Rise & Fall of the Tricolor Ginger

The leaves of the Tricolor Ginger (Stromanthe sanguinea 'Triostar') tend to follow a daily pattern.  As the morning begins, the leaves are scattered and widespread (similar to one's hair upon first arising).

A couple of hours later, as the day heats up, some of the leaves have started to curl slightly, showing more of their purple undersides.

By early afternoon, the leaves are showing more curl and several have begun to lift themselves up.

By the time evening approaches and the sun starts to set, the leaves have stretched upwards as far as they can reach, showing much of their purple undersides. 

During the evening, the leaves will again lower themselves and uncurl, ready to start the entire cycle again the next day.  Makes for a rather fun show.

Pots In The Garden

No silly, it says "Pots"; that's plural.  Hopefully you weren't looking for some other type of gardening adventure.

Until this past year, the concept of placing pots out in the garden was quite foreign to me.  Why would I want a pot on the soil - that's a spot where a plant could go!  Of course, I've always had potted plants, but they tended to be grouped onto my deck and certainly not amongst the garden plants.

Thanks for the Coleus, Robin (Getting Grounded) - I think its done rather well.

But as I visited other gardens in person and viewed garden blogs online, I began to see the value in pots going out into the garden.  If nothing else, in a shady garden, it certainly gives one the chance to add some needed color amongst the dominant green foliage (ummm...or bare dirt).  Not to mention the structural aspect it lends to certain areas, plus the way it catches and directs the eye.

I'm still trying to get comfortable with the whole idea.  But I have started dabbling with it.  Looking not only at plants when I visit nurseries, but also watching for pots that catch my fancy.  Trying to determine which plants might do better in a pot than in the ground.  Wrapping my mind around the thought that larger pots make more visual impact, but they're freaking heavy once filled - so better consider either annuals or winter-hardy plants (cuz lugging around pots to dodge freezes ain't my kind of fun - though I seem to be doing plenty of that anyway).
 

Most of my garden-bound potted plants still tend to find their way onto rocks or paths, but I'm beginning to feel adventurous enough to move a few out onto the dirt or amongst the soil-bound plants.  And I'm thinking I kinda like them out there.

Planted in the Ground:

• Southern Wood Fern (Dryopteris normalis): I'd been considering adding these to my garden and, when I found it on the discount rack, I grabbed five.  Though somewhat battered, as long as the roots are good, I figured it really didn't matter since our winter freezes would be removing the foliage before long anyway.

Planted in Pots:

• Tricolor Ginger (Stromanthe sanguinea 'Triostar'): Another discount rack discovery; has been on my Gotta Get list as a potted plant (along with 'Tricolor' - but I'm beginning to think its the same plant).
• Palm Grass (Setaria palmifolia): Have admired the plant's strap-like leaves for a while, but have always held back.  Will be interested to see how it does through the winter as I plan to leave it out.