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Gardens Ablaze |
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Purple Knight
Alternanthera Let my words, like vegetables, be tender and sweet, for tomorrow I may have to eat them......Author Unknown |
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Purple Knight is not a plant you will likely find in the bedding section of the neighborhood garden center, although it deserves to be there. I got my first one as a gift from my daughter who had visited a grocery store grower who supplied exotic plants to the store. At first, I didn't really understand the plant. I put it in a pot in a sunny window inside the house, and it quickly grew into a forked 8 foot vine that was flopping all over, so one day I cut it off and stuck the cuttings in the ground in the garden outside. The picture above represents those two cuttings a couple of months later, so as you can see, this is quite a vigorous plant. Cuttings root readily, so once you acquire this plant, you will never have to buy it again. It is not cold hardy at all, and will not survive frost, so take cuttings and grow as a houseplant during the winter. Other than wilting when it needs water, this is a no-brainer houseplant. Indoors or out, just trim as needed and let it go! I have seen mine wilted to the point it looked completely dead, but watering brought it back within a couple hours. Gotta love that kind of resiliency! Purple Knight starts readily from seed, or as described above, from cuttings. Finding your first plant will be the hard part. I know they sell seed at Park Seed and a few other online gardening stores, and you might have some luck locally if you are paying attention. This plant gets my wholehearted stamp of approval and should be a part of every garden that needs a filler, a pop of color, or a backdrop for pretty much any color of flower. And by the way, it also makes a fabulous container plant, especially combined with a bright flower color like orange impatiens or a foliage plant like coleus. Have fun with this one, folks, because this is a find that will make you look like you really know what you are doing, and people will notice!
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Gardens Ablaze |
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Looking
for something different to fill some space in the flower garden this year?
Well, look no further, Purple Knight Alternanthera is the plant you have been
waiting for! Also known as Joseph's Coat (although not technically really
Joseph's Coat), Purple Knight is a fast-growing plant that can become fairly
large if left to its own devices. If kept trimmed so it doesn't get too
heavy, it makes a nice dark purple shrub-like plant, and if not trimmed, it
makes a vine-like ground cover. The shade of purple is directly
related to the amount of sunlight, so if you want purple-black, give it plenty
of sun, and if you want a lighter shade, put it in some shade. This is a plant
that sets off almost any flower color you can imagine, making oranges look
orangey and silvers look more silvery, and yellows look more yellowy - you get
the picture. Once you have tried this plant, you will wonder how you ever
did without it, as it is just about the best filler plant I have ever run
across.