I've grown Persian Shield for 8 or 10 years and had mixed results. In mild winters here on the Louisiana gulf coast, it doesn't even die back. The last two winters were very cold here and although it came back last summer, it was very weak and never reached it's old vigor. This spring, I pulled all of the dead plants out of the ground and replanted. As a perenial in 9a, it's 50/50 here depending on the severity of the winter.

Steve

I planted the persian shield in perfect conditions in Rockport Tx, Gulf coast, and it died. I figured it was the salt, and never bought it again. I cannot grow certain plants, like coneflowers, or fringe plant, because of the salt and just added this plant to my list. I have no other explaination as to why it died. It is a beautiful plant and I wish I could grow it. Barbra

Heythere Barbra. I looked up Rockport on the map and I think I would be OK dealing with the salt if I lived that close to the gulf. Everyplace has its' limitations and challenges - and benefits. I've not heard of fringe plant before and googled it but got pics of all different plants. Are you referring to lorapetalum? I think there's a couple of those at the bank across the street (but no ocean!) LOL!

I grew this plant south of New Orleans, but it did freeze in cold winters, even in a pretty protected area. You can take cuttings pretty easily and I highly recommend that each year.

Louisianagal, do you mean your plants died completely or just above-ground? I will definitely take cuttings. They can live through winter in water. I also have 3 of these in pots that will come inside. There are 5 of them throughout the yard. Time will tell if any of those are still alive next spring.

Well now there are many more than 5 throughout the yard, and I've given away some of the cuttings, too. I have high hopes of overwintering for 2 in particular, in corners up against the house.

I am happy to report that all of the PS's I had hoped would survive winter are still alive and showing signs of growth. They are near the house on 3 sides, and one in the middle of the yard, and one in an old wash tub under an oak tree. Not easy to see them yet, but here's a couple pics:

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I live in Jacksonville, Florida and my home is five miles from the ocean. We had two hard freezes this past winter with a low for season of 27.6 F. My Persian shield froze back to the ground but made a happy appearance about two weeks ago.

Here is some interesting information that I found on another website:

"#1 complaint from customers (I used to be in the nursery business ): 'It died or looked so bad over the winter that I threw it out'. Actually, it goes into a semi-dormant state during which many of the leaves drop. This is also when most of the blooms appear. Much like Coleus, the blooms cause new leaves to be very small and undeveloped. For many years I cut them off thinking the same rules as for Coleus applied here. They do not. If you leave the blooms and mini-leaves on, you will have a thicker and more fully leafed plant in spring. Endure its straggly winter appearance and it will reward you in the spring and summer. A 2 or 3 year old plant is much more impressive than the growth attainable in one year when grown as an annual."

lac, I'm starting to agree with you. One of the plants that showed back up in spring has since died. One is doing nothing and still has just those first few ugly leaves. One is finally starting to grow pretty purple leaves, and a couple are just really slow. Not at all keeping pace with the cuttings I took last fall and have replanted outside. There's still plenty of time for the ground plants to catch up, but they might not...

love-the-yard, I've kept a pot or two inside most winters for the past decade or so and totally agree (acknowledging my very limited outside experience this far.) The saved potted plant is the best way to go for preserving a large specimen. The cuttings I keep in water and put out each spring are also fantastic and well worth the minor effort!

For the record, two of the plants that survived winter have continued to grow this year. The others that were technically still alive just didn't grow. And, as stated above, those planted in spring as cuttings are bigger overall. Knowing that last winter was especially mild and seeing these results, I will be doing my usual cuttings in bottles of water this year, and bringing in one potted plant. So close, but yet so far...

I have found that I can now grow the persian shield and other plants that I use to not be able to grow. I just add gypsym to the top of the soil and water in. I also have been adding something called turface to the soil to help retain moisture. I have plants growing in my yard that I have never been able to grow before. This summer I added the turface to my desert roses and plumeria, brugmansia, icohroma, and mexican flame vine. Gosh the diffrence was amazing. I got the turface at the John Deere Landscape center, it is used on base ball fields. Barbra

I totally agree that drainage is a key factor in zone pushing. I prefer to not put any non-organic material in our soil, but no matter the method, the drainage is so important. Another example would be overwintering dormant tropical bulbs in a pot. If they get soggy, they rot. If they stay dry, they survive.

