Firecracker Plant, Firecracker Flower, Kanakambaram
Crossandra infundibuliformis
A great bloomer that provides color all season. These blooms are backlit by afternoon sun so they appear lighter than they actually are. Shown in April. (San Antonio, Tx.)
This is surely not the piece I sent you, is it?
Yes, it is. I used a special fertilizer made from my big old dog's poop and liquid fish emulsion as an experiment. It sure does work, so he is valuable after all. :o) You know I am just kidding. My husband gave me this one for Easter. The one you gave me is still small, but it is developing a bud stem already. It must like it here.
You had me going for a minute there...ready to get the llama manure worked into my potted one! I think the one I sent you will be more pinkish... more salmon colored. My 'Tropic Yellow Splash' seedlings are still only 4 or 5 inches tall...they look healthy and are starting to branch, but it does not look like I will be using them to provide tall yellow bedding plants this year!
I lost the one lime cutting that tried to sprout a leaf. I feel bad because your plant was small and you pruned off a piece for me anyway. I'm sorry I failed to get it to root. I did not need it anyway, I just wanted to smell the blossoms. The justicia is now a deep dark green and taking off, kinda leggy because it came that way...I left it like that in case I want to lop the top off later and propagate some more pieces to make a fuller pot. I guess it will branch back out from the lower stems? Let me know if you can. Have 4 red yuccas now, and 1 chinese violet seed had a small root starting out of it. The little cyclamens are about ready for potting on, and I pinched the plectranthus yesterday to make it more bushy (hope that was the thing to do). I still have plastic over the sweet olives and duranta, every time I take it off they wilt, but they both have some new leaves on them.
The hardy plants I got on the Dave's coop from Sunfarms are not very happy...one lost the only leaf it had and several more are badly wilted. It has not been a very successful coop and at least one participant has asked to have his/her money refunded. We have another shipment coming in several weeks...about 2 months past planting time. I ordered six double primulas at $2.50 each, the one that came in the first box is struggling...the others will not like the heat at all. Maybe these coops are not such a good idea.
I can try to start a lime cutting for you here if you want because it is putting on a lot of growth. Yes, the justicia can be cut back t make it fuller and it will sprout from the bottom. Pruning the plectranthus will make it fuller also. I am so happy that at least 1 Chinese violet sprouted. I examined the ones at the botanical garden last week and they are coming back up from the roots. Because we did not have a cold winter, they never really died back. The gardner just lopped them off in January. Mine are growing slowly right now and have had only a few blooms because we have not had much sun and it has not even reached the high 80s yet. This little guy prefers hot weather and partial to mottled shade. It has been a strange spring again this year. I am happy that the other plants are doing okay.
How disappointing that the plants are not doing well from the coop. I wonder why?
Thanks for the lime offer, Hazel, but I think I will pass this time...I am just way too overloaded with plants to overwinter inside and I must get myself under control!
Some of the coop plants are doing a little better, and some worse. I think they were digging some of them out of the frozen snow and then shipped them to S. Carolina where the temps were in the 80s and then after waiting unsuccessfully for the second ship they were finally sent on to me in an overwatered condition. Then I worsened the situation by putting them in bigger pots and setting them outside where it was windy. Poor babies. I set them back in the greenhouse in the shade and several look much happier now. I don't intend to plant them out in the yard until this fall or next spring.
One of them, hexastylis splendens, is especially nice looking. Wish I had ordered more of those. Guess it will multiply with time.
Your dog comments (using him for a pack horse) were funny...forgot to tell you that on the other thread.
I keep telling my cats to pull the weeds out of the driveway, but they have prefer to dig the flowers out of the garden instead. Let me know if have success with the dog!
It sounds like the plants from the coop went through a lot indeed. Hopefully they will all recover with time. So you have more cats than just your beautiful white one. If you ever are successful with teaching them to pull weeds, please let me know what technique you used. I need to teach all the neighborhood cats how to perform this task. He does perform one task. If my husband answers the phone and it is for me, he places the phone receiver in the bg old dog's collar and the dog brings it to me. I have also been trying to teach him how to pull the trashcans to the curb on trash pickup days, but have failed. This must be very difficult to learn because I haven't been able to teach my husband to do this chore for 20 years so I am not going to expect too much from my dog.
You need to be a comedianne, Hazel.
My typing just gets worse and worse...several errors in the post above, I noticed. Oh, well...you probably got my drift.
It rained and stormed here a while ago and then the sun came out...I took some pictures of raindrops on the plants. Hope I got something good.
My hostas are absolutely incredible in size this year. I can't remember if I put the llama poop on them or not, but the leaves are just huge on most of them. If my pics turn out, I will post some next week with my hand in the photo for size comparison (and I have large hands).
We have to move our daughter this weekend in St. Louis so I will talk to you next week. Hope you have a good weekend there.
Susan
Oh, yes...we have 3 cats that stay in the house full time and 2 that stay in the woodshed at night and in the yard during the day. We had some coyotes that killed some of our cats and so we put them up at night.
This message was edited Apr 30, 2004 7:30 PM
Salmon colored crossandra flourish here in partial shade and full sun. Trying to grow then from seed now. In zone 10.
Wow, this is pretty, looks like I could grow this one too or does it need lots of heat as you have there in Texas? Is it herbaceous?
tremax, I am in Zone 8b and was afraid to put the plants in full sun. I have them in filtered sun now. So, I'll try oone in full sun to see how it does. The salmon ones are a beautiful color.
Lenjo, it is herbaceous and it will grow in cooler zones, but it is not winter hardy.
Thanks to both of you for your comments.
I grow crossandra as a houseplant, putting it outside in dappled shade for the summer. I don't think it likes full sun, but too little light will inhibit blooming. Easy to propagate from cuttings.
That's where I have mine including the one you gave me. I didn't think it likes full sun especially here in Texas. I know I killed one in the past by placing it in too much shade and watering it too much.
htop or toxicodendron ; easy from cuttings huh? And I am sure you are very proficient with cuttings, right, huh? LOL What could I send for a trade? Htop, I am zone 8 also and sometimes I read where they say we can almost be zone 7. It can get fairly cold here but we always hope not as it will damage the berry crop.
Lenjo, I have mine in containers so that I can bring them in during freezng weather. I have never started them from cuttings, plus my plant is very small still. But I do have some seeds right now. If you want some, email me with your name and address.
lenjo this is a bad time for cuttings here, too. My plant is just starting to form flower buds and so I am not going to prune it till late summer or fall. At that time, I will probably take 3 cuttings to root and let frost get the plant since I have limited space for carrying over the multitude of plants I grow. I could send you some pieces then. Let me know.
Toxi, you are so kind.
Absolutely, Toxi.
I wrote your name down for cuttings, Lenjo. Now if I just don't lose it, ha.
