Variegation on the Green Theme - Part One: Re: I need that Alocasia!

» Marge_Talt - Re: I need that Alocasia!

Mine don't either. Last year, I put them in the ground in a mud hole and they topped 5'. Tried an experiment to leave them in the ground - covered with dry mulch, leaves, plastic, styrofoam and more leaves...didn't work; all rotted nicely as that mudhole they loved in summer proved just too wet for winter:-(

Had, prudently, saved a small bit of each; now again in pots and doing nicely, but they never will reach huge size in pots and digging them out of that mudhole would be just too much each year. C'est la vie.

Yes, come to think of it, 'Silver Dragon' would not be hardy for you. Since this is a spicata, they don't really clump up, so you'd have to have a lot of them to provide a thick enough cover to hide something, I think.

'Excalibur' does have to have water. It is no way as tough as old 'Mrs. Moon', but when it's happy, it sure is a lovely thing. I got a very similar one - same species as 'Excalibur', named 'Diane Clare' - also extremely nice. Leaf may be a tad narrower than 'Excalibur', but it's hard to tell the difference, really.

Well, supposedly, 'Nigrescens' isn't hardy for you, but plants always fool people foolish enough to say the will or won't do something or other. Given that it's evergreen and tolerates a good deal of shade, I don't see why you couldn't overwinter it inside in a window. Might turn greenish, but think it ought to survive since it does not need a cold resting period.

I do not find it to be a fast grower, myself, and it's more of a spreader than a clumper for me. Odd bits seem to travel away from the mother clump.

Pretty clever of you to do that raised bed to create vignettes...good idea!

I've got that artemisia - 'Oriental Limelight'...pretty sure that's what you've got as it's the only green/yellow variegated one I know of. It bears watching as the species is one of my noxious weeds - AKA mugwort.

So far, mine has traveled a bit, but not too much. I've got it in a place that's a thin layer of rotted wood humus over clay filled with gravel from the driveway - thanks to an overenthusiastic dude on a backhoe...could strangle him often. But, all that gravel seems to be keeping that artemesia under control. The species travels via white underground roots....any bit of which grows a new plant.

'Oriental Limelight' is a pretty plant, tho'.

I really put 'Margarita' in the yellow foliage class - love that plant. Have it in containers with other stuff, flowing out all over the place. A really neat combo is it and Canna 'Tiger', whose stripes are almost the same color as 'Margarita'.

It sure is fun to play with foliage color - I'm totally loving the many varieties of sun loving coleus out now - wish I could keep them over winter, but I have dismal luck in that dept. In the house, they get bugs and the greenhouse is too cold for them....sigh.

Speaking of your black and white combos - well, it ain't exactly white; it's actually this incredible silver - but there is a tender perennial out now, Dichondra argentea 'Silver Falls', that I'm very taken with - supposedly hardy in z 7-8, but I rather doubt it here as it's a desert plant and wants it on the dry side. The image in the link doesn't do it justice...it's much more silver than it looks in this one, which was the best I could find in a quick search.

I have it in a pot with a coleus; think it's 'Duckfoot' and Strobilanthes, whose silvery bits 'Silver Falls' echoes...I'm quite taken with the combo. Only problem is the other two have gotten so big, 'Silver Falls' isn't getting all the sun it ought to...gotta do something about that.

-- posted by Marge_Talt