Small, long-flowering perrenials for East-facing indoor pot?

[Delilah]

Hi

I have a potted Coffea arabica plant that's all stem and canopy, with no foliage down low. I would like to plant some small flowers around the base to add interest down there. What could I use?

They need to be really small plants so as not to take over the pot roots-wise, and suitable for growing indoors behind an East-facing window. Long-flowering or repeat-flowering would be good.

Any ideas?

[rainbowgardener]

That's a pretty tough order. There are several different kinds of begonias that should work for you and be pretty continuously blooming. African violets are a small houseplant that blooms most of the time. I don't grow them and I usually see them in their own separate pot. I know Kisal (mod here) grows them and maybe she will answer about how this would work with your tree. There is a relative of African violet called cape primrose that has showier flowers.

If you just want to dress it up and have some color, you might think about things that have variegated colorful foliage. Foliage is there year-round. There's lots of different ajugas in beautiful combinations of foliage colors. It's a creeping ground cover that would trail out of the pot. Similarly for ivy leaf geranium. Or some dwarf hostas in different foliage colors. There's something called brazilian fireworks plant, which I have never grown, but it has intensely colored flower spikes in summer and the rest of the year has pretty silver variegated foliage.

Hope this gives you at least some things to think about.