Fun New & Unique Plant Haul From Plant Delights Nursery

Hey, what's up, garden friends? Jeff here, Tropical Plant Party. How's everybody doing? Hope y'all are doing well. I am great. Another one of those days where it's kind of raining, but kind of not, but it's just enough where I don't want the camera outside unless it's under an umbrella. Time for another plant haul. So back in December and then just a few weeks ago in April, I placed two separate orders from my favorite online plant seller, and that's Plant Delights Nursery. I love how they ship their plants. They have these fun inserts that go inside the boxes and they pull right out. Super easy. And then there's just a couple little tabs. You go ahead and snap out from the back of those. The plants then lift right on out of there and they aren't covered in tape, which I really appreciate. Just pull off some rubber bands and slide them right out of the bag. Then boom, done. Voila. Super easy and everything's nice and clean. Typically with a plant haul, like pull each plant in one at a time and then do a, like here's everything, a grand reveal of everything at the end. But due to space constraints, it's like, we'll just do it all right here. You can see them. I went ahead and pulled my laptop out so that I can go through descriptions on some of these plants, because you can see some of them. Not much going on inside of the container. There is a really nice fun assortment of plants here though. Start with this one. Just a little stick. Nothing to see here yet, which isn't at all surprising. This is Hibiscus Raspberry Rose. This is one of the hardy varieties of hibiscus, has hardy zones 4A through 9B. I should have all this up on the screen for everybody to see. So it's right there. 84 inches tall. So this is a really big grower, which is one of the reasons I wanted it. I want this outside one of my windows in my kitchen so I can see all those fun hibiscus flowers through there and watch all the pollinators dance and have a good time. The description on the website says, "'Hibiscus Raspberry Rose' has also been a favorite of ours for years due to its sheer abundance of 10 inch bright raspberry red flowers. Hummingbird delight, each clump can get quite large, seven feet tall and 10 feet across." So they need plenty of room and rich moist soils. That's what these hibiscus will prefer. Now I don't really, I don't have 10 feet for this to spread, but I figured you just stay on top of it. There's actually a spot up on my hill where this may end up going instead of outside of the window. I haven't really decided. Could have ordered two of them, but since they get 10 feet wide, I was like, eh, I'm not gonna have room for two of those. So just stick with the one for now. I've had a difficult time finding perennial hibiscus that haven't been bred to stay smaller, like have great big massive flowers on them, but they only get like three to four feet tall. It used to be when you planted these perennial type, the cold hardy hibiscus, they got huge. And then they bred that out of them because a lot of people don't want that. But I have a spot where I think this would be nice for some privacy. It'd be a good backdrop. I say a good plant for privacy. Not really. Hibiscus, these hardy hibiscus, they don't really get going until like late May, if even, sometimes into June. So generally for privacy, I prefer things that have a longer growing cycle than that. Moving on, have a fun tuber down in here. See that? Nice green and firm. This is begonia smooch. Plant Delights has a few different hardy begonias that I've always been really interested in. I grew the begonia grandis for a while. I think it was called Heron's Pirouette. And I really loved it, but we had a really bad winter one year and they didn't come back. And they have two other varieties that I was really interested in getting. So I couldn't decide between the two. So I got one of each and that's this first one, begonia smooch, hardy all the way down to zone six, 16 inches tall. And what I think is really neat about this particular begonia is it's supposed to have more of a glossy foliage on it. They say begonia smooch has excelled forming a 16 foot tall by four foot wide clump of glossy green foliage. Topped from summer until frost with huge two and a quarter inch flowers dangling from long eight inch pedicles, which are the, they say the stocky things attached to the stem. One of the fun things about Plant Delights, they usually have nice descriptions on their plants that are generally enjoyable and fun to read. The next begonia does have some foliage starting to emerge on it. This is begonia, okay, get the dirt off of here. This is begonia pink teared. Why am I showing you the label when I have these up on the screen? There you go, begonia grandis, pink teardrops. This one's hardy all the way down to zone five and gets 24 inches tall. So it is a larger one, which I really appreciate. According to their website, this one blooms for them from June through September, getting two feet tall by three feet wide. Hardy all the way