Hi Carol,
I agree with you - COT are the best! I have pink, salmon, white and red. Also the Thai variety in different colors.
A few of my other favorites include ordinary flax and now the new variety called dianella tasmanica with dark green leaves and blue round berries . It takes full sun, cold and dryness. I am also a fan of Song of India, which I have grown in sun and shade along side yellow walking iris (also blooms all year)
I have others, but I'm thinking you want to know what to put in your pots? The cane begonias would be perfect, no?
Looking forward to others joining in here,
Hester

Aspidistra elatior, the Cast Iron Plant. On the north side of my house, there is full shade and the roots from the neighbor's oak tree go all the way to my house. Everything else I have planted in the bed on that side of the house has died. (I only have to weed that bed a couple times a year - even the weeds won't grow there!) Yet the Cast Iron Plants live. Doesn't matter whether I water them or fertilize them, they just hang in there. They are even evergreen in most winters.

Mine aren't as full as the specimens in the picture on Floridata. But they still make me happy.

Here is a link that might be useful: Floridata - Aspidistra elatior

I have a variegated cast iron that I love but ignore too. The green and white leaves are in deep shade under my magoe tree and really brighten up the spot. :o)

Weeds, they extremely under-rated but when gathered and used as greens in your salads, they are delicious. But remember to be selective because some weeds are really YUCKY - PATOOWEY!

MOO

I've mentioned it a few other times, but it still stands. I love cycads. In particular, dioon spinulosum and encephalartos ferox. Not easily available, but becoming more so. I actually saw some at HD last fall I think. These plants are indestructable, as long as you give them good drainage. They look good every season and require little. I love the way they look in my yard. Another I've mentioned before also is Japanese Fern Tree filicium decipiens. Beautiful small tree which looks good almost all year. My area is borderline for cold though.

I agree with those mentioned above. They do double duty in my yard too.

Anna

My Blue Daze......He hasn't stopped smiling at me since June....! Love that plant...greets me every morning on my walk down the garden path....

Porterweed! The native one is OK, but the taller blue one also called vervain (Stachytarpheta urticifolia) is the real workhorse of the garden. The tall coral one is nice too. I like them almost as much as the butterflies and hummingbirds do.

Our Philodendron bipinnatifidum, although I am not sure if it is the tree-type. The thing is huge though it's center isn't too tall. The frost kills all of it's foliage (like now) and comes back every year with a full dome. I used to want to get rid of it but now, I like it. Never seen any blooms on it though.

Azalea? Is that what that is Wallisadi? Very pretty.
Sharon

Porterweed! The native one is OK, but the taller blue one also called vervain (Stachytarpheta urticifolia) is the real workhorse of the garden. The tall coral one is nice too. I like them almost as much as the butterflies and hummingbirds do.

I second that, you can't beat porterweed for perennial blooming for the bees and NO care what so ever other than trimming now and then....

Tom

I would love to try blue porterweed! Does anyone in Jacksonville have one from which I could get a cutting? I have lots of things to trade.

Carol

Tom and K8,

I got a blue porterweed! What a pretty plant. Where do you have yours planted? What kind of conditions?

Also, have either of you had any problem with it being invasive? While reading around on the internet to find out where I should plant it, I read some indications that it can be spreading.

Thanks!
Carol in Jax

I have some portulaca in cement pots in full afternoon sun that survive year after year with no watering and me tearing up the grass and clover that tries to grow without regard to the roots of the flower. The loud pink blooms come back every summer!

I have some porterweed but I don't think you are going to a swap, are you?

Tina, You are so sweet - but I just got a porterweed! It is such a pretty little plant - I hope it does well for me.

You are right about portulaca. I have the pink one, also, and it is a workhorse. Very, very easy plant.

I would give anything to go to the swap and meet all you folks in person. I love to give away plants and I know it will be so much fun. But it is just too far from Jacksonville. Maybe if I find someone else to ride with and share gas? (Sultry_Jasmine_Nights, are you reading this?)

Carol in Jax

I got a blue porterweed! What a pretty plant. Where do you have yours planted? What kind of conditions?

Hi Carol, both of mine are in the veggie garden on the south side of the yard in full sun. I do nothing to them, no water or fertilizer and they grow like weeds, that is probably why that's part of their name ;-) I have to trim them back hard twice a year because they are close to my tomato bunkers and the tomatoes always come first. This isn't the best picture but you can see both plants just inside the wooden wall of the veggie bed, lower middle and a little further up and to the left.

Tom

Tom, I can see them in your picture and everything you report is good news. No wonder it made it onto the "most under-rated plant" list! LOL! I know exactly where I'm going to put it. And I've already started to try and root cuttings. :) Thank you so much for the info.

Carol in Jax

two crinums given to me as seeds several years ago. They are on alternating schedules and one always seems to have a stunning purple bloom on it.
And weirdly (I did not expect this at all) white impatiens. I put a bunch in for the wedding last year figuring they wouldn't last long. But I found an apparently perfect spot for them. I've heard that with just the right conditions, they can be perennials down here. I think I may have found those conditions (bright, bright shade until late, late in the afternoon, when they get less than an hour of full sun. And I don't water them, ever.) Many that were in different parts of the yard have given up and died, or got leggy and got pulled. But these happy little mounds still look great nearly a year later.