So glad to hear from you again and that you've found a way that works for you! This year I have one in kind of a high spot that I have "high hopes" for since that should allow the drainage to be optimal. Maybe the others that were come-backs will be more established and powerful next year. It's fun to imagine the possibilities. Do you still think your yard is affected by salt at this point? I don't even know if this plant is sensitive to salt, but curious since you mentioned it before.

Do you have trees and leaves in your yard? At this point, adding them to your beds could help to keep the drainage improvement going, and add tilth and nutrients to the soil. Or piling them up to compost and spread later. We do some of both. Are your beds are mostly newly reclaimed from grass? That's what I've got, in different stages since I keep removing more grass slowly each year. I can't wait to dig in there in the spring to see the differences.

Salty soil is an issue in my yard. I found that just sprinkling gypsum on top of the soil, will let me plant plants that I was not able to before. I have to keep doing this every 3 months. The gypsum doesn't change the ph level of the soil. I do not have leaves in my yard. I have hugh live oaks, no leaves but tons of acorns. Since my yard is 100% sugar sand, I don't have a drainage problem. The turface helps retain moisture, my plants did so much better this year. I was able to grow red passion vine, and mexican flame vines, something I was never able to do before. Barbra

Someday I hope to have to deal with sea-salty soil, and might arrive at the same conclusion. Glad you've found something that's working for you!

"Since my yard is 100% sugar sand, I don't have a drainage problem." Wow! No doubt. I have no experience gardening like that, and imagine the leaves wouldn't yield the same results without the soil microbes and worms to "digest" them. You must be really close to the shore. How cool is that?! From what little I do know from the universal instructions to not walk on sand dunes or molest the beach vegetation, anything you can do to get roots in your yard is a great thing in regard to avoiding erosion.

Live oaks are one of the most beautiful things about the south, IMO. I'm sure they were an attraction for you to that property. As a transplanted Yankee, one of the grand old giants is a powerful thing to see. Best wishes for continued success with your gardening!

The other plants have all been frost-killed above the ground, but this one is still going, and covered with flowers. They're not much, but I've never seen this in person before. Pretty exciting on a January afternoon!

This one plant periodically made flowers all winter. It's just now starting to grow foliage in earnest. Took this pic this morning.

There must be PS's coming up all over there area that were put in the ground last year, there was "no winter." Anyone else?

Love this spot right now!

Wow Purple that is a beautiful combo. You are giving me ideas. I have been able to keep PS in the house over the winter and take it out every summer. I picked up a couple of Forever and ever Hydrangeas that I am going to grow on the patio in pots.

Are you saying your root cuttings of PS in a glass of water?

Thanks! Hope you enjoy it as much in person as in the pic.

Yes, PS will take root in water or soil, at either new soft stem or semi-hardwood. Once it gets woody, it's more likely to rot than root. I wouldn't be surprised if you could find a microclimate around your place where PS could survive outside for winter, with so much brick/stone (if I'm remembering the right pics.) Somewhere against basement wall near patio maybe...

Thank you. I will try to take some cuttings and see if I can root it in water.

Yes my house is a red brick. If I get some cuttings to root I will try. I kept my last one 3 years bringing it inside in the basement. Last year I did not water and lost a lot of my tropicals. I found one last week to replace it. I try to save it because they do not have them every year. I went to 3 of my usual local nurseries and none had it. I could not believe I found it at Lowes.

No doubt, there's no guarantee of finding this plant each year. I had to ask the lady at the little mom'n'pop garden center here in town to order some for me a few years ago. I would have been happy with one or two, but she said it was 8 or nothing, fine with me! So glad to hear L's has this available this year. Have you noticed they have a SKU for "purple foliage?" I don't visit there often, the closest one is an hour away. They may still not know how to care for plants at the stores, but they seem to be trying to provide interesting plants that people want. (So hopefully they will sell fast enough to not need care.)

And forgot to say yesterday, kudos to you for keeping this thing over winter! I've done it many times and this is NOT an attractive plant inside for winter, as you've probably noticed. I've tried giving it prime real-estate with plenty of light some years, still fugly! Worth it though, especially if you have the basement to hide its' ugly, mostly-dormant state. Have your plants made any flowers over winter before? This past winter, all I could offer the one I brought inside was a north window that has a patio roof outside of it, very low light. Result about the same, naked sticks with tiny leaves at the tips. Put that one in the ground a couple months ago and it looks fantastic now.

If you do have spots in the ground you'd like to try them, you might have good results going straight to soil with the cuttings, while it's warm and summer-humid. Maybe you'll need to go back to L's and get more of these plants! Enable, enable...

