2011: A Potted Plant Odyssey

kale, creeping jenny, pansies

I like potted plants.  Outside, not inside.  Inside I can't seem to keep them alive.  My poor asthmatic and pneumonia-scarred lungs breathe better in dry air so I never use a humidifier or other means to keep my plants as moist as they'd like to be.  So they die.  But outside, at least in some years, I do alright.

 

I like geraniums.  These annual geraniums are pelargoniums, actually.  I like the fancy leaved and scented pelargoniums specifically.  I did eventually procure a larger collection than this and learn to overwinter them by pruning them and removing them from their pots and shaking the soil from their roots so that they may spend the winter in five gallon buckets in the basement.  And sometimes, bareroot and totally unwatered, THEY BLOOM.  In the basement!!  They are amazing little creatures.  The scented varieties have leaves that can be bruised and soaked in sugar syrup overnight, thus making the most amazing homemade sodas and lemonades.  I've even minced some leaves of the lemon crispum and lime varieties into cucumber salsas.  It's heavenly.  Please try it.

My porch wraps around the northeast corner of my house.  I have windowboxes on four north-facing windows.  It's been an interesting and frustrating journey trying to find plants that are happy there.  I wish I could remember what exactly I had tucked into them in 2011, but I can't.  Which is probably fine because they don't look real pleased to be there anyway.  The coleus in these photos however...

The coleus are thrilled.  I should have pinched back the Redhead coleus, but I loved it so much I dared not touch it for fear of killing it.  I know better now, and would have better pictures to show off the mighty Redhead in subsequent years if I weren't so lazy.  It and the trailing, variegated coleus featured in the lowermost photo above are the only two that I think I'll never be able to live without.

One other thing that I'd like to point out in the above set is the trailing green plant tucked in the pot with the caladium.  It's pennyroyal!!  Started from seed by little old me.  It makes a fantastic trailing plant for windowboxes and hanging baskets and is super easy and cheap.  As an herb it makes a nice tea and flea-repellant.  Also, it was historically used as an abortifacient, so don't go crazy.