I've got a warnecki that's about 3 feet tall in a 10-inch pot. The top is fairly full but the trunk is tall and bare, making the plant look a bit pathetic in it's pot.
Any ideas on what I can plant along the bottom in the same pot? I'm thinking something really drought tolerant since my warnecki seems to like it best when I neglect it a bit.
Episcias would grow nicely and fill out the bottom of your pot very fast. Also, you get the additional benefit of blooms.
Trimming the brown tips would help the appearance of the beautiful tree. Anything that doesn't want to stay soggy (almost all plants) that you would enjoy looking at would be fine to partner in that pot. With the artificial lighting and additional shade of growing under the tree, I would stick to plants known to do well in low light. There are other Dracs, Dieffenbachia, Aglaonema, wax Begonias might find that enough light to bloom but those can be kind of messy as the older flowers drop off, or you could put some type of epiphytic vine that could grow up the trunk (which periodically needs renewed when the vine reaches the top of the tree,) like heart-leaf Philo, Pothos, Syngonium. Something to trail over the edges like Tradescantia zebrina might be interesting also. There's no reason to limit yourself to one other plant.
There's also room around the trunk to just set smaller pots on the soil surface. That would make the whole thing less static, able to be changed/rearranged, no mess of digging into the pot. Like if you got some of the holiday cactus out there blooming now, that would look cute draping over the edges, replace later if you get bored or they decline...
I like all your suggestions! I'll post a new pic when I decide what to do!
Thanks everyone!
You could plant more Warnekii, but smaller ones. Get 2 that are different sizes, then the arrangement would be 3 trees, small, medium and large.