to zone five and look at these leaves. Aren't they cool? It may just look like a leaf, but it has all the fun little hairs on it and they have that veining in them and then that fun swoopy begonia shape to them. And it's a perennial. I mean, I love some annual begonias, the tropical type begonias, but I think it's so great to get some perennial types mixed into the garden. I think the smooch will be a similar, if not nearly identical aesthetic to like a dragon wing begonia. A little bit different, obviously, but still a similar effect. Glossy green foliage, big pink flowers. Just overall, I'm really excited to be growing those. Next up, Amorphophyllis lacquerii, hot night spot. Hey, truth be told, I don't really remember ordering this one, but I can see why I did. Look at the foliage on that. It's totally awesome. All those fun speckles on it. For tropical types, this won't be perennial here, but that's not a big deal. They're typically pretty easy to overwinter. Only gets 20 inches tall. Black mottled stalks topped with white green leaves adorned with the largest and most abundant yellow spots we've seen on any Amorphophyllis. And they say it's taken them 16 years to propagate enough of these to share. So that's pretty cool. That's probably why I got it because it's one that takes a long time to propagate and it makes for a nice house plant, according to them. Amorphophyllis are typically pretty easy to overwinter. In the fall, they'll start to kind of wilt down, drop their foliage on their own. And then I just bring them in, let them stay dry in a cool, dry spot and let them hang out for a few months. And they'll start to emerge on their own in the spring or late winter, and then just resume watering. Fun and simple. Now, here's a Mungave. This one's called Red Wing. It doesn't have all of its coloration on it yet. So just a baby. These ones are nine through 11. This one gets 16 inches tall. I mean, you can look, you see this picture. You can see why I got it, right? It just has beautiful red foliage with some green speckling on the inside. Love growing Mungaves. They're really fun and simple to have outside and they're pretty easy to overwinter. It's not much to it. And they have some of the most fun colors on them. It's just a rewarding plant to have around. Next up, I have two of these. Two of these little baby crinum lilies. These are Sunbonnet. The Sunbonnet crinum lily. Hardy all the way down to zone six, which is fantastic. I'm 6A, 6B, and the crinums that I do have have to get a lot of mulch during the winter time. I've gone without mulching before, but I prefer, since they've gotten to be big established plants, to just go ahead and mulch them just to be safe. I'll do the same with these. They get 42 inches tall and they're described as having really wide, strappy leaves on them. One of the things that's great about the crinum lilies is their foliage. I know, maybe it doesn't look like much, but there's something about the thick, leathery, glossy green leaves that I just think looks so cool in the garden. So even when it's not in flower, there's still really, really fun, neat looking plants to have around. It's just something different when you're in zone six. We don't get a lot of perennials that have that larger, glossy type of leaf on them. Website says that they have three and a half foot tall flower spikes starting in early July and continuing sporadically into October. And that was another reason I had to get these was because of the flowers continuing sporadically. The one that I have right now, you get like three weeks and that's it. It'll take them a few years to get to a reasonable size and start to do some flowering, but I think that that's gonna be well worth the wait. Those beautiful pink flowers coming and going throughout the growing season, that's gonna be so much fun. Now, and of course, a tiny little baby palm tree, the European Fan Palm Humilis variety Serifica. It's a cute little plant too. See, it even has its little seed still attached to it. These aren't hardy here. They're hardy zone seven B and up. In that picture though, the Serifica, they have a really nice silvery, like almost metallic type of foliage on them. And I have ordered these before from other places and then they were just green. I wanted to get this specifically from Plant Delights. It's a palm I've wanted for a long time. I generally prefer to get them much larger, but sometimes this is the way you gotta do things. This means you gotta get tiny little babies, but I trust them that this is actually one of the silvers. Like I said, every other time I've gotten a silver, it wasn't a silver, it was just lies. All the way in the back here, this is a Fatsia. It's a spider web Fatsia. Did a video on these not too terribly long ago. The spider webs, sometimes they'll take a little bit longer to develop the fun variegation if they have in their foliage. Again, we've done a good amount of talking on this channel about the Fatsias before. I meant to order the variegated variety, so this was an oopsie. So now I have three spiders