Saturday, September 5, 2009

Unfinished business: Hibiscus, Alocasia, Anthurium

Some odds and ends to take care of. First, I have finally obtained pictures of the Alocasia 'Frydek' I mentioned previously, for those of you who wanted to see it. The color is more true-to-life in the second picture, but the first picture does a better job of showing off the velvety texture:




If it were any genus besides Alocasia, I would have one of these already: they're so damn pretty. But I have all the spider mites I need for now, thanks.

There was also a request on last week's really big Anthurium leaf post for a picture that showed the context, as the leaf in question blocked view of the rest of the plant. So here you go.

Anthurium "hookeri." The really big leaf is pointing to the right in this picture.


I also tried to get a picture of the Anthurium "crenata" I mentioned in that post, but they don't appear to have one any more. There is still a very large Anthurium where I used to work, though, which is probably more closely related to my "hookeri:" it was sold to them as Anthurium 'Red Line' or 'Redline' or something like that, and allegedly gets a red midvein in bright enough light. Their plant didn't have the red midvein when it arrived, and hasn't developed it since, but it's a pretty impressive-looking plant regardless:


And then finally, I was asked for a picture of the Hibiscus flower that went with the buds in Wednesday's post, so here you go.


I have some buds on my other Hibiscus now, the pink one with the orange border, so there will likely be more Hibiscus pictures coming up soonish.


10 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm running way behind on blog reading, but had to try to catch up starting with you. Love that hibiscus! The only indoor plants blooming here at the moment are a soft orange Ixora and my two Phalaenopsis. I'd hoped for bloom from the hoya, but it's apparently still too young and putting its energy into growing stems and leaves.

Unknown said...

Sorry, I got a duplicate comment post, Mr. S. Serves me right for going in via Blotanical.

mr_subjunctive said...

Starting to catch up on blog-reading with me is a good call. You get addressed directly in Streptocarpus Part II, you know.

carolann said...

Hibiscus are just all over SW FL but they have great blooms. Love the colors.

Diane said...

Gorgeous hibiscus! Also, cute shadow from the androecium. I'm going to attempt to overwinter a potted hibiscus for the first time this year. We'll see how it goes.

And if I'd known that Alocasia was famous for spider mites, I wouldn't have bought one last spring. It's still pest-free (yay), but it's also not growing as far as I can tell (boo).

lynn'sgarden said...

Awww, Mr. Subjunctive, you provided two pictures just for lil ol' me! See, I'm shocked that huge 'Hookeri' leaf hid the whole plant..which in itself, a good size. And I'm in LOVE with that beautiful orange hibiscus bloom...thank you! ;) Hope you'll have lots of buds to keep enjoying. Have a fun weekend..or is it watering time again?

mr_subjunctive said...

lynn'sgarden: It'll be watering time soon enough, yes. Probably going to eat my entire Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. (But! I already have posts written through Thursday, so I win!)

Diane:

Yeah, they're not fast growers. And the spider mite thing is a huge drawback. For some reason, we wound up with a huge number of 'Polly's at one point when I worked in the greenhouse, and once one of them got mites, they basically all had to be thrown out. I mean, we stretched it out as long as we could, but I think we probably threw out ten for every one we sold, in the long run. Beautiful, but horrible personality.

Nancy in Sun Lakes AZ said...

Mr. S., I love the hibiscus flower so much and the bud too. I'll be happy to see more. Hibiscus don't like me and won't live on my property so I'm glad you will have more to show us.

hydrophyte said...

Hey that is a nice Alocasia. I found that I can capture velvety leaf sheen if I use my flash. I have a Colocasia fallax going in on eof my fish tanks right now and it has such beautiful leaves.

Hey have you heard about the Interantional Aroid Society Show in Miami in a couple of weeks? I made a late decision to go and I can't wait.

Hey have you tried AzaMax for spider mites? I just started using it and it really knocks 'em down. Supposedly it's natural too, but I am careful with it.

Mites seem to know which plants are my favorites, then do as much damage as possible to those specimens. But they don't touch my orchids.

mr_subjunctive said...

I haven't used that product specifically, but we did use a product in the greenhouse (Azatin) that had azadirachtin as its active ingredient. It was actually my favorite one to mix up, for reasons I keep meaning to write a post about, though I was never terribly impressed with it as a miticide. Was not extraordinarily impressed, actually, with any of the pesticides we used.