I love it!

Its gorgeous and not gaudy to me, itn is more blod than anything, very tropical!

Hi Gary,...
The EE is really neat. Leathery texture? Looks that way to me. Alocasia? Caladium?

Inquiring minds and all that. :)

I think its nice & colorful, GREAT job !!!!!

I think it's great!
Lucky you.
Karen

Hi
The large EE at the top is alocasia plumbea while the
one with the silver veins is a. amazonica . To the far left is cochliostema supposedly C. jacobiana but suspect it's odoratissima others are various forms of coleus . On the ground is Selaginella martinsii at the bottom left is a runaway Jicama
Would have been nice if I'd washed the bird crap off the leaves before pic?? lol gary

Woooah! Look at that coleus!
I wish I could grow them like that! Mine always seem to get powdery mildew :P

What a cheerful combo!

Aha! Thought it might be an alo. Thanks for the heads up!

So this is the shadehouse we chatted about so long ago...absolutely love it! Beautiful work Gary! :)

Hi
The first pic is of the central path out in the garden . I'm doing away with shadehouse and aviary so they were put there until a permanent arrangement.
here is a pic of the SH to the right and the aviary to the left. Down to only one bird but still have over a hundred plants in the shadehouse lol MUCH more work to do gary

Happened on this discussion looking for something else, so it made me curious, how does your gaudy spot look this year?

Hi

I'll have to go and get a pic . All are about 3 time larger plus I've added some gesneriads ,Calatheas .have been working on a tree fern bed at the other end so have been neglecting this area I'm sure it is still gaudy though gary

Hi

Just took a pic this morning. No coleus at all lol gary

Not how much the amazonicas have grown and the gesneriads are flowering regularly gary

Nice! Love your Chrysothemis! Does yours go dormant for "winter?"

hi

seems to be dictated by ma nature . If the temps drop below 50 it will stop flowering and below that will go dormant. Will easily tolerate to frost while dormant. A real water hog though least bit of drying out and will go dormant ,otherwise will continue to flower .though usually a break in Jan Feb even if the temps stay up.

The light green to the right is supposedly a "bush " form of Stevia . While i wouldn't argue with the ID not my idea of a bush lol If I don't constantly prune will tend to flower then stops growing altogether lol haven't figured a way to extract the sweetness at least enough to make sugar lol gary

TY! Stevia - how interesting!

I have a couple Chrysothemis bulbs that live in pots with other plants. They have just popped up for the warm season about 2-3 weeks ago. A very interesting plant for a non-tropical location. Have you tried propagating? I've had zero luck with cuttings, but don't have much to work with, 2 tries I think. Neither of the pots have been re-potted since adding those. Should prob do it this year, dying to see what's going on under there.

Hi

Have never tried to propagate via cuttings ,usually just divide it up. the original plant was given to me by a neighbor many years ago but I believe its Chrysothemis pulchella though certain it's a hybrid . have seen them with a red calyx rather than orange and some with all yellow .usually marked "6 inch tropical" or "black flamingo"lol

Will they handle a hard freeze?? 09 was my last one though they were in the GH at the time so were unaffected and haven't had a frost since .

i'm no longer running the GH so guess I'll find out someday ?? lol gary

Hi

here is a pic of it when grown in the GH. Note how much darker and shiny the leaves are?? When exposed to stronger light the leaves get much lighter though it doesn't seem to affect the flowers gary

That's so cool, TY so much for the added info & pretty pic. It's a shame this plant isn't more readily available. Seems so easy, and definitely pretty! I did a trade with someone in Hawaii a few yrs ago & she threw a couple bulbs of that in the package as a bonus.

My gaudy displays are seasonal. This spot is filling in well. There was nothing there but grass a few months ago. The items leaning on the fence will be trellises for potted plants, soon...

TY. :+) I have no idea what I'm doing, but definitely guilty of collecting. I completely LOVE your yard! Keep up the great work!