Random Happening's......it's been too long!

It's been way too long since I have made a post on my blog......I am just really finding it hard to write about plants that aren't doing too much, but recuperating from their move. They seem to be adjusting all right now, and some plants are getting a few flowers.



This is my Alsobia Dianthiflora .......the one I nearly killed last year. It is only throwing out a few buds, but a few is better than none. This pot of Alsobia is kept by a north window, whereas my other one is kept closer to a south window......the one with the lower light conditions is the one getting the flowers.


It isn't really visible in the picture, but there are tiny pink flecks in the throat of the flower. It is one of the prettiest flowers I have in my collection.



This is a pic of the seedlings I am growing of the fruit called "pitahaya" or dragon fruit. Officaially called Hylocereus Undatus. They are not the fastest growing plants, and it might take around three years to see a flower, but it's worth it, because these are really amazing plants.



I had to throw this pic in a post. Before I moved I had never seen anything like this in my life. There was a tree, and all over the tree was these golf ball sized spiky things. Turns out to be a Chestnut tree......I am not sure whether they are edible ye, but if they are, I am going to try and grab a few, and cook them up. Locally, these chestnuts make great children's war ammo.....lol.

Aeschynanthus Longicaulis Seed Pods

Well I completely forgot about this post, so I figure I better get it up. It was such a cool plant event at the time, and then with moving I completely forgot about it. I didn't notice this until I went to water the plant one day and saw a long string of fluff coming off the plant. When I went to wipe it away, I found it to be attached.


I have no idea what could have pollinated this, but I do remember trying to do it myself once or twice, so maybe I was successful. Other than that, it was strictly an indoor plant, and the only insects around would be the odd moth or housefly.


I collected the seeds in a baggie, and I had intentions of sending it to the gesneriad seed bank, but I didn't even find the baggie until yesterday when I was unpacking plants. I am not sure if they are still viable, but I am going to try and plant a few over the next few days, and if they are still viable, I might still send them off to the seed bank.


I have to admit that it was quite a unique thing to see, it's not something one sees everyday. The next time I get flowers on any of my lipstick plants, I am definetely going to try and cross them again, with hopes that maybe it was me and not a stray bug. All I did was take one flower off, remove the outer flower petals, and inserted the one into the other, and moved it around. We all know how it's done......lol. Complete botanical porn......for the gardener of course.

Blooming right now:

Pink & white azalea
hoya shepperdi
hoya lacunosa
hoya carnosa
hoya compacta
lipstick plant (lobbianus)








lipstick plant (mona lisa)
lipstick plant (black pagoda)
numerous african violets





goldfish plant (nematanthus)
red philodendron
calamondin

June Blooms

Noid African Violet

Crown of Thorns ( this has bloomed non stop since I got it a year ago,
it is never without some flowers)

Calamondin

Hoya Shepperdi

Hoya Lacunosa

Noid African violet

Aeschynanthus "Black Pagoda"

Hoya Compacta

Hoya Heuschkeliana

Nematanthus aka Goldfish plant

The Answer to Name this Plant!

Again here is the pic from a previous post. I asked if anyone could name the plant.


The answer is a Lipstick plant or Aeschynanthus.

My House Happenings

I had so many random pics that didn't necessarily need a whole post, so I lumped them together and one whole post. So many little things are going on right now, and so other things just are and deserve a pic.


My lipstick plant has a few flowers coming these past few weeks. It looked liked it might go into full bloom, but it has blasted many buds. It might get to partial bloom, and still put on a mini show, but nothing like some of the shows I have seen these plants put on. Still it is the first time I have seen this plant get this far into bloom since I have had it.

My variegated rubber tree completely stopped growing this past winter, but has begun to start growing now that spring has really arrived. I have read that it is quite hard to get these to branch, they tend to just keep growing straight up until they are quite large and mature. Mine has branched. I am quite pleased because it won't grow so straight and lanky like they tend to do. I hope the other two trees in the pot would branch as well.


A few of the jade leaves I got a few months ago have sprouted new little plantlets from the base of the original leaf. This cultivar of jade, pictured here, has the neatest fingers like leaves. The tips of them are a dark red, giving them the coolest look.


My dragon fruit cutting, hylocereus undatus, has an odd growth coming in on it. It isn't growing from the side joints like I have seen other branches form on. I have never seen this on any of my epiphytic cacti before. Maybe it's a new branch, maybe not.....only time will tell.


