Looking lovely today is the amazing Agave x romanii ‘Shadow Dancer’. This fascinating agave is a man-made hybrid between two Mexican species, Agave filifera and Agave mitis. Not only is it a hybrid, but this selection has a fascinating variegation pattern that’s not seen on any other century plant. The new growth emerges ghostly cream with a muted green border. As the leaves age, they green disappears and the leaves become pure parchment white. Despite the seeming lack of chlorophyll, Agave ‘Shadow Dancer’ has amazingly good vigor and doesn’t burn in full sun. This has potential winter hardiness for Zones 8b and south, but needs more trialing to know for sure. In other climates, it’s a great container specimen.
One of our favorite love lilies in our 2003 introduction, Amorphophallus konjac ‘Pinto’. This amazing dwarf never has foliage that exceeds 16″ in height. Unfortunately, the ridiculously slow growth rate has kept us from offering it again since, but perhaps one day. Here is our parent plant in the garden this week. Even if you don’t have a home garden, this form is superb in a container. We had a large crop of dwarfs from seed two years ago, and are looking for more unique new compact selections.
Container grown Sarracenia ‘Hurricane Creek White’
In early summer of 2016, after my first couple of months working at Plant Delights Nursery, I bought my first pitcher plant, Sarracenia ‘Hurricane Creek White’. After reading the article Introduction to Sarracenia – The Carnivorous Pitcher Planton PDN’s website, I followed the simple instructions on growing pitcher plants in containers.
I selected a decorative frost proof container that was equivalent to, or maybe a little larger than a 3gal container. I used sphagnum peat moss, as recommended, for the potting mix. The sphagnum peat moss is very dry and almost powdery when it comes out of the bag. Put the peat moss in a bucket and add water. Mix well, and allow the peat to soak up the water until it is no longer powdery and is more a spongy consistency.
Now you are ready to plant. I started off with one of our 3.5″ pitcher plants, which had one to two growing points and four to six pitchers, much like the plant pictured here.
3.5″ container of Sarracenia ‘Hurricane Creek White’
Fill your decorative container about 2/3rd full with the moistened peat, gently break apart the root ball of the 3.5″ plant and spread the roots out on top of the peat and cover the roots with more moistened peat and firm up to stabilize the plant. I also incorporated a couple of small venus fly traps in the container. Place the container in a plastic tray that will hold water, so the peat can draw the water up from the base and not dry out.
The container stays on our outdoor patio where it gets light morning shade and afternoon sun. It continued to grow the rest of the summer and remained outdoors all winter long. I trimmed off the old pitchers this spring as it began to flush. The first picture in this post is what it looks like today, one year later, easily tripled in size.
This was an easy project and a great and rewarding experience for my introduction to growing pitcher plants, not to mention the attention it garnered from friends who came over. I have now started my second container for the patio utilizing ‘Carolina Yellow Jacket’.
