Pretty much everything is a walkaway for me recently, because of the price, the size, or both. For most of these, the opportunity to buy is not yet over, so it's possible some of these could still be mine, but . . . well, I accumulated a lot of the plants I have already with the intention of selling or trading them away at some point, and that hasn't been going so well. (I mean, it's not going badly, either, exactly, but if anybody wanted to e-mail descriptions of their experiences with Etsy or EBay or similar things, I would be an attentive reader, is all I'm saying.)
I don't know how much y'all get out of these walkaway posts. I mean, I can see how they might seem pointless ("If you didn't buy them, why are you telling me about them?"), but I'm hoping that I'm showing you stuff you haven't seen before, and therefore it's interesting. Maybe I'm wrong. For good or bad, this is the post we have, though, so we may as well start:
Not purchased because of previous bad experiences with Echeveria. Though I freely admit that it is extremely pretty.
Too big to put anywhere, plus from a family with a questionable reputation (Marantaceae). These are never available here, though, so the temptation to get one anyway was substantial.
Not purchased because it didn't initially seem like something I couldn't live without. Then three days later I thought no, that's silly, I had one a long time ago and I liked it, I want another one, we should go back and get one. And when we went back, they'd sold all four plants, so I couldn't get one anyway.
Not purchased because the ones we had at work when I was there got so big so fast that even though I have room for something this size, I don't have room for this plant.
Kind of plain, I suppose, though I remain tempted. There is a decent possibility that I will end up buying one of these at some point. (The temptation is not so much because it's a gorgeous plant, and more because I have had decent luck with the more succulent Peperomias in the past, so I have reason to think the plant would do well.)
It just looks weird to me. Also the price was something of a problem, but mostly I just can't get my head around a T. spathacea that's school-bus yellow. Tradescantias just shouldn't be yellow or orange.
I didn't buy this one because I bought a different one (with red flowers) instead. It's nice to know that the flowers on Lowe's cacti aren't always fake.
I don't have the money for this either way, but I'm very interested in the plant. It seems like something I've seen before on-line, but I can't place it. Can anybody help?
UPDATE: Appears to be a Madagascar ocotillo, Alluaudia procera. My thanks to JAMESH and Claude.
The main reason I didn't buy this one is because I didn't know what it was, and therefore wasn't sure what it was likely to turn into. But if it's something cool, I'd go back. Anybody know what it is?
UPDATE: Appears to be a Crassula falcata, sometimes called "airplane plant." (Thanks again to JAMESH.) If I have the opportunity, I will probably go back to get this one.
This isn't distinct enough from D. deremensis 'Art,' which I already have. Though the price was excellent, and it's not a bad-looking plant.
Pierson's is always expensive, which might be why they don't put prices on a lot of their plants. Still, I like a good Dieffenbachia as much as the next person (and even more than the person after that), and this is unlike any I've ever seen before, so I might have been persuaded to buy it anyway, if not for the burnt tips and margins. This is clearly a plant that's been around the greenhouse for a while, and although it would grow out of the damaged leaves sooner or later, by the time that happened, it would also be leggy and semi-unattractive. If they'd have been willing to let me have the plant for a steep discount of some kind, I'd have been interested, but not for whatever they were asking.
I wasn't tempted by this at all; I'm not a big fan of the plant, I couldn't afford it even if I were, and I also don't have room. But I figured there was a good chance some of my readers would find a yellow
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18 comments:
That Peperomia orba looks awesome.
Yellow Mandevilla... interesting, not really as nice as the more common reds or pinks though.
great idea to talk about plants you didn't buy and why. Rarely do I peruse your blog without at least a smile, and often a LOL. Cheers Mr S, from catmint
The intriging NOID succulent may be a young Ocotillo... Fouquieria splendens. Just a guess...
