Where does the time go??! What's going on lately...

Before, 4/2:

After, 5/24:


Back, Before, 3/11, After, 5/24:


Front, Before, 3/11, After, 5/24:


Before, 3/11, After, 5/24:


Before, 3/11, After, 5/24, not the same angle, but both shots of stuff @ the bottom of the pot directly above:

looking lush!

It looks like I will be well under my 100 pot limit this winter. I haven't counted yet, but it's not crowded in house or greenhouse yet. One last day of potting up strays today should yield another 5-8 combo pots of plants sheltering from winter.

Various group-pot shots since my last addition to this discussion...

Snake plants that were in ground for summer, with Cordyline cutting.


Birdnest fern repotted a couple months ago with a LOT of various cuttings added, mostly hidden under the fern from this angle.


Pot assembled a couple months ago with Peperomia 'Jellie' that already had roots & was in ground for summer, variegated Callisia cutting, forming inflorescence.


A couple random greenhouse shots.



This orchid group is doing well. The orchid foliage alone was not enjoyable for my view and there's no reason other plants can't share the space. The Coleus sprig is a later addition a few months ago, just for irony & curiosity.

Both of its' bloom stalks started showing new growth a couple weeks ago. More gorgeous blooms are being prepared!



Dracaenas, Cordyline, big air plant.

Good growing.

TYVM!

Tiffany that last pot is really eye-catching! Love it.

TYVM! Whenever the air plant makes another bloom, it should get even better!

A hanging pot with 'Beefsteak' Begonia & false Aralia potted about 3 months ago from being in ground, with Coleus & Begonia cuttings added.

Well this is a fun thread. I use to try to combine tender plants but usually I didn't get the results I wanted. One plant would always take over. I have to go through your posts more slowly so I can study your combinations. I do have some pots over the years that I liked but most of them only lasted one year. One plant would win out. How do you handle your plants year to year? Do you keep them together or start new cuttings?
One reason I don't do this so much anymore also is the price of houseplants is crazy. We use to have houseplant sales in January but no more.

Those are gorgeous pots, Loretta!

I don't really think about longevity for most combos. Almost all of them are from plants started as cuttings, so they can be trimmed if needed, &/or repotted if or when they're no longer happy as a group. Many of the plants get put in the ground for summer, so fall is the time when a lot of new combos come together for me, so they can be saved for winter.

Some are more permanent, like the Dracaena pots.

I see. That is a good way to save space over winter. I've tried combining for winter but I haven't had success. This year I had bought a bunch of Pelargonium Sidoides on sale and tried to overwinter them at the base of a large bay plant. They almost all died even though there is plenty of soil real estate for them. Actually, I have never been able to grow anything at the base of this bay plant.

I've never been able to keep a bay plant alive inside or outside in warm weather.

Frenchy - I would say not to give up. If I can do it in NJ, you can do it in VA. It isn't my first bay plant but I have it for a few years now. It isn't dense and bushy but it's a solid plant and probably the only tender mediterranean I've been able to keep alive by bringing it in and outside the house every year. I don't give it much, just keep making the pot bigger once in a while. I grow it in high shade outside as soon as the whether stays above 40 and then it goes in my basement. It isn't directly under lights either. Anyway, it is only really worth it if you want it for the kitchen.

TY @LorettaNJ for the encouragement and how you take care of yours. I just might try again. I do use bay leaves a lot in my cooking.

Also, just to not give the illusion its in the dark, it is at least close to fluorescent lights.

sometimes you can set small potted plants on the soil of a plant like a Dracaena in a big pot. Then they aren't really competing or having roots disturbed when you rearrange.

I always love Tiffanys' pot combos. I'm never quite adventurous enough to do that myself.

But while following this thread, I was humored to read the twist to a bay tree with underplanting.

I have always lusted after this photo https://www.logees.com/sweet-b... and wonder how they managed to keep that looking good.

Sally, you may have hit on the answer. Now I need to go in search of pots that will fit around the base of my Bay tree.

I recall Tiffany ( Hi Tiffany) saying she makes most combo pots from free cuttings she has an abundance of before, on the forums, after I oohed and awwed over her creations. Before I knew it, She and Cinta had me running down all sorts of stuff to use to propagate and created a monster out of me. DH still is not happy with all the vases and little pots every where. Tiffany adores propagating. She loves every little root and little leaf, and creates an education she cannot get enough of. She gets nice pots, but they are a bonus, over the learning,. That is what I believe anyway.


And I think she has a hard time discarding the results of pruning and pinching, She just cannot resist popping things in soil for the fun of it. She is a propagating junkie. lol And she makes a darn pretty pot, like a pro.

If I make a combo pot for display, I wear the plants to a frazzle before I get them just so, and it just is doomed because of it . he he. We could learn so many things about more than plants from Tiff.

Actually Kristi, that is exactly the combination I was going to do because I picked up a few pots of wire vine. I usually buy them every year for the porch but the place where I get the hanging baskets did not have them the last two years so I found a few 4" pots. I was going to overwinter them under the bay but decided I really wanted them to make it so they are in their own pots. Anyway I figured geranium and bay would tolerate the same conditions but this geranium doesn't do well inside and doesn't always rebound gracefully in the summer. But I keep on trying. Here is the first time I met Pelargonium Sidoides at Wave Hill in the Bronx. They had some gorgeous pots there. Also my bay doesn't get nearly enough light to look like that. I should start clipping it though.