Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Random plant event: Cordyline glauca flowers

I love this plant, and will be very sad if and when it sells. I first noticed a flower spike around the beginning of February, which looked like this:



and then as the month has progressed, the flower spike has continued to develop. The purple color is real, not an artifact of the photography. There's not really a smell as far as I could detect. The flowers look very much like those of the Cordyline terminalis 'Kiwi' we've seen earlier, though the color strikes me as better. Now, the plant looks like this:



and I figure it's only a matter of time before it sells. I'd buy it myself except that I don't have room for something this big (not that that stopped me with the Dracaena fragrans 'Lindenii,' but that was special circumstances, dammit), and anyway I already have a smaller one that I got not too long ago, which I'm hoping to propagate because it's a little on the scruffy side.

But anyway. Pretty. Even a little, dare I say it, spring-like.


8 comments:

Tracy said...

It is always neat to see flowers that one normally doesn't get to see. Would this flower as a "houseplant", or does it need more of a greenhouse atmosphere?

mr_subjunctive said...

I would guess it probably needs a greenhouse. Not sure, though.

Anonymous said...

I've tried to locate in my Christopher Lloyd books the exact locus where he talks about gardening being made of small miracles that are worth the effort even if they last only as long as a beautiful sunset.

I haven't been able to find the exact quote- anyway, your "Random plant events" are very much in that line, small Zen moments of awareness.

And that flowers are really cute.

Mr. Green Genes

Anonymous said...

BTW, is that an Alocasia on the right? Amazonica? 'Polly'?

Mr Green Genes

mr_subjunctive said...

Yeah, 'Polly.' There were several held over from last summer, or possibly earlier. There have been occasional issues with spider mites, and I was expecting that we'd have to pitch most or all of them at some point this winter, but they've done okay: we actually had worse spider mite issues in the fall. I don't like them especially, because they're top-heavy, and get tangled in the hose when I water, plus I know it's pointless to buy one to bring home, but I'm a little impressed with them for sticking around through the winter.

Anonymous said...

Ah! I knew Alocasia were difficult, but wanted to give them a try, so I ordered one and it should come in tomorrow... your words are not really encouraging... 'pointless'... we'll see...
Mr. GG

mr_subjunctive said...

A lot of my attitude there is based on what Water Roots had to say about them. But I knew they had a reputation even before I saw what she said.

Shelagh said...

Mine is flowering indoors. It has three flowering spikes and it is so beautiful!