Pushing the Envelope

Though a number of leaves have fallen—the pot dries out very quickly, this year’s Persian Shield has done better, longer than previous ones. Here in the U.S. Southern Piedmont the handsome purple plant is sold as an annual. For some reason they’re getting harder to find and can be a little expensive, so it’s good to be able to save money by overwintering it indoors. It looks a bit straggly now but in the spring I’ll prune it back—a little at a time since it tends to be slow to grow new branches and Lord willing, it will be even more handsome than before.


In looking on the internet I’ve found that the Persian Shield isn’t at all from Persia (Iran) but Burma (Myanmar). The common name likely comes instead from the shape of the leaves and maybe the metallic look (though I’ve been unable to locate any information on the internet about such ancient shields).

Apparently I’ve been “pushing the envelope” with these plants since they are classified as “tender perennials” and need to be brought in “when temperatures drop below 60 degrees F”, and I’ve found that they can stand up to a couple of freezes. I also read that I should let them dry out between waterings indoors—not unless I want them to completely wilt (http://www.guide-to-houseplants.com/persian-shield.html)! The best thing is to follow the guidelines for plant care to a point, and then sees what works best in your setting.

*That’s an orchid cactus behind the Persian Shield.

New Clothes

A sign that it’s getting (slightly) cooler is that I had no trouble staying out in the garden for hours. My other work sometimes gets jealous but it’s good and healthy to get outdoors for awhile. After all, the first work that God assigned to people was gardening. The Garden of Eden was also the first home for them. Sometime, I’d like to explore the possibilities of what the garden needed from them.

Today, in my garden, I found the tall, spindly Mexican Petunia (Ruella) toppling over so I knew it was time to give it a bigger pot. My sister, who lives in a hotter climate talks about her purple-flowered ones all the time; they’ve been the trendy new thing in our garden centers the last couple of years, so I decided to try one. When I bought it, it had flowers on it. They were shriveled from the heat by the time we got it home. I haven’t seen a flower on it since (2 months!). Nothing seems to have helped. It gets plenty sun and water; I even fertilized it. “Don’t fertilize it,” she exhorted, “it’s a weed!” Maybe it needs a bigger pot or “new clothes”… Definitely. As you can see in the picture, a large root ball had grown outside the pot. I gingerly cut the plastic pot away (recyclable)—had it been a clay pot I would have carefully worked as many of the roots (without soil) as I could back through the hole and lost the rest.

An orchid cactus cutting I was given and hurriedly stuck in the “corner” of a pot of airplane plants also got its own pot. It will likely stay in the indoor part of my garden since it prefers indirect sun. Angel Face Angelonia also has its own pot now to encourage as much growth as possible before it winters indoors.