Thursday, October 1, 2009

The '5 colored' plant!

It was around two years back that a home to home vendor sold this plant to me. I was told that the then small green sapling will grow up in a plant having 5 colors in it. Quite naturally I was intrigued, not so much by his 5 color statement, but just to know the true nature of the plant that had this vendor so amused. I am a little wary of buying plants from such vendors, as besides being unsure of the health and quality of the plant, there botanical knowledge is also somewhat challenged. Yet there is a benefit, which I found in this case that sometimes they hand you over a sapling whose growth is almost as interesting as turning the pages of a mystery novel. Well, I planted it anyway … and had forgotten about the 5 color thing, till yesterday I saw this beautiful leaf. The leaves were a perfect heart shape, with a different color on each half. I still don’t know the actual name of this plant. I tried to Google it and it looks like Disanthus cercidifolius. I hope my blogger friends can help me out with the solution to the ‘mystery’.

10 comments:

Tira said...

It looks like variegated mahoe. Does it bloom?
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/95721/

Julie said...

How interesting! I've never seen it before!

Urban Green said...

Very cool, Green Thumb.
I've never known something like this existed. Besides, am happy you posted this which means it's available here and can be grown.

sweetbay said...

That sure looks like Disanthus cerdifolius. You got a real find!

Carol said...

What a beautiful leaf... looking forward to seeing them all change... quite a show to come. Looks like you have it named. Carol

julian said...

That is nice :) I never heard of it before.

Sue Swift said...

Have never seen the vine before but it looks lovely. That red leaf is perfection.

Came in to say thank you for your kind congratulations, and to apologise for not having been here very much recently. I've had a very,very busy summar and I've just not had time to follow everyone's blogs. Here's hoping that will change this autumn.

Matron said...

Have no idea what it is, but the colours look stunning! Can't wait to see the colours change, I hope you post some more pictures when they do.

Unknown said...

Hi Green Thumb, I haven't seen this plant before. But the red leaf and the variegated one next to it holds much promise of more colour to come!

Thank you for stopping by my blog and for your kind comments. Much appreciated. Happy gardening!

Anonymous said...

We call it varigated hau in Hawaii.

I have one in my garden. beautiful and gives great shade but I would not grow it again. This plant grows into a huge wild tree.....branches touch the ground and root. It is a huge job to trim it.

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