potato vine would be much larger too, but when it started running over all the other plants, I replaced it with a smaller version of the same plant.

I think that first picture shows off the plants the best, and it’s my view from the chair on the deck. However, the background of this picture is spectacular.

1-DSC_0049This next picture was taken just before I pinched the coleus.

Campfire ColeusThe Crinum was an impulse buy at the Chicago Flower and Garden show.

CrinumGuess what size I got. – The biggest one. The one that’s as large as a toddler and just as heavy to carry around.

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My BFF Trace was with me on the trip, and I posted about it in April. Here’s a link. That’s him just before we jumped in a cab and headed to lunch. Our mistake was taking the Crinum. It was fine until we needed to walk the 6 blocks back to the car. Trace hauled the Crinum for about 2 blocks, before saying, “Here, carry your own enormous tuber.” I toted it for a half block, and then I hailed a taxi.

Back to the Campfire coleus, whenever I pinched it, I threw the trimmings over the deck. A few actually rooted and started growing.
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I know that I can’t propagate the coleus legally, but surely I can’t be held accountable for what my plants do on their own. What was I supposed to do, just leave them there? No, I couldn’t do that. Besides, knowing how good they were in full sun, I wanted to see their shady side. So I potted three in the big pot on the left in this picture of the dining area.

Container GardeningHere’s a closer shot of the coleus.

ContainersThe foliage is a little different in the shade. Some leaves get a green edge, still pretty, just different.

Campfire coleusBefore I end this post, I want to show you the improvements I made to the dining area. After looking at my first picture of the area, I realized that it was a bit lopsided. I also thought that it needed a few more plants. Adding more plants is never a bad idea. It’s like adding bacon to a recipe. How could it not be better with bacon/more plants?

Container gardening, Shady plant combinations

Studying pictures of the garden is so helpful. It looks much better after I rearranged the plants a bit and added three tall Aspidistras. The Aspidistras were divisions from a three gallon pot that was bursting at the seams.

I apologize in advance for this last picture of my Aspidistra. But one of the main reasons I write this blog is to make myself laugh, and this amuses me. Hopefully some of you have the same wacky sense of humor.

Joke, plants

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