officeplants.comThese newly installed plants and containers completely transformed the lobby of this building in Concord. Each grouping of 3 plants includes a Ficus Lyata, Dracaena Compacta, and a Monstera Deliciosa. All are in different sized natural colored cement containers.
Everything Grows did the design and provided the plants and containers for this job. Most importantly, Everything Grows is provided on going maintenance of the plants, and guarantees they will continue to look beautiful. Any plant that fails gets replaced at no charge while under our maintenance guarantee. Contact Everything Grows today at officeplants.com for your complimentary plant design and proposal.
Kniphofia also known as Red Hot Poker shows why it gets its name.
Some plants are more than pretty faces in the yard. They do things,
grow in odd ways, or give us interesting twists and surprises to make
gardening fun. If you’d like to spice up your landscape with a few of
the more offbeat, yet easily growable, members of the plant world, here
are eight to consider:
Red hot poker
You can guess what this looks like from the name – plants with spiky
flowers that bloom mainly in red, often with yellow flowers at the
bottom, or sometimes orange or yellow. Winter-hardy to Zone 5, perennial
red hot pokers (Kniphofia) send up their rod-like stems from clumps of grassy leaves for several weeks in summer. Some people call them torch lilies.
Flick the leaves of the sensitive plant and they fold down, as if the plant is trying to hide.
Sensitive plant
This little, trailing member of the mimosa family (Mimosa pudica)
is king of the action plants. When you touch or flick its leaves or
stems, they fold down, almost as if the plant is trying to hide. It’ll
also “hide” in a windstorm. But when the wind drops for a few minutes,
the leaves and stems return to form.
Sensitive plants are tropical, (you may have seen them growing wild
on a tropical island) and won’t withstand frost. Garden centers often
carry young plants in spring, but these are easy to start by planting
seeds in pots or in the ground, once all threat of frost is gone.
Definitely a fun project for children.
Here’s a plant that seems like it’s looking back at you – the eyeball plant.
George Weigel
Eyeball plant
The flowers of this annual (Spilanthes oleracea) are yellow,
round, and sit at the top of the stems. Red spots form at the top of
the flower orbs to make it seem like little eyeballs are looking up at
you. It’s also known as the “toothache plant” because its leaves and
flowers contain an analgesic once used to ease toothaches. Eyeball
plants are sometimes sold as spring annuals, but like the sensitive
plant, they’re easy to start from seed too.
The blooms and flower buds of the popcorn plant resemble popcorn popping. The flowers even smell like buttered popcorn.
Popcorn plant
The golden flowers of this husky tropical (Senna didymobotrya) look a bit like a stalk of popcorn clusters. Even odder is that they actually smell like buttered popcorn. Plants can grow up to 4 or 5 feet tall in one season.
Garden centers sometimes carry these plants for after-frost planting,
or they can be started from seed. Great in large containers.
These flower heads of ‘Globemaster’ alliums are nearly the size of softballs.
Colorblends
Ornamental onions
Many members of the onion family produce round heads of purple or
white flowers of varying sizes atop stalks that spring from underground
bulbs in late spring. One of the most impressive types is the Persian or
giant allium (A.giganteum), which carries purple flowers in
balls the size of tennis balls and even softballs. Look for varieties
such as violet ‘Globemaster,’ purple ‘Gladiator’, and violet-blue ‘His
Excellency’.
Other species produce big, but looser inflorescences, with flowers
borne umbrella-like at the end of longer stems, giving the appearance a
star that’s exploded. Star of Persia (Allium christophii) and the tumbleweed onion (Allium schubertii)fall into this category.
Alliums are cold-hardy even in the northern-most states, returning year after year before going dormant by mid-summer.
Elephant ears ‘Black Coral’ has glossy black leaves, the size and shape of, well, elephant ears.
George Weigel
Black elephant ears
Colocasia is another plant that grows from bulbous
structures (actually tubers). These are famous for their gigantic leaves
that are shaped – and sized – like elephant ears. They are known as
“taro” in the tropics, where their tubers are smashed and eaten as a
staple food. Elephant ears are mostly grown as annual ornamentals in
colder climates (Zone 6 and lower), either in the ground or in large
pots. The varieties with glossy and nearly jet black leaves are
particularly showy and most popular. Two that you’re most likely to find
in garden centers are Royal Hawaiian® ‘Black Coral’ and ‘Black Magic.’
Before frost in fall, dig up the tubers very carefully to avoid
damaging them. Clean off the soil and any remaining leaves, and leave
them to dry in a dark, frost free place for a couple of weeks. Then you
can store them inside in dry peat moss or perlite for replanting next
season.
‘Swartkop’ Aeonium has glossy black leaves arranged in an umbrella pattern around the stems.
Aeonium ‘Swartkop’
Lots of tropical succulents make great oddball and easy-to-grow
summer plants. But a trendy one lately is this upright species that also
has glossy black leaves. ‘Swartkop’ is also unusual for its stubby,
trunk-like main stem, and its umbrella arrangement of the leaves around
the top of the plants. Look for it in the houseplant section of garden
centers.
While you’re at it, check out all sorts of other succulents that can
be grown outside in troughs, window boxes, and pots in summer, including
the flapjack plant (Kalanchoe thyrsiflora) with its red, paddle-like leaves, living stones or Lithops
(which look like stones), or one of the many true cactuses with red,
orange, or yellow “caps” of flowers. Beware that these haven’t been
compromised with the addition of straw flowers on top to give the
illusion that the plants are in bloom.
