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Sunday, June 27, 2010

Walkaway: Codiaeum variegatum 'Revolutions'

I am having a serious headache right now (Saturday night), for the second night in a row. Consequently, I have to phone it in today. On the plus side, the internet situation appears to be resolved, so if I ever do have a night where I don't have a headache, I should be able to write and save posts again. That should be a welcome change from writing posts but not being able to save them because the internet has vanished.

Anyway. This is a Codiaeum variegatum that I hadn't seen before. I wasn't even remotely tempted to buy it, because, you know, it's a Codiaeum variegatum, and also I think it's kind of ugly (if only the people coming up with these new croton varieties could be persuaded to use their powers for good, rather than evil!), but it's certainly different.


My first reaction, upon seeing it, was . . . well, actually, my first reaction would have been I have to get a picture of that for the blog! But my second reaction was to imagine how hard it would be to get spider mites off of one, with all those half-folded leaves for them to take shelter in. Or mealybugs either, as far as it goes. No, thank you.
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6 comments:

  1. Plowing Through Life (Martha)June 27, 2010 at 5:21 AM

    Oh yeah, I totally agree. You can have a nervous breakdown trying to rid this spider mite magnet of bugs. Me too, no thanks.

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  2. LizaJune 27, 2010 at 8:14 AM

    It's like that kid in high school who thought he was sooooo cool, but in reality was self-absorbed and moody. Not you, mr_s, the plant.

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  3. kittyJune 27, 2010 at 11:28 AM

    I agree, it is rather ugly. The curling leaves look like it already has a mite problem. Hope your headache has gone away!

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  4. cconzJune 27, 2010 at 2:47 PM

    Oh, come on now. I like this croton.I've had one for 27 years and it has never had ANY bugs. I goes outside every year too. It's like a small shrub. To bad about your headaches. How bout that windy storm a couple of days ago? Scary.

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  5. mr_subjunctiveJune 27, 2010 at 6:50 PM

    cconz:

    Lucky you. I've had some that stayed mite-free for a long time (couple years), but I've never had a croton that didn't get mites sooner or later. The situation was basically the same at work, though at work the smaller plants (3"/4") sometimes stayed miteless for several months.

    The husband woke up for the storm, but I didn't -- I knew one was coming, but didn't have any sense of how much wind there'd been until I took Sheba out in the morning and saw branches scattered around and stuff tipped over. The rain's been a little ridiculous lately, too.

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  6. JamesJune 27, 2010 at 10:55 PM

    I'm starting to feel your pain on the walkaways. On Friday i had to walk away from a twenty-dollar fifteen-foot-tall Schefflera actinophylla. I don't have room for all my plants right now, I certainly don't have high enough ceilings, and there would have been no way to get it home....but God, I wanted it.

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