What grows in my "garden"

[deranged chipmunk]

The reason I quoted garden? Because I'm currently stuck in a rental home while my wife and I continue to house shop, and I have no true garden, so I am stuck with container gardening on my front porch. For those who know me, I am not only interested in the weird and unusual plants, but I adore them!! So I keep a bunch on my porch. I like the stuff that most people would pass by and wouldn't even attempt to grow. Knowing this, a buddy of mine who grows plants commercially, brought me a care package of a bunch of unusual plants, and I wanted to share them with you wonderful folk in hopes that we can get a few more people interested in them as well. Here are a few of the things I grow in my urban container garden.

I was never one for succulents. In fact, I believe in some other thread here, I said I despised them. Well, that view changed when I got my first pachypodium species:

And was confirmed with this one, which I cannot remember the name of except that the last part of it is 'fragilis':

It actually had just bloomed, but heavy storms the past few days caused the blooms to go by the wayside, but left me those gorgeous mushrooms!!
But my pride and joy plants are just sprouting. I planted three bulbs about 2 months ago and they are finally growing. I cannot wait to see them bloom! They are amorphophallus 'konjac', or as they are better know as the corpse flower. And yes, when they bloom, they will stink to high heaven for a week or two. I can't wait to freak the neighbors out!!


Of course I also have a few other oddballs which I don't have pics of currently, but can add if anyone wants to see them. I keep a nepenthes ventricosa pitcher plant, a sweet dischidia species and of course, numerous ferns (no surprise there).

If you have any oddball plants you grow? I encourage you to post them here. I love the oddities!!


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

[LilyPad]

All of mine, indoors and out, are fairly common plants. Those are really cool though, Bill. I did have Cassia didymobotrya for a while, but by the end of summer, I was gagging at the smell of popcorn so I didn't try to winter it, I let it die. I will have to look through some folders and see if I have any pictures of it, it grew pretty big.

[UncleChester]

I'd love to see your pitcher plant Bill

Here's a stinky bulb related to yours in the garden- ​Dracunculus vulgaris:



The spathe on this one was just shy of two feet long last year. This year they are all much smaller (we have several). This variety stinks like dead animal for only a day or two but it's pretty foul/awesome. The seed heads are also pretty excellent. They're normally on just a straight shaft, but last year one decided to form a torus shape. We've recently managed to get some seeds from this one to germinate:



I fished a Madagascar Palm a little bigger than your guy out of the trash about 10 years ago. It became rather unwieldy so we passed it off to my mother-in-law who has more space for house plants and our idiot cats liked to chew on the sharp bits. It's big enough now that it doesn't go outside during the summer.

[deranged chipmunk]

Amy, the cassia species are very beautiful. They are on my wish list for my garden next year. I knew the popcorn smell could be overwhelming. How many plants did you grow?

Brian, my man!! I knew we had similar tastes in plants. That one is a beaut!!! Are you growing that in a container?

I thought about a a palm, but passed because of their size and having to winter them. I am truly fascinated by this pachypodium. So much so that I want more of them!!

I'll snap a pic of my nepenthes when I get home from work. It's nothing special really. It's growing, but not throwing any new pitchers because we don't have the humidity to sustain the pitchers. But I'm really only keeping it alive until I build the tank that will be it's permanent home.


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

[LilyPad]

I have a feeling that I'm going to love this thread. I've been focusing on perennials the last several years, but as everything starts filling in, I'm going to be looking into more annuals again.

Brian, I have issues with the cats chewing my plants also. I had a beautiful bird of paradise growing until my cat continually got sick from chewing on it. It gets frustrating. Indoors, I only have my jade plants, succulent gardens (which are failing,) and christmas cactus. Everything else gets destroyed by the cats. Even the blind one finds his way to them.

I only planted one cassia, just to see how it grew. It was gorgeous, but every time I went out on my patio, I felt like I walked into a movie theatre. I can't remember what year I had it, 2 or 3 seasons ago. I will dig through pictures when I get home, I'm pretty sure I took at least one.

Last year I had some yellow black leafed dahlias which were pretty amazing also. I had never seen those before.

[Strider18]

Haha Bill I found this and thought that you might want to look at it:
Amorphophallus titanum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pretty funny

[deranged chipmunk]

I had the "pleasure" of standing near one of these specimens (titanum) it was huge and smelled awful!! But, a truly stunning plant!!!


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

[Strider18]

Haha, apparently one opened out here today... If you look up corpse flower blooming there is one that just bloomed. And I personally wouldn't want to be anywhere near a flower that was a couple feet tall and smelled like a corpse :P

[DigitalPunk]

I am only recently (last year or 2) getting interested in plants. I guess owning my first house changed it. Never wanted to help enrich my rental homes landscape lol. Growing up my dad had 100s of Elephant Ears in his flower beds, and all kinds of ferns. This has caused me to lean in that direction as well. I absolutely Love My Elephant Ears and all the Ferns we have in our yard!

I would love to see any and all the plants you keep bill. I am truly fascinated!

[deranged chipmunk]

i'll get some pics up later today.

[deranged chipmunk]

Ok Paul, here ya go. My boring containers lol


The bottom "empty" pot houses an autumn fern that I am trying to revive.


My Bolivian Jew that I have propagated from a tiny little hitchhiker that rode on in another plant I got from Home Depot.





This one has a rare Hoya species and a stephanotis sp. Cutting that someone gave me.

One of my all time fav ferns. A Japanese painted fern. Nothing fancy or exotic about it, just a hardy, good grower. Love this plant!!


Dischidia sp.


Nepenthes ventricosa




I also added a trio of lobelis cardinalis to the container garden. Hopefully, they will take. If not, it's ok, I have 2 more growing submerged in my aquatic grow out tank and one more growing in my 18x18


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

[DigitalPunk]

Thanks Bill! They all look great! I have several Japanese painted ferns in my yard. I am actually going to put 1 or 2 in the new 40B viv as well (if I can find them local).

[Mentat]

They look good Bill! Myself like the Japanese fern .

[deranged chipmunk]

Thanks guys. I love those ferns so much that I am ordering a couple different cultivars soon for my garden. That's the beauty of the Japanese painted, it's a perennial in our zones. I'm also planning on adding a couple ostrich ferns and a cinnamon fern or two to the arsenal.


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

[UncleChester]

Brian, my man!! I knew we had similar tastes in plants. That one is a beaut!!! Are you growing that in a container?

They're in the garden in 4 or 5 locations. I've seen them pessimistically listed as zone 7 or warmer, but they seem to handle zone 5 just fine.

Nepenthes ventricosa

Excellent.

Thanks guys. I love those ferns so much that I am ordering a couple different cultivars soon for my garden. That's the beauty of the Japanese painted, it's a perennial in our zones. I'm also planning on adding a couple ostrich ferns and a cinnamon fern or two to the arsenal.

Ferns are always good fun. Madienhair Spleenwort, Asplenium trichomanes, might be up your alley and has to be my favorite wild fern. We've got a few growing on rocks that we moved into the garden from the bush. It's not commonly available from growers but you seem to have a way of acquiring plants

Another fun plant in our gardens, the Prickly Pear cactus, Opuntia humifusa. The fun part is how it handles our winters with great dignity. Yep, living cacti under the snow. The not so fun part is weeding it with thick gloves and long tongs.

[deranged chipmunk]

I actually like this cacti. I may have to pick one up sometime

I'm going to look into that maindenhair. I'm sure i have a connection or two that might be able to help me out


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

[deranged chipmunk]

I noticed last night that my dischidia is starting to bloom. I'll get pics when it does


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela