gardenersdetective said:Lyn it's Colocasia affinis jenningsii

• Dwarf Elephant Ear (Colocasia affinis 'Jenningsii')
• Uploaded by gardenersdetective

Susan, your garden is beautiful and just the way I like gardens...chock full of fun and color~ This plant is amazing....I want to paint it.

Becky your spot on. So thoughtfully done and full of whimsy, surprises and intrigue.

Susan, I've added a few supermarket EE's, all Xanths and am being surprised by some blue/green and red stalks. Can't wait for the next few weeks as temps heat up and they start to take off.

Becky I have an EE picture in my guest room, only I have no artistic talent..it's store bought.

Okay, you guys are getting me interested in EE's, Caladium and Colocasia. Are they hard to grow? What are their requirements?

gardenersdetective said: Becky I have an EE picture in my guest room, only I have no artistic talent..it's store bought.

But someone painted it, right?

Lynn, I am so jealous..many may be hardy in your zone. It would be great not to have to dig it all up but if you do...it's definately worth it.

You will have to teach me the proper way of preparing the soil before planting them Susan.
Kin taught me how to have Fuschia hanging baskets and keep them looking happy and healthy through the growing season. I always killed them in the past.
This is the one he brought me last year. It had two different plants in it. He had me put against the foundation of the house for winter. Was I surprised when one of the plants started growing this spring. One plant didn't make it.

In containers I use fafard 51 or 52 potting medium (bark based soilless mix very well drained) and add osmocote 14-14-14 four month fertilizer). They like shade and once established lots of water. If you water too much before foliage appears you will rot the bulbs. For best success after foliage appears you can foliage feed with 1/2 strength of any water soluble fertilizer (the blue stuff...peters grow, miracle grow, etc but not bloom booster). We have clay soil here. To amend and prepare beds, the prior fall I lay down about 10 layers of newspaper, top it with 4" of compost and 2" of mulch. When ground temps reach 60 degrees I plant bulbs in the ground and add the osmocote. If you have a really short season and a place inside to start and store plants or a greenhouse, you should definitely plant each bulb in a container in February and when night temps are consistently 60 degrees transplant the plant outside.

That sounds doable. Thanks Susan. If I can learn how to keep a fuschia happy, I will learn how to grow EE, Caladium and Colocasia.

These may not be tha latest but

Stonewalk containers



These were July 4.A week of no rain is punking out the lobelia

The deck ,recently

Jo Ann you have a lot of containers, and they are beautiful. My favorite is the first coleus container. I love the colors. I am trying coleus this year for the first time in many years. I always killed them after a few weeks. : (
I think I will have better luck this time. Time will tell.

After seeing all these beautiful containers I'm almost embarrassed to ask, but can you make some general recommendations for two 30"x10"x10" concrete planters in full sun. Embarrassed because I'm looking for low maintenance, low water year round plantings. I've got some sedums and Hylotelephium in urns in the same general area which is difficult to maintain.

Hi Evan. Here is another thread in this forum with a lot of hardy succulent containers. The thread "Post your container pictures here" in Containers forum
Here is a link to the databases of plants and more containers. http://cubits.org/sedumandsemp...
If you use a good draining potting mix hardy succulents would thrive in the concrete planters. : )
Hope this helps.

Yikes, lots of good stuff. Thanks Lynn

Herbs might do well in your containers if your interested in those. I could for sure see big drifts of lavender.

Something for different height, bloom color and texture is
Armeria zone 3-9, http://www.google.com/search?q...
the small foliage species tulips for spring color. Sorry Red Beauty is past it's prime in this photo. Their foliage is very small and does not take over.

Here is a link to Clusiana's species tulip threads. She taught me about species tulips, I can't believe I did not know about them all these years. http://cubits.org/Tulipa/threa...

Susan, I like that. I have several L. angustifolia about 20' away and they should complement each other. I'll look for some smaller varieties. Friends are always ribbing me about having my herb garden in the front yard. But hey, it's mostly shrubs and the herbs I have there are all low water, low maintenance, they look great and they stock the spice rack. The folks who rib me are the same ones who comment on how nice it smells.

Yes Evan the fragrance is another bonus, and how lovely as you enter the front door. If that doesn't say welcome, I don't know what does☺

Thanks Lynn, I've actually got some species tulips. 1st saw them a few years ago at the Smith College spring bulb show. I've wanted to get T. Violacea Pallida for a few years now. Don't know why I haven't. I watch the Tulip Cubit and am continually amazed by the seemingly never ending amazing photos.

I never thought about hardy bulbs in containers. I feel kind of silly thinking about it, especially after THINKING about some of the images I'm seeing here. Do you think the species tulips would live happily in my primarily succulent urns, sedums and hylos?