Back in my little world of hoya's, I have a heutschkeliana that looks like it might be dying. A little odd since it is finally spring and most of my other plants are starting to take off. I thought maybe I had let it go too dry, but it still looks like overwatering to me, and that just seems unlikely in this case. All I can do is keep an eye on it and hope for the best.


My hoya compacta is budding, only from one peduncle, but still. This is one of my favorite hoya's. The flowers look alot like my KQ, and smell nearly the same too. They both are reminiscent of chocolate. I would have thought my carnosa would have smelt like chocolate more than these ones, but I was quite wrong, as carnosa seems to smell more floral-y than I expected.


My hoya carnosa flowers are starting to get the messy drippy look now. I think they still look amazing almost more so with the clear sap dripping from it. I even think the dead and gray one in the background looks stunning. This was the hoya that smelled alot more floral-y than I expected. It was a nice scent, but I am not into floral scents like I am say a fruity or sweet smell.

Bloomin' Away Philo, Azalea & Lipstick.

A couple of months ago, I noticed some odd growth on a red philo I had. Mr. S thought it could be a flower, and he was right. It has taken close to three months from the first time I noticed "something", to opening up into a flower like the pic below. It's......umm......different than most flowers I see. It is a pretty cool thing to see, it's the first time in my life I have ever seen a philo flower up close and personal. And it fit so well with this post, being a flower amongst many.


The red Philo flower is probably one of the more unique flowers I have ever seen, but there are so many other plants starting to flower too, and they all need their time in the spotlight too.

I am not sure what happened with my Azalea. It finished flowering a few months back, but has since started to develop buds again. I didn't cut it back after it flowered the last time, and it didn't get a cold period at all either. Most, from what I have read should be pruned right after flowering, or you risk cutting off where it will flower next year. I have also read that they need a cold period to induce flowering, but this one never got that either. All I know is that they like a ton of water and some sun, and they stay pretty happy!


This the bi colored azalea I mentioned over at PATSP in the comments section. The one and only reason I bought this one was because it was pink and white. My other azalea has white flowers, and it isn't doing much lately. It will be interesting to see if the flowers will be like they originally were when they were drown in a greenhouse, or if they change slightly because they are now grown in windowsill conditions.



The plant pictured below, one of my Lipstick plants (Aeschynanthus) has tried to bloom before by growing a few buds here and there, but it always seemed to drop the buds or get a couple flowers at a time. This time there are buds all over the plant. I would say that half of the stems have developed buds. If every one of the buds actually make it to flower, it will be a spectacular display.

Episcia & Kohleria

So some of my Episcia is taking over in my humidity domes, rooting itself into other plants, rooting itself into the thin layer of water at the bottom, pretty much rooting itself into anything it can. So to make more space (it's always about space....lol) I decided to root some in a bit of sphagnum moss in a jar.


I also decided to try and take some out to live in my home environment, on a humidity tray.....but within 24 hours, that batch threw a fit, and started drying up, shriveling up......whatever it could do to show it was NOT happy. It got what it wanted and it had to be moved back into the humidity dome. I am going to have to figure out another way to keep it tame, possibly by putting more in covered jars. This is when I always think, I need a terrarium.



Now that I am over the Kohleria rhizome scare, I have been noticing that my Kohleria seems to be growing quite well since all 5 pots were moved into the humidity domes. These guys are pretty finicky when it comes to the humidity. Too little, and they get crispy, too much, they rot. They are growing nicely, most are over 6 inches tall. I pictured this plant to be bigger in leaf size, but maybe they will get bigger by the time they bloom. I have no idea how long it takes before they bloom, grown from a rhizome, I am going to have to look that up, because for such finicky plants, they had better start proving themselves, or they will lose their premium space.



Like many other flowering plants, Episcia and Kohleria like to be snug in their pots before they send out flowers. Well I am thinking they are quite snug.......what do you think?? LOL I refuse to repot them into something bigger until they grow a little more......or at least until I have tortured them into bloom for a little longer. Bigger pot means more space, and I am not going to give them more space until they give me a good reason too......like flowers.

What the HELL is That?? & Happy Bday Cacti Seedling!!

I get creeped out pretty easily when it comes to bugs.....I can handle small insects, but anything big, fuzzy or weird......and I am outta there. So far it hasn't caused too many problems with my plants, but I admit that each time I find a mealy bug, I love my plants a little less for a couple days because they gross me out. So today while checking out the plants in my humidity dome, I found the grossest looking caterpillar-y things. I swear my heart stopped for a second or too, and I dropped the plant pretty fast.


