The tiny, yellow-foliaged plant in the blue pot is a seedling of Talinum paniculatum 'Limon'. The pot is in my family room, by the patio door, nestled amongst other containers filled with plants that I hope to nurse through the long Midwestern winter. This is an experiment, as I have no idea whether this little plant will make it. I almost didn't bring it in before the killing frost because I had thought that Talinum paniculatum (Jewels of Opar) was an annual. What a delight to learn that it is actually a tender perennial. But before we get ahead of ourselves, let's go back to the beginning of the story.
Two years ago, I hadn't even heard of Jewels of Opar, until my friend and garden designer Mary Ann Newcomer (Gardens of the Wild, Wild West) mentioned that she loved this plant. I saw a picture and thought, yawn, blah, tiny airy-fairy thing. Fast forward to this spring, when I was wandering through my favorite local garden center, The Growing Place, when I spotted Talinum paniculatum 'Limon'. It was love at first sight. Lime-green, fleshy foliage, hot pink flowers, it was just what I needed to play off the magenta petunia and 'Electric Lime' coleus.
Perfection in a pot. I left the container on the potting bench for several days, during which one of the seed capsules must have burst and dropped seed onto the gravel below,
because in the middle of September, I spotted a couple of tiny, chartreuse sprouts. In the meantime, the container spent the summer out front.
The Talinum bloomed for a long time, but eventually, the heat, drought and my frequent absences signaled its decline. In October, I noticed that it was starting to stage a revival, but by then the seedling was a good size, so I replaced the original plant with the seedling. Somehow, my subconscious mind must have registered the fact that this plant wasn't acting like an annual, and the seedling looked so healthy and fresh, that I decided to bring it inside for the winter.
I don't know if the seedling's foliage is more yellow than its parent because it is receiving less light, or because it might be the result of a cross with a yellow-foliaged cultivar. Hopefully, time will tell. For now it's fingers crossed and hope for the best.