Painted Tongue (Salpiglossus) is pretty easy from seed, and I've had it volunteer in a planter from seeds dropped the previous year, so I'd say direct sowing would even work.
I know what you mean about planned plantings & combos falling through. This year, I just got a bunch of things that Joyanna and I liked and started planting them around. I'm not sure how some will work out once the caladium bulbs sprout with them, LOL.
I just ordered a couple of plumeria cuttings from "drdawg" -- 'Celadine' and 'Vera Cruz Rose', both of which I hope will bloom and have great fragrance! He's fun to chat with. He just put in this massive walkway out to his greenhouses, a very professional looking installation!
I did a group buy for our local Mid-Atlantic folks from ADR bulbs -- lots of oriental lilies, a few asiatic lilies, and a couple bags of bare-root phlox & astilbe. There were a couple of unanticipated subs & 1 variety that we didn't get, but overall we were extremely pleased with the quality and size of the bulbs we got. They also arrived still very dormant, nothing more than nubs on a few of them, which definitely helps when you're distributing them around and then trying to find time to plant them out or pot them up! The bare root divisions were really big, especially for the price... one person who was helping sort them out commented that she'd paid more for them at Costco and gotten little divisions 1/4 the size of the ADR ones.
I'm planning a similarly-organized fall bulb buy from ADR (not shipping, sorry), and we're all pretty psyched about it. They're a wholesale company, but they let me have wholesaler/landscaper access a couple years ago so I could try out their bulbs. So if you're a "kilobulb planter" or interested in organizing a group purchase, check them out.
