Question
Dear Darlene,
My daughter is getting married in St. Louis on May 28th. She has decided to give each of her guests a small houseplant as a gift. She's artistic and is having fun painting the pots (~2 1/2" clay pots).  She wants me to help figure out the plant part.  I have been told that I can have some space in a greenhouse where I work but it might be more convenient to grow them in my basement where I can leave the light on. There are so many options, I am not sure where to start. I would be grateful for any suggestions and advice you can offer. Here are some of the key considerations:

1) Must be easy! We're very busy people. I'm not sure whether it is easier to do plants from seed or from cuttings, but we will need about 150 of them.

2) They should look nice in a small pot - not something huge.

3) They should have enough time to grow to an appropriate size if I start in early Feb (when the pots should all be ready) for a May 28 wedding. I think I have allowed enough time for most plants, but some seeds can be slow. Also, I would appreciate advice on when to start so that they are large enough to look attractive, but not rootbound.

4) Cost is a factor. We are trying to have a nice wedding without going overboard.
One last consideration: the wedding colors are purple, blue & orange. My daughter is using those colors on the pots and had assumed the plants would just be green, but I wondered about something line a purple wandering jew, coleus, or maybe African violets if they wouldn't be too difficult to grow. I am not sure how true the colors are when the plants are small.

Thanks in advance & Happy New Year.
Judy


Answer
Judy,

Your ideas are excellent, coleus and wandering jew would be the right colors if you use that greenhouse so they get plenty of light.  My first thought was African violets which you could grow from leaf cuttings but they probably would not be in bloom that fast.

Sweedish ivy or english ivy would easily be rooted and growing that fast and be nice little green plants for her guests. Wax begonias can be grown from seed but I am not sure how long they take. Cuttings of angel wing begonia if you have access to some to take cuttings from.  Cuttings of rose scented geraniums would root easily in that time if you have access to some to take cuttings from. Another thought would be baby spider plants. They root easily.

There is also a purple passion plant that you can see pictures of here:

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=purple+passion+plant&sa=N&...

That would root easily if you have access to some to take cuttings from.

With needing 150 you might want to do several different plants since it might be difficult to come up with enough cuttings for them to all be the same.  I hope it works out for you! Good luck!

Darlene