The first is Alluaudia procera,the second plant is Crassula falcata. The Alluaudia gets very big and looks like an Ocotillo but not related
I can relate-there are plants everywhere I go that try to seduce me with their fabulous foliage or buxom blooms or just stunning curiosity (I couldn't have resisted that euphorbia!) My walkaways are often outdoor plants that just wouldn't work here, for zonal reasons or other perfectly valid issues (the wind! the clay! the snowdrifts!). Indoor plants, well we don't get a huge variety like you do, alas; I have avoided some of the larger flowering tropicals etc because the house is too cool/not bright enough for them to do well. I can't bear the thought of watching one of gazillions of gardenias flogged by grocery stores coming to my place to die a slow, flowerless death. (it's not surprising that they sell them with cardboard pictures of flowers affixed to the plants...all that most of us would ever see before the plant died.) Sigh.
Alluadias are pretty cool. They can get big but they're dormant for most of the year and if you're growing indoors, I'd imagine their growth rate would be pretty glacial.
Pepperomias. I loathe them with a passion because I cannot keep one for longer than a few months without them dying on me. I have no idea what goes wrong. I usually have very green thumbs, but this plant refuses to cooperate and live!
amccour:
Ah well. I can't afford it anyway.
Lynne:
Well, I have fairly different experiences depending on the species; it's not like the whole genus is cooperative. (In order from worst to best:
P. argyreia
P. caperata/griseo-argentea
P. glabella
P. pereskiifolia
P. clusiifolia
P. obtusifolia
P. ferreyrae)
Generally speaking, the more succulent the Peperomia, the easier of a time I have with them, though there are exceptions like argyreia. That general rule is why I thought P. orba might work out okay, though thinking back on it, out of the ones I've tried before, orba most closely resembles glabella, which has been a mixed experience.
Lots and lots of people recommend P. obtusifolia (as a specific e.g., Water Roots likes them); you might try that, if you haven't already and have growing a Peperomia on your life goals list. Which since you say you loathe them, probably it's not. There are plenty of other plants.
My Crassula falcata is about to bloom, if I get my shit together I'll post it so you can see.
And I hate Echeveria. They die. End of story.
No, wait. I keep buying them. They die.
I hate'em. They're entirely too fascinating and not worth the grief.
And yeah, I just bought another one at Home Depot. Sigh.
I like your walkaway posts, and really any posts that have multiple photos of slightly-out-of-the-ordinary available stock.
I'd an Euphorbia flanaganii var. cristata before till whiteflies found it. It's impossible to get rid of them, because the plant was the perfect hiding place. In the end I threw away the plant.
I've bad experiences with Echeveria and peperomia as well, not because they're difficult to cultivate. The reason was they would look 'weak' after few months or a year. Some articles suggest we should make new cuttings every two years, thus I classify them as short life plants.
That yellow Mandevilla looks more like Allamanda to me.
I don't think I'd have been able to walk away from P. orba. Not unless it was really exorbitantly expensive. Pretty thing, and the first plant I was ever really successful with was a Peperomia of some sort, and I have a rescue P. obtusifolia that is thriving, so I'm kind of attached to the genus.
That Euphorbia is pretty awesome, though given what you've said about toxicity, I worry about ever getting one of those.
telipogon:
The flowers are awfully similar. But the habit is different.
Sixwing:
It varies from species to species, though. Few if any are as scary as E. tirucalli and E. cooperi. I mean, not that you ever want to get the sap from any Euphorbia in your eyes, but as a general rule, you don't want to get the sap from any non-Euphorbias in your eyes, either.
I'd always been told and read that it's a climber but when I met it in person i found it had more of a shrubby habit while it's small, just like the plant in your photo.
I think that 'Yellow Mandevilla' is neither Mandevilla nor Allamanda; I believe it is a Pentalinon luteum.
Lee:
I think you're right.
telipogon:
In the full-size picture, though, you can see that some of the plant has started to vine around itself, even as small as it is. Unless you're meaning to say that Allamanda is a climber also. Which I just realized your second comment might be saying.
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