Red Plant

13 April 2019, 11:38 AM

Steve Miller

Red Plant

I keep a big flower pot by the entry to the house and replant it with annuals winter and summer. This year I planted this red plant (I can't remember the name of it) in the pot. I like the way it looks but it needs something planted underneath it. I'd like either something flowering or something variegated but what color?

Exposure is southern - full sun. The border it sits in has Mexican heather in it - small lavender flower.

What do you think?

13 April 2019, 11:43 AM

Nina

Maybe baby's breath (tiny white or purple flowers)? In my experience, you can't kill them.

Or Johnny Jump-Ups?

13 April 2019, 01:20 PM

Yellow and drippy for contrast. Lantana? Verbena?

Lots...crowd them in!

13 April 2019, 01:22 PM

Mary Anna

I don't know what to mix with it, but I believe it is a ti plant.

13 April 2019, 02:34 PM

Bernard

LL has a great suggestion, of course.

Since I'm not keen on adding more yellow flowers (there are so many yellow flowering plants in the height of summer), I would plant something bright pink/magenta like impatients or fushia.

13 April 2019, 02:35 PM

Steve Miller

That’s it! It was labeled “Cordyline”, which the Google tells me is the same thing.

Thanks!

13 April 2019, 09:29 PM

Mary Anna

I'm thinking maybe something peach and something blue. And maybe a little something yellow.

Peach hibiscus would be pretty, but it grows too big to put in the pot with the ti plant. Maybe impatiens? They come in peach. So do angelwing begonias.

Blue scaevola or angelonia might be pretty.

I like LL's suggestion of lantana for something yellow and drippy.

13 April 2019, 09:55 PM

wtg

Don't know about colors, but P. Allen Smith's recipe for container success is (starting from the center and moving to the edge of the container) "tall and spiky, full and mounding, low and cascading".

You've got the tall and spiky.

I love LL's idea of the lantana; I think it would tolerate the sun and heat well. There are some trailing varieties that are very nice.

This is my favorite color of lantana, but not sure if it has a rounded habit or trailing:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/w...camara_flowers_2.JPG

Have had really good luck with a zonal geranium called 'Calliope', but the color's wrong for your red spike:

https://all-americaselections....ope-medium-dark-red/

And I love this little trailing annual called Snowstorm Giant Snowflake ( Sutera cordata).

https://www.provenwinners.com/...opa-sutera-cordata-1

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When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden - Minnie Aumônier

13 April 2019, 11:05 PM

Mary Anna

I loooooooove lantana. I felt bad about growing it in Florida, where it can be invasive, but I understand that it's safe to grow as long as you have winters with a hard freeze.

So I can have it here!

13 April 2019, 11:22 PM

Steve Miller

quote:
Originally posted by Mary Anna:
I loooooooove lantana. I felt bad about growing it in Florida, where it can be invasive, but I understand that it's safe to grow as long as you have winters with a hard freeze.

So I can have it here!

I have several types of Lantana on my hill. It’s pretty but it needs a lot of water. I have one that volunteered from somewhere and it’s huge!

I’m going to hack some of it back tomorrow.

13 April 2019, 11:49 PM

wtg

Wow. I had no idea lantana is invasive in warm climates; it's an annual here.

https://davesgarden.com/guides...ing-or-invasive-weed

Ya learn something new every day.

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When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden - Minnie Aumônier