Bow Chicka Bow Bow, part two

Spring is here, summer is almost here, and that means nature is feeling Awesome and Sexy. There are flowers all over the place, and even indoors, things are growing crazygonuts.

Abutilon cuttings. I'm hoping I can train them as a standard.

Neoregelia 'Kimberly' flowered beautifully, and has put out a few pups. Here's the biggest:

and the plant still looks awesome. Not quite the same for as my mystery bromeliad (neoregelia 'carolinae?'), which flowered totally in secret and is looking a little haggard now.

Still, maybe the decline is due to MORE PUPS!

Bromeliads are so fun. They have such a wonderful life cycle.  Meanwhile the opuntia seedlings have totally grown... shhyeah. Frigging cactus.

No really, I'm fine. I'll just stay like this for a couple more years. I'm good.

Of course, there have been failures. My papayas committed mass suicide! My passiflora cuttings drank the cool-aid. My clematis never sprouted. Spring is a time of everything being wonderful... then you forget to water, and it's a time of "AW SHIT."

And speaking of "aww," check out my scindapsus argyreus. What's that? The view is obstructed by sleeping cat adorableness? Oh, I know. Our cats are still all up ons.

Maybe it's their mutual need to destroy houseplants and possessions that brings them together.

Tadpoles At My Garden Center

Yo What it Do?

     I try to propose answers around here, for the most part. Much less often, I pose questions. Here are two questions that have got me stumped:

    1) Can powdery mildew be treated with Physan? In fact... what is up with Physan? How is it managing to kill algae and NOT kill my gametophytes, simultaneously? I mean, aren't they both photosynthetic organisms? Physan.... what it do??

powdery mildew, 2009. it has already killed this year... and it will kill again.

    2) Rooting hormone aka artificial auxins (street names include Rootone, Dip N' Grow): riddle me this. What if I plant cuttings, and I forget to dip them in rooting hormone. Would it make sense to immediately water with a solution of rooting hormone? Does that make any kind of logic? What the fuck is up with rooting hormone, anyway? WHAT IT DO?



    And in other, random news... after the completely accidental, non-negligent, not-my-fault death of my pitcher plant, Sarracenia 'Tarnok,' I bought another one. This time it's Sarracenia 'Catesbai.' I think I can induce dormancy with this one and get it to come back next year if I partially overwinter it in the refrigerator. Anyway, it's awesome, and it looks like it's singing very loudly.

     When I brought this plant home, I discovered an undeclared hitchhiker: a SLUG! I stuck it in a terrarium, named it, and tried to give it away for free on Craigslist:

One slug, good condition I guess... I mean, slugs look pretty crappy to begin with, right? Rode in on a houseplant. I can't keep it, but apparently I'm some kind of hippie because I can't kill it either. Don't know the age or gender, or if slugs even have genders. I've been calling it Justin, after Justin Bieber, your favorite pop singer and mine. Anyway, Justin is free to a good home, or even an ambivalent one. Just please come get it.

I didn't actually take this picture, but it looks exactly like Justin Bieber. For all I know, it IS him... maybe he was a model previously.

       My post was flagged three times. Slug activists? Who knows! Several people offered to take Justin, and a few people made death threats. "Kill the bugger, pour salt on him! Slugs destroy plants/gardens!" Humanely, my boyfriend suggested we drown Justin in an excellent beer, and also drown ourselves in said beer to pay our respects. In the end, I just let him go on the porch. Good luck, fucker! Sorry world! You're welcome, Sarracenia!

And that's all for now, from my slice of paradise.

Bee-Tee-Dubbs

BTW, people, I hope to see you at the International Aroid Society's  Mid-America Chapter meeting this Saturday, in St. Louis!

I'll be in St. Louis for the next week on family business, so blog posts may be suspended. Happily, I get to squeeze in a day trip to the MOBOT for the Aroid meeting, where I have been promised lectures, research presentations, tours, plants swaps, and punch and pie. There better be punch and pie, anyway.

Aroids, for your horticultural edification, compose a huge chunk of the tropical plants commonly grown as houseplants. You probably love them, even if you don't know it! Or maybe you do know it! Whatever, dude, just get thee to the MOBOT!

http://www.aroid.org/midamerica/

Growing Opuntia from Seed

I give you Opuntia ficus-indica: The Prickly Pear

         Actually, what you're seeing here is the fruit of the pricky pear cactus. You can find them at any grocery store that specializes in Mexican produce. The other commonly-sold portion of the cactus is the pad itself, typically used it savory dishes (i.e. nopales). Not that the fruit is particularly sweet... it mostly tastes like the bastard offspring of an aloe and a beet. In any case, you'll need to buy one to get the seeds, so you might as well eat it. Who knows, perhaps the seeds are your secondary goal, perhaps you LOVE the taste of cactus fruit and you're just sprouting seeds as an afterthought. Weirdo. 

Anyway, I will show you what worked for me.

Slice your fruit in half, and scoop out the seedy pith in the middle. The outer flesh is what you eat. Give the seeds a rinse in a strainer/sieve to remove as much of the red, fleshy fruit as possible; this material could become moldy and kill your seedlings. The seeds are small, flat, and brown. 

Scatter your seeds over a fine, fast draining mix like peat amended with vermiculite or sand. Dust the seeds lightly to cover, and provide bottom heat. Opuntias take their sweet-ass time with germination... my first seedlings didn't appear for seven weeks! SEVEN! So be patient, and don't toss the batch too soon. 

It's so cute to see a cactus seedling. One day they'll be tough, mean assholes, but for now, they're just sweet little dicotyledons. Ain't life grand? More updates to come.

Papayas

Coming out of the lab the other day, I happened upon this beautiful sight:

What could this sexy specimen be? A closer inspection was fruitful..... GET IT?!? OMG, SNORT.

A papaya! It was excellent to see a papaya growing so well indoors, because I recently sprouted a few papaya seeds in my plant room. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that my plants will ever be so productive or appealing; my seeds came from a grocery store papaya, while the specimen above was labelled Carica papaya 'TR Hovey,' from Logees greenhouse in Connecticut. We'll just have to see what becomes of my little cuties: 

Welcome to the world, seedlings!

      You should know that there's only one rule in my house: GROW OR DIE. Oh, and try not to fraternize with the Meyer lemon seedlings... they've been experimenting with aphids lately. Citruses are such bad influences.

Update Schmupdate

Recent loot!

Aeschynanthus radicans 'Mona Lisa'

A cultivar of the popular Lipstick plant, 'Mona Lisa' has thick, tough, fuzzy leaves. The flowers are a dark scarlet red and deep, deep purple. Although my specimen dropped ALL of its flowers within 24 hours of moving in, it obliged me by sending out lots of new branches/vines. A classic houseplant, perfect as a partial-shade hanging basket in summer. 

Clerodendrum thomsoniae

Also known as bag flower, bleeding heart vine, and Glory Bower. I'm torn between training this beautiful vine to trail from a basket or climb an arbor. Also a fairly old-school houseplant, but Clerodendrum is seen in books more often then it is seen on store shelves. 

Coprosma x kirkii 'Variegata"

This New Zealand shrub is less common in indoor culture. Commonly known as mirror bush, the original latin name Coprosma roughly means "smells crappy." Luckily this attribution only holds for one type of Coprosma, and the variety I have is nothing but pleasant. I'm looking forward to many hours of happy pruning in our future.

Lithops optica 'Rubra' may not be recent loot, but it's still news. Both of my specimens are growing new leaf pairs. I find it curious and charming.