So once the plant was out of my hands, I of course had to take a closer look. The plant in question......a Kohleria plant. Well stupid me.......it was a rhizome coming up from beneath the soil. I was equally creeped out when the person that sent me the rhizomes, sent me little baggies with what looked like worms. So now, I am not as creeped out by these things, but it did give me quite the scare.


A Happy Birthday is due in my little world of plants. It was a year ago this month that I planted some 12 pots of cacti seeds. Most germinated quite well, but as time went by and space became a rare and valuable resource in my house, I got rid of all but 2 pots of the cacti seedlings.


They are still really small. The one in the pic below is just over an inch tall, whereas the other 2 in the above pic are no more than a half inch tall. They are really, really, really slow growing plants. I don't think I would grow them again. It was cool to try and say I did it, but I am not a cactus fanatic, they are just too slow growing to keep my attention. Maybe if the cacti I had in my house would flower **hint hint**, I would pay more attention to them, but in my house, they barely do anything but exist. Either way, Happy Bday Baby Cacti!



On a final note......I have to give recognition to my Hoya Kerrii. For what you ask?? For growing 2 leaves on the same node. Now normally this isn't a big deal, most Hoya's grow their leaves in pairs, but this guy always seems to start with 2 leaves, and then drop one, and grow the other. This would be why, in the pic below, there is only one leaf per node. For the first time, since I received the cutting last year, it has decided to grow and keep two leaves on the same node. I can't believe this of all things gets me excited, but it does. Go Kerrii Go!!

Updates on AV's from leaf, Black Pagoda & droopy Xmas cactus

I laid my first African leaf in the Spring of 2007. I didn't do anything special them and I did not give them any special treatment at all, and yet they have all done well. When I first started laying the leaves, I used a mix of peat, perlite and a tiny bit of vermiculite (I have since cut out the use of peat and moved to coir, and I no longer use vermiculite). I started out by putting several leaves in a small shallow container, but now I use Dixie cups, and plant one leaf per cup. When laying the leaves, I would slice the leaf stem on a angle, and then lay them at roughly a 45 degree angle against the cup. I never put them baggies as I find they rot very fast, but I also have a humidifier running 24/7. I normally just put them under lights, and let them go.


Many people ask how long it takes from the time you lay the leaf to have a blooming plant. The general consensus is about 9 months (give or take a month or so). Mine have followed the average, and they are all getting ready to bloom. I remember the excitement I felt, when my first babies made their way to the surface, now I am feeling the excitement to see what some of these flowers look like.


The cuttings I recieved of my Black Pagoda lipstick plant have rooted, and quite quickly. When I did the "tug test", they were rooted firmly. It has only been 4 weeks, I am very impressed. When I get cuttings from other plants, I always put them in a pot and then in a baggie, and seal it up. I find since I have been using baggies, I do not lose as many cuttings.


I took cuttings from a bunch of Schlums back in November, potted them up, and put them under lights in my humidity dome (I would use baggies as well on these, but they fit in the humidity dome unlike some larger cuttings). All of them have rooted as well, I find these very easy to propagate.


My other Schlum (pic here) has perked up some since this photo was taken. Since there was still one segment that looked pretty pitiful, I pulled it to check the roots and found it was starting to rot.

I have never had this happen before, and I not sure why only one of the cuttings in the pot rotted and the other 2 were fine. It may have been damaged already, or just too far gone when it was potted up.

Green Thumb Sunday.....Winter Bloomers

I am so glad that there are certain types of plants that can and will bloom in the dark days of Winter. I get nervous when the days get colder and darker thinking it will be months before I see flowers, but this never happens. Reason......because there are plants that flower under less light than others, and there are plants that are considered short day plants (which means they need so many hours of darkness to flower, such as a schlum or kalanchoe).

The plants I have seen flower over the winter, that are in my collection are:

African Violets
Various Lipstick plants (Aechynanthus)
Azaleas
Schlums (Holiday Cacti)
Kalanchoe
Goldfish plants (Nematanthus)
Fuchsia
String of Hearts (Ceropegia Woodii)
Crown of Thorns (Euphorbia milli)
Passion Vine (Passiflora)
Poinsettia

The above links will take you to some of my older blog posts, each one having a picture of the
flower.

I know there are many more winter blooming plants such as Mandevilla, Cyclamen and some begonias. There are many articles to check out on the net that will help to determine which plants flower in the winter.

Fuchsia

Sclumbergera

Happy Green Thumb Sunday!!