Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Who's got the biggest?, 1 by DaleTheGardener

DaleTheGardener wrote:
Kelly, badseed, Linda,

I got my first start for CH at the San Antonio TX Botanical Garden greenhouse, about 4-5 years ago. It was about 3" tall then. I don't feed it because it will lose it's variegation. It gives off pups and I remove them twice a year. The first go around pups are gone, at the last Round up here on July 22nd. The second set it not big enough to remove yet. It will be spring before they are ready, because I don't feed them they grow slowly. The leaves in the above photo are this years flush. I have considered giving them Maxi crop, a seaweed based fertilizer to see if I can get them growing a little faster and bigger without losing the color. I will have to try that product on one of the pups.

When I pull the pups I save the most unusual one for myself and give the rest away, even the mother plant. I have limited space for plants in pots and CH has to be kept in a pot, even here. I have tried them in the ground and they always perish in the winter. I planted one in a garden that I work on, last summer and it disappeared last Dec. I thought it was gone until I was weeding the area I had put it in and discovered that it had survived. This is a photo of what was left of a 4' plant, and it has taken until now (July) to grow. The plant is about 6" tall, but, one of the shoots is solid white, that is a keeper.