The flowers on this Hydrangea, which was a cutting last summer, are going by, but there are 4'o'clocks (Mirabilis jalapa) and jewels of Opar (Talinum paniculatum - if you don't like deadheading, don't get this one) coming to the rescue.

That is a pretty combo Purple.

I had trouble finding this topic purple. I have been trying to find it to tell you the piece I put in a glass of water rooted. Happy Dance. I cut two more today. Lowes only had two plants. I do not know if they had a lot and sold fast or they only ordered a few. During the summer I try to stop at Lowes once a week because they have a good sale rack. I got 20.00 Hydrangea forever and Ever for 3.00. The week before they did not have the Persian Shied.

To answer your question. No I never saw it bloom when I brought it in. I put it in the basement and gave is a glass of water once a month from Dec until April.

This is what it looked like when I got it outside.
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Oh that's fantastic - a fine speci-mine! Love seeing it, glad you found this again, kind of an arcane niche forum. Your plant did a much better job staying purple and retaining leaves inside. I wonder if I'm just leaving these out in the cold too long in the fall. The plant below is about the best looking one I've ended up with from bringing them in many times, in OH and AL. They recover within a couple weeks, with a flush of pretty new leaves, but not easy to look at all winter.

Nice size, too!

So glad you got roots, I was almost certain you would, as sure as one can be regarding propagating anything. I've kept pieces in water all winter before, but that only means about 3 months here. When it's warm and humid, I just stick pieces in the ground or pots and those almost always take root too, if they don't get too dry.

And no way, you do NOT have a spider plant in there - yes you DO! That's too weird. GMTA! Your yard looks peaceful and beautiful, BTW. Haven't seen that spot before, love it!

The area is one of the few areas that is shade. You would think with 3 acres and all the trees I would have more shade but the trees are mostly at a distance.

I have that green Spider plant growing in so many of my pots. The babies jump into every pot I bring inside for the winter. I bring inside so many pots they all get huddled in the basement so close that the spider just spreads around and get into the pots. LOL I wish the varigated spider was as robust.

You have probably seen this area before but it is Spring time before the Hostas are out.

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I miss having a basement. Do you have any Callisia fragrans? That's another plant besides spider that can invade other pots.

I love it! What are the blue ones? That Heuchera (I think) is the perfect POP of color right there. That big variegated Hosta to the left is fantastic!! My eye is actually more drawn to the left once I 'get over' the flowers on the right. The longer I garden, the less I care about flowers and just love to look at pretty and interesting leaves.

Here's where the one plant stayed alive enough to bloom last winter. Under definitely interesting foliage (IMVHO) for summer.

That is beautiful....Look at those leaves. I love foliage more than flowers. It is why I love hostas and houseplants with pretty leaves.

Funny you mentioned Callisia fragrans. I lost a pot of that plant but before it died it jumped into a pot of my Purple rubber plant so I have been letting it live with that plant. It bloomed for the first time last year. They were fragrant white flowers. I was told they bloomed and I had never seen it bloom. I had that plant for 20 years and it never bloomed. It jumps in a pot and blooms. LOL

You have a good eye. Yes the purple is a Heuchera and the hosta is June. It is such a pretty hosta. I have it in several places in the Hosta garden. The blue ones are 'Halcyon'

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Fantastic! Hostas just aren't very prevalent down here, I miss some of the really pretty ones I had. Love your 'June!'

A purple rubber plant sounds interesting. Also interesting about the escaped Callisia finally blooming. If the pots were adjacent, probably wasn't an issue of more/less light. Curious! I've left the old flower stalks on one of my plants since I was able to take it out while it was still blooming. I haven't seen the flowers open for a while and not that I need more of this plant, but curious if it might make seeds.

I don;t know but I would guess anything that blooms would have a seed. You are right when this plant starts to grow the last thing you need is seeds.

Yeah IKR! LOL! Pollination is usually pretty straightforward, but sometimes you have the male/female plants thing, those that are self-sterile, need to attract a certain insect that may not live in the area, the more I learn, the more confused I get sometimes.

Speaking of seeds, I never noticed any kind of seed pods forming on the PS's that made flowers. Just went to check. The flower-forming parts are still there, but look just the same, soft, not swollen anywhere, just without flowers.

I love to plant Persian Shield with Plumbago. They highly compliment each other in color and leaf size
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