The Inside Type

Posted: April 17, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Gardening | Tags: , , , , , , , | 20 Comments

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Last year my eye caught this beautiful Rex Begonia at the local plant store.  It cost much more than I wanted to pay, but I needed something bright and colorful for shade.  I took one home for a test drive to see if the rabbit would eat it before I purchased more.  The Begonia passed the rabbit test.  I headed back to the store to find that others were willing to pay the high price and all the Begonias were gone.

Usually plants enjoy being planted in the ground, but this Begonia did not flourish, so I put it in a pot.  It did alright, but it was not thriving.  Winter came and the Rex Begonia was put in the garage in front of the only window for the winter.

Well, all I can say is that some are the indoor type. The Begonia spent the winter growing,  in what I thought were not ideal conditions, and filled the pot.  Who knew?

Now it is back outside on the covered porch basking in the afternoon sunlight.

The Plant Hunter

Posted: April 10, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Gardening | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

The plant hunter would be me.  There is nothing I like more than free reseeding plants.  I find that most seeds prefer to germinate where they land and do better than when I plant them.  A Chocolate Plant (Pseuderanthemun alata) is happily growing in the Moses (Tradescantia spathacea) pot.

A Polka Dot seedling is hiding in the Rex Begonia.

The Clematis pot is an especially popular area for seeds to drop into.  There are a couple of Bartram’s Evening Primrose, a Polka Dot plant, a Jewel of Opar and a Wandering Jew vine.

Moss is host to Hardy Gloxinia seedlings.  There is a proper flower bed right there, but the moss seems to be the place to germinate.

My favorite place to plant hunt is cracks.  Somehow that small space with hardly any soil is a fruitful place to find many different plants.