webs, but that's okay. I'll give it to a friend. That's all right. No big deal. And then another Fatsia. Oh, that's very far out of frame, but look at that leaf. Isn't that fun? This is the camouflage Fatsia. Gathering clouds, brocade, Japanese Aurelia. Again, 7B to 10B, 84 inches tall. So it will get a little bit larger than the others, but it's another variegated Fatsia. It's a very boldly variegated Fatsia. It's not like tiny little splotches of white. It's really big, very discernible, and easy to tell apart chunks of green with some yellow. As they get bigger, that yellow usually turns into a little bit more of a creamy color. At least that's what happened with mine, which I lost last winter, hence why I got a new one, which I'm super excited about, very happy with. It's a little plant. Both of them are pretty little, but they'll grow. And then in the very back here, we need to unearth this plant. It's a little bit thirsty. Not a big deal. Give this a drink as soon as I'm done filming this video. See these fun leaves? Aren't those gorgeous? This is a Acana generalis red tiger. I got one of these last year, and it was in my plant blights haul from last year, and I just loved it so much that I went ahead and ordered another one because last winter was pretty insanely harsh, and I'd be kind of shocked if the one I had last year comes back. They have a really intense variegation on their leaves. Almost mind-boggling when you see it in person. The lines are very, very, very fine. Really pretty. I think the foliage on this plant looks a lot like the philodendron burken, but it's gonna be way easier if you just keep it outside, mulch it in the wintertime and not have to worry about it. Not that the philodendron's hard to grow, but you get what I'm saying. And they have really fun, pretty cherry flowers on them. But this one, I like it for the leaves. And how couldn't you? Look at those leaves. They have beautiful foliage. Like I said, though, it is thirsty. It needs to have a drink, and those will stand up and be more upright. I should probably stop messing with it, actually, because thirsty plants are more prone to bruising and breakage, so I should stop moving it all over the place. And here's one that I've wanted for a very long time. Is that even in focus? Come on, camera. More fun foliage, right? Isn't that pretty? Nice green speckled leaves. The white giant cantaloupes. They're already all the way down to zone seven. This'll get six feet tall. That does include the flower stalk. These are a really great plant to have in sun to part sun. It gets pretty hot and humid here during the summer, so I will be keeping it in part sun in a really nice, organically rich soil that drains well but holds on to some moisture, because I don't want it to dry out for very long at all. You can see this picture up here on the screen. What a cool-looking plant, right? They have those gigantic, arrow-y leaves with all the speckling on them, heavy veining. Similar to an alocasia, going to be more hardy. I'm probably going to grow this out for a couple of years before I would attempt to keep it in the ground. This is a plant where I think that I would want to divide it and have one to keep indoors for safety and trial them outside separately, right? Because like I said, I'm in 6A, 6B. It says zone seven, but I think in the right location with enough mulch, it'd probably be okay. I'm not going to risk that right now, because this is a plant, I've wanted one of these since I was a little kid. I've wanted this for a long time. It's a plant they've sold for a long time on Plant Delight's website. It's just, I never, it never made the cut when I was placing an order before. I remember seeing these for the first time up in Seattle, Washington. People had these planted in like their front yards and in their gardens. As a kid, my mind was blown, and it's still blown. I'd still be blown if I were to see one of these in person. Those huge leaves with the fun speckles on them and the gigantic calla lily flower that comes up out of the center. I don't know what's going to happen this year when it comes to flowering, but hopefully next year for sure we'll get some flowers out, because it's still a tiny little baby. They're not super slow growers, though. There's already another leaf coming out of there. One of them got damaged during shipping. No big deal. That happens. It's part of shipping plants, right? All right, next up. This one's really fun and unusual, and not in focus. Look at that. Got a nice strong grower here with some more fun foliage. Gotta love the plants with the fun foliage. This is a perennial variety of impatience. I tried to say the name. I'm not gonna pull it off, but the variety is called Silver Pinkster. Parties owns 5B to 8B at least. They only get 18 inches tall. Their website says in 10 years their patch got to about four feet wide. Okay, so it's not a super aggressive spreader. The perennial impatience have a trumpet or a tube-shaped flower on them. It's a nice yellow color with a white center, but I really, I wanted these more for