Plants for the Window box or planter – Dracaena, Heliotrope, Hoya Carnosa

Dracaena

Most gardeners think of dracaena as a house plant but it makes a good tough item for outdoor planting in summer. And you can always tell your customers it serves double duty. When the window box season has finished, it can be dug up, potted, and used as a house plant.

This is another item I believe is best purchased as small potted plants. You won’t want too many to start with-probably no more than 2 dozen-and they are low priced. D. fra-grans has green leaves but many varieties have striped and speckled foliage. There’s D. Massangeana with a wide golden stripe along the leaf midrib; D. Godseffiana, with flecks of white on its foliage; D. Goldieana has green and silver foliage; and D. Sanderianq, a slender plant, with glossy green leaves margined white. If you have plants left over, you can propagate more from tip, stem, or root cuttings struck in a propagating bed or case. They must be grown in the warm house.

Heliotrope

The dwarf form of heliotrope, with its heads of blue or white flowers, makes a wonderful plant for window box or planter (and is fine also for bedding or as an accent plant). Heliotrope is easily grown from cuttings taken in the fall. These are sold in pots the following spring. Grow the cuttings in any medium you prefer, in a warm house. As soon as they are well rooted you can plant them in 3-inch pots of greenhouse soil. When the plants reach the height you want, cut out the top so the plant will branch.

Hoya Carnosa

Often called the wax plant or Swedish ivy, this plant with its heavy, glossy, green or variegated leaves and huge clusters of waxy white or pink flowers makes a marvelous summer window box plant. And it, too, serves double duty. In the fall it can be brought into the house and used in a hanging basket or trained up the side of a window. It’s best to buy this one as rooted cuttings; pot them in rich soil, and grow them in the warm house. You probably won’t want to start out with more than twenty-five. If you keep some over and want them to flower in your greenhouse, do not take tip cuttings. The blooms form on the tips and after the plants have flowered, they will produce a second-year flower crop on these same tips.

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