Planted 4 Today

Moose

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10/09/09
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Got motivated and planted 4 crotons today. That may not sound like alot but it is a major undertaking with all my hard limestone I gotta chip out of the holes. Two not only had limestone but masses of palm roots to deal with. A labor of love.
In the ground now!
Playboy - from a 10 gallon container
Mosaic - also in a 10 gallon container
Faye Miller - from a three gallon
Pam Kiefert - Yeah! I finally got her in the ground.
 
Got motivated and planted 4 crotons today. That may not sound like alot but it is a major undertaking with all my hard limestone I gotta chip out of the holes. Two not only had limestone but masses of palm roots to deal with. A labor of love.
In the ground now!
Playboy - from a 10 gallon container
Mosaic - also in a 10 gallon container
Faye Miller - from a three gallon
Pam Kiefert - Yeah! I finally got her in the ground.

Did she put up a good fight?
 
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Those are some great varieties, especially the Playboy. And from a 10 gallon pot? Jeeeez, how big was the plant?

Thanks Jeff. As I was showing Pam (the wife not the croton) the new installations yesterday, I was thinking man these are some cool looking plants.

Here is the Playboy with its nice big leaves.
 
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Here is the rock I had to chip out. The third photo is the 10 gallon container that the Playboy was in.
 

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Hey Savannah! Thank you for your compliment. Everyone, this is Savannah (screen name). She was checking out some croton photos on the IPS forum and I directed her to our forum. She lives in Tampa and loves crotons!

Welcome Savannah!!! :D

Thank you for the warm welcome. I'm happy to be a member here. :D
I look forward to building a nice collection of crotons starting next spring.
 
Thanks Jeff. As I was showing Pam (the wife not the croton) the new installations yesterday, I was thinking man these are some cool looking plants.

Here is the Playboy with its nice big leaves.

Wow Ron, that's one nice looking AND big Playboy. It took me 2 years to get my that size. That's one nice addition to anyone's yard!
 
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Hey guys and gals - Pam actually looked at this thread - she never looks at this forum! I was cracking up at the "pam in the ground" comments and she wanted to see what was so funny. She loved the humor. I think she likes the crotonhead personalities she has encountered more than the plants.

Here is the Mosiac I got into the ground. It was the other croton I had in a 10 gallon container. What a pain to dig the hole. I follow the old axiom "dig a $5.00 hole for a 50 cent plant. Well it needed to get into the ground since it looked like it was not gonna do much more in the container. Hopefully its gonna get much fatter in mother earth.
 
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Here is the Mosaic as the sun was setting. Daddy tucked her in to go night-night. She needs her rest so she can start expanding her roots into all that yummy-yummy amended soil with a liberal amount of time released mineral salts added.

This croton came from Randy. He stopped by about three years ago and asked "do you have a Mosaic?" I said I wish I did. He went to the back of his SUV and yoked out this plant in a three gallon container saying: "Now you do". It was a very nice suprise! :)
 
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Spent many an hour contemplating where to put Pam Kiefert in the ground. There never is a perfect spot. Always some limiting factor - too much sun, not enough sun, Mango bombs, Avocado bombs, falling Royal Palm fronds, to close to the fence ...

Decided that she needed to go just west of the Copernicia hospita palm. She will get some direct sun a bit and then strong filtered sun in the late afternoon. On the south side of the garden, the house will be a wind barrier protecting her from the cold winds during cold fronts. She will be getting a fair amount of sun during the winter time as the sun shifts to the south. The winter sun is much less harsh and a shorter duration. I've been moving her around in the container for months. It appears that she can take a fair amount of sun exposure and still maintain good colors.

Pam Kiefert in the ground in the late afternoon.
 
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There was a follow-up post of mine that disaapeared into cyberspace. It had a rambling diatribe that no one was gonna read anyway ... :rolleyes:

A 2.5 foot hole was prepared for the Pam Kiefert. Lots of roots were encountered in the top 12 inches of soil. The removed native soil (mostly rock) was sifted so that only rocks of 1" or smaller would be used for planting. 10% composted mulch, 10% of composted oak leaves plus 5% peat moss was thoroughly mixed with the native soil. The bottom of the hole was also lined with composted oak leaf mulch to help with rention of moisture. Hopefully these soil amendments will aid a rapid establishment. Honestly, I was expecting a more substantial root ball when I removed Pam from the container.

Here are a couple of more shots of Pam Kiefert as the sun was dipping below the horizon.
 
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Oh - another big hole is starting. Stay tuned, I'll post what got planted there in another thread ... :p
 

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