the foliage, that green foliage with the pink stripe in the middle that fades out to a white. Very similar to that of the Brazilian fireworks plant that I talked about a while ago, except this is hardy. I can keep this in the ground. I believe that this one goes dormant during the warmer parts of the summer. What does this say? On the website, they describe this plant emerging for them around April. They're in North Carolina, and then it sounds like it goes dormant during the hottest parts of the summer, and then will reemerge in the fall, and then it'll have those fun flowers come out and dangle from them, which I don't hate that. I'm kind of okay with that. It's gonna be a plant that doesn't like the heat. I may as well just take a seat and chill for a while, right? Clearly this one's well-rooted and ready to do some spreading. I have a nice spot in the yard that gets some bright, filtered morning sun and then shade throughout the rest of the day where I need a ground cover, and I think that this will do really well in that spot. It's just something really fun and unusual. You don't see the perennial impatiens for sale very often, like not very often at all, at least not where I live. You have to go online to find those. I've talked about before how I do prefer perennials that are in my shady spots to have something interesting going on with their foliage. It helps pull the eye back into the dark spots in the garden and highlight them and just lighten the area up and make it look more interesting. This one needs a drink, though. They all need a big drink. They just got them packed, so I'm sure they're very thirsty. I'm really excited about this last one. Are you ready for it? Look at this. I have a feeling the camera's not going to enjoy focusing on it because it hasn't flushed out with any of its leaves yet. It's starting to. You can see them starting to come out there. This is Ponsirius triflata, baby dragon. Party to zone six. This one only gets four feet tall. The spines look to be much smaller, though still dangerous, but not gonna stab you in the face and poke your brain like the regular flying dragon does. These are not easy to find plants. They are very slow to propagate. Not a lot of people sell the dwarf varieties of the flying dragon, so I am super excited to have been able to get my hands on one of these. If you've been around the channel for a while, you know that I have, or had, a flying dragon, Japanese orange, and it just got too big for its location. It was in a spot where people, like, might get stabbed in the face by it. So I dug it up and was ready to transplant it, and then we had an absolutely horrible winter. Did what I could to protect it. It's not looking good, though, and it just seemed like fate that this went up for sale right around the same time that I was worried about my other one not making it through the winter. This is gonna stay a lot smaller, be more manageable. I still need to be cautious about where I put it, more so because I want to protect the plant, though, than, like, with my other one where I was concerned about protecting people if they got too close to it. Still has thorns, but they're not, like, four to five inches long, like on the big variety. And it just looks cool, doesn't it? Talk about a neat plant. That was what I was going for with all of these plants here. The majority of them are perennials, and I like to find perennials that just look different. A lot of what I get from Plant Delights Nursery are going to be what I consider to be somewhat more specimen-type plants. I hope it doesn't bother y'all that I have my handbag here, but it's really hard to see this plant without something in the background. That's one of the great things about Plant Delights Nursery is they have a really great selection of very unusual plants that you don't often see for sale at your, like, regular nurseries. And oftentimes they'll have plants for sale a few years before they hit the market and go out to big box stores. I just love them. Great nursery with excellent plants. And that is everything. That's all of them right here. Good timing. It's starting to sound and feel like there might be a storm rolling in, so I'm going to wrap it up. Comment down below. I love talking to everybody. Do any of you have experiences with any of the plants here? Let me know. It's always fun getting our plant nerd on together. I really look forward to getting these planted. Still waiting for some cold to move out. Hopefully by the time this video comes out, they'll be warm enough to get a lot of these into the ground, especially things like the canna. I'm not going to stick that in the ground until it warms up outside. Want the ground to be just a smidge warmer before I start plopping these in the ground, or even more so into pots. Want to keep them somewhat protected until this cold spell goes away. All right, hope everybody's doing well, having a great day and a great life and everything's just going beautifully for you. And of course, as always, and most importantly, everybody, keep on growing. Bye, bye.