Potted tropics.
By Stan510
1 Sep, 2015
2 likes
About as good as they are going to look. Crotons making comeback. Amazing that for 5 months of the year,these plants are all of no growth. Marginal is the word.
Comments on this photo
These are all potted. Oversized even. With saucers under to catch and hold water.
The Mammy Croton has done near excellent- Im just hoping we have enough hot weather Andy,to finish the leafs coloring up. If it wasn't September,I would even pot it up again. I'm not sure if it would do enough not to cause rot in winter because of the new soil.
Next year!
Petra has gone from very disappointing...to wow,Its re grown some nice foliage. Its about 1/4 the size of the normal foliage you see on plants at HD. But,I will take that for now. Its sort of a Croton topiary,a round ball.
8 Sep, 2015
Stan:
Crotons typically get the coloring when the weather starts cooling in fall. This is what I noticed in my plants. My 'Mammy' croton always has had really large beautiful leaves. This year they are small and the plant is kind of sparse. I'm thinking it needs to be fertilized and re-potted.
It's amazing how your Croton 'Petra' has recovered so quickly. They don't have a reputation of recovering very quickly after any kind of damage. My large Croton 'Angel Wings' took almost a year and half to recover after a major bug infestation in summer of 2010 (when it lost 80% of it's leaves). Luckily, that winter was very mild and it kept on growing leaves for that whole winter. Also, in winter of 2012/2013 it was severely wilted for an extended period of time when it was not watered. It lost about 30% of it's leaves. It recovered more quickly in this case, though.
8 Sep, 2015
Mammy is for sure tolerant of cool winters. I heard "Stoplight" is another that actually becomes a real shrub in soucal.
On the net is a blog of some guy who's growing them in soucal (la or sd area I don't remember) It made his yard look as close to Hawaii or Florida as any yard in Cali can.
8 Sep, 2015
I've seen a lot of Crotons growing outside in San Diego. They do pretty well here as long as they don't grow in full sun and they receive water.
11 Sep, 2015
They looks great! I see your crotons have recovered.
Your plumeria looks terrific! Mine are all so severely drought-stricken! The very hot weather we are having now is not helping. I don't seem to be able to get enough water to the root-zone.
7 Sep, 2015