I'm sorry, that was kind of snippy. I didn't mean for it to be, but feel bad about it as I read it again. And I thought I had mentioned what a beautiful plant yours is, very large, very purple leaves. I think it needs a much larger pot ASAP! Here's some more specific info about what I do. I bring in ONE potted plant, it's all I have room for in the main sunny window. I know from experience that all of the leaves are going to fall off, so I remove them all except the smaller ones at the tips. Keep it a little more dry than during the summer, watering thoroughly when it first begins to wilt. If you have a more sunny window than I've ever had, your plant may grow while inside over winter, mine are always just pretty ugly and naked. All mine have ever done is grow much more greenish leaves at about the same pace as the ones which I left on the plant die and fall off. I wish you every bit of luck for keeping a pretty *purple* plant inside over winter, but don't be discouraged if it's ugly. It will grow beautiful purple leaves all over the stems when it gets to go outside again in the spring. All of the winter leaves are gone from my plants by now and what you see are all leaves that have grown since it's been put back outside. We don't run the central air since we've discovered that hot oil heaters provide a much warmer heat for about the same cost and they don't remove humidity from the air, so it's not lack of humidity that defoliates these plants over winter. This house stays at about 70% humidity all winter. For the rest of the plants (cuttings grown in the ground,) I cut off all of the branches and stick each one in a bottle of water. Remove all but the top 2-3 leaves. These go in east, west, or south windowsills. North isn't enough light. When danger of frost has passed, plant or pot them outside, and start the process over again. You can do the same thing with Coleus (except that I don't bother anymore trying to keep potted plants inside, just cuttings.) Regarding pinching, I've found that removing leaves along the stem is the best way to encourage a bushy plant. As leaves lose their pretty color, just snap them off. Yours looks like it wouldn't need much done for a while except to remove 5 winter leaves that are less green: The oval on the right is trying to indicate the green leaf under the purple ones. Bottom circle is the 2 green and 1 yellow leaf. I LOVE to talk about PS and have had them for years in both OH and AL. Please ask if you have any other questions.

Marquest..Your patio IS huge!!! Your Cannas are beautiful. Where do you find such tall types? They remind me of Gingers. Very nice..Is that an Australian Tree Fern on the left side table?? Paul, do you have a cool room? Is your heat turned on yet? That's one problem with tropicals/sub-tropicals/tender-tropicals, or in our zones, annuals. When they're brought indoors after a summer outside, there's less chance of leaf drop if set indoors before heat is turned on. But if a plant is placed in a cool, semi-unheated room, like an enclosed porch, there's less stress. Lol, the stick. Good luck to you both, Toni

Yes Florah I have an amarnth in there but I got it from a cutting and was not told it's name.It grows quite tall and I recently had to whack it but I propagated the pieces. BUTI found this write up Tapioca is one of the common names of Manihot esculenta 'Variegata' as is cassada, cassava, manioc, yuca, mandioca, shushu, muk shue, cassave, maniok, tapioka, imanoka, maniba, kasaba, katela boodin. The reason we chose the name tapioca is because it is the name of a favorite dessert of mine - tapioca pudding. Tapioca is sort of like Poke Salad made from Poke weed in the Southeastern U.S.-- if the cook doesn't know what he is doing, the meal will kill you! Cooking destroys the prussic acid. In South America, the green leafed Tapioca is grown for its enlarged starch-filled tuberous roots. There is a bitter, poisonous- and a sweet, - nonpoisonous variety of tapioca; however the skin stays poisonous and the sweet variety must be peeled. There are hydrocyanic glucosides (HCN) in all parts of the plant; these glucosides are removed by peeling and boiling in water. The peeled roots of the sweet variety is what the original tapioca pudding was made. I remember enjoying a version of this when I was a baby in Tennessee. I wonder if they were trying to poison me?!? The root of the bitter variety is very poisonous when raw but cooking destroys the hydrocyanic acid -- the cooking water must be discarded just as when cooking Poke Salad. The young leaves are used as vegetable and contain a high amount of vitamin A and C but older leaves are not often used. The bitter ones are grated, diluted in water and pressed in a cylindrical basket-work "press" to extract the juice. The paste of tapioca can be baked into pancake-like bread while the extracted juice is fermented into a strong liquor called kasiri. The juice can also be concentrated and sweetened until it becomes a dark viscous syrup called kasripo (casareep). This syrup has antiseptic properties and is used for flavoring. All of this is to warn folks that variegated tapioca is a clone of a tropical food plant, however, the milky sap of the foliage contains cyanide compounds and SHOULD NOT BE EATEN. Instead of eating this beautiful ornamental plant, go to the closest fast food place to satisfy your hunger. Also, don't worry about your pets eating enough to hurt themselves because all parts of the plants contain distasteful cyanide compounds and have a rough texture which is not very palatable. Deer will eat tapioca but it does not spoil the venison. Variegated tapioca is a heat lover being from South America and does not grow vigorously until night temperatures are warm in spring In fact the foliage will exhibit chilling injury when night temperatures dip much below 50 degrees F. As long as it is hot, variegated tapioca will thrive in most any well drained soil or container potting mix, tolerating a wide range of pH. It enjoys weekly irrigation in lieu of rainfall-- the soil should be constantly moist and mulch should be used. Plants will grow just as well in alkaline soil as they will in acidic soils. They are somewhat tolerant to foliar salt exposure in the Coastal Bend area. Full sun brings out the best foliage color, but plants will tolerate partial shade although the foliage will be less dense and not as vibrant in color. Avoidance of over-watering is critical to success-this is NOT a swamp plant. Variegated tapioca offers an exciting tropical addition to our summer palette of annuals used for foliage color.Try some this summer and enjoy the foliage of South America.

its grown mostly for the foliage, but it does flower, nothing thats real spectacular, or even noticeable.they grow in part to full sun, moderate water, though keep a bit drier when its cold, like its been the past week, dont let dry completely, but dont keep it soggy either