Microphotography: Portulaca grandiflora

I'm unclear on the specifics of where and how, but the husband, knowing that I've been looking for a microscope for some time, somehow obtained a used one for me. Which is one example of how he's the best husband ever.

The catches -- and of course there are catches -- are:

1) Okay, I don't know the proper names for anything here, but I'm going to call that thing in the middle, with the four things sticking out from it, the microscope's "udder," because that's what it looks like. Each of those barrels on the udder has a different level of magnification (I don't know what levels of magnification, because I cannot decipher what the barrels say), only two of which appear to function.
2) It's a regular, old-school, 1960s-ish microscope, so it wasn't designed with digital photography in mind. If the camera lens is not exactly centered over the eyepiece, the camera doesn't register anything being there at all. Likewise if it isn't precisely the right height above the eyepiece. My hands shake way too much to get pictures by holding the camera in the right spot myself, and although we do have a tripod, the base of the microscope is just large enough to get in the way of the tripod's legs, so I can get within about a centimeter (0.4 in.) of the eyepiece, but then no further. Except! When I took the below pictures, I actually could get the tripod directly over the eyepiece. I just couldn't do it again a few days later when I moved the whole thing outside to try to get a better set of pictures in stronger light, and I don't know why, and the whole thing was very frustrating. Which leads us to the third problem, which is:
3) Even when I do manage to line the camera up, using the tripod, the amount of light coming through the eyepiece is small, so my camera uses long exposure times, which results in blurry pictures, even at its best.
4) And at its worst, the camera autofocus chooses to focus on the eyepiece itself, instead of the image in the eyepiece. Or it focuses on some part of the microscope outside the eyepiece, so I get a perfect shot of the top of the udder but the actual image I'm trying to capture is too fuzzy to make out.

So the point is that there are some problems with this, and you should, consequently, not expect to see a lot of these pictures until such time as I can figure out how to get better ones. And I would love some suggestions from other people, because I know there's got to be someone out there who's taken photographs through a microscope's eyepiece successfully.

Having said all of that, there have been some pretty cool moments with the microscope already, which I will hopefully be able to share with you someday. Portulaca grandiflora seeds, my only successful photos to date, turn out to be much more interesting than the gray, metallic dust they appear to be with the naked eye. For example, I had always imagined them as more or less spherical, since a lot of seeds are, but they turn out to have a specific, weird shape, somewhere between a comma and a nautilus:

At the higher magnification, they also have an unexpected texture, which is probably the coolest and most surprising thing I've seen in weeks. It didn't photograph well, of course:

The pattern is sort of approximately that of a bunch of tiny interlocked cogwheels, covering the whole surface of the seed. Which is even stranger in combination with the overall iridescent metallic gray color. (I now suspect that Portulaca grandiflora are robotic plants.)

I also tried for photos of the pollen, but that went even less well, and wasn't very interesting:

And those are the only actual pictures I'm able to provide to you at this point. Possible coming attractions, if I can figure out how to take the pictures:

A lot of leaves are hairier than I would have guessed. (Pedilanthus being the most surprising.) Though most leaves are disappointingly boring.

The serrated edges on Yucca guatemalensis are a lot less regular in shape and spacing than I expected.

Cryptanthus pollen is even more dull than Portulaca pollen: basically just irregular little white rounded things. At least Portulaca pollen has a color to it.

Ceropegia woodii flowers look exactly the way you would expect them to look, and brought to mind both "eyelashes" and "houseflies." Aeschynanthus speciosus flowers are boring and look just like they do with the naked eye, except bigger. Neofinetia roots didn't do much for me. (Think "styrofoam.") The Euphorbia fungus (yes, I still have Euphorbia fungus) looked exactly like I expected (sort of a creeping white net), and was dull.

Broadleaf plantain (Plantago major) really does have flowers (when you let it bloom), and the flowers are actually sort of pretty. I mean, if they were twenty times bigger, you'd grow the plant as an ornamental: there's a white, fluffy bottlebrush sort of stamen, with lots of white spherical pollen grains, and then the stigmas, or something I take to be the stigmas, are sort of shaped like white tulips with purple stripes down the center of each petal. (Plantago major is high on the list of stuff to get pictures of, whenever I figure out how to do that, but you can get some idea from the picture here at Wikimedia Commons. There must be some natural variation, though, because that's a darker, solid purple than what I was seeing.)

Another high-priority item: Anthurium spadices. It's a little easier for me to believe that those are flowers, now that I've seen them close-up. (I'd link to a photo, but I couldn't find one easily on Google image search.) It should probably be noted that they're still not pretty. At best, interesting.

Spider mites are every bit as horrifying as you'd think they would be, and they will continue to suck sap out of a leaf even after it's been removed from the plant. They also do this weird thing where they either shake their back legs like a dog getting a belly rub, or they rub their rearmost pair of legs together like a person trying to warm their hands. I only saw it do that once, and it was fast. I was so surprised and freaked out by there being, suddenly, movement, that I can't tell you exactly what it was. It also convinced me to throw the leaf in the trash more or less immediately afterward.

I think I've seen spider mite eggs now, though they weren't all the same color, so I'm not 100% on that. (They were all somewhere in the yellow or yellow-orange color range, but the darkness varied a lot, from pale yellow down to almost black.)

Some unknown white thing that was on our lettuce was one of the scariest things I've ever seen. It somehow managed to evoke deep-sea crabs, skeletons, spiders, and ghosts simultaneously, and I'm pretty sure seeing them come into focus in the microscope took a year off my life. The best match I found on-line for them was here, on a forum where they were identified as the shed exoskeletons of a molted aphid here. (The pictures at the link aren't magnified enough to be upsetting, FWIW.) So "skeleton" and "ghost" were actually pretty close. That also explains why they weren't moving.

So the point is, there's a lot of potential for interesting new posts, if only I can figure out how to get the pictures. It's going to take some experimentation, and I only have so much time, so if anybody has any relevant expertise, I'd sure appreciate hearing from you.

List: Houseplants That Have Red Flowers

The usual disclaimers apply, but let's run through them again just to make sure we're all on the same page:

1) This is not an exhaustive list of red-flowering houseplants; I'm not sure it's even possible to come up with an exhaustive list of red-flowering houseplants. And if it were possible, it probably wouldn't be desirable. This is plenty long as it is.

2) Also, many of the plants on the list are available in multiple cultivars, not all of which necessarily bloom red.

3) I'm approaching these lists from an interior-decorating standpoint, not a botanical one. If the plant has showy red bracts with tiny yellow true flowers, I'm counting it as a red-bloomer, because that's how most people would think of it.

4) As there are no sharp dividing lines between "red," "orange," "pink," and "purple," you may disagree with me about the redness of some of the flowers mentioned here. Which if it's all the same to you, I'm going to see that as more your problem than it is mine.

5) In some cases, I'm going wholly or partly by the results from Google image search for the plants in question. Since people sometimes post misidentified pictures, there is a small chance that some of the plants listed, especially more obscure plants, may be included in error.

Aeschynanthus lobbianus.

Clerodendrum x speciosum. (C. splendens x C. thomsoniae)

Cyclamen persicum NOID.

Episcia 'Silver Skies.'

Hatiora (formerly Rhipsalidopsis) NOID.

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis.

Kalanchoe blossfeldiana NOID.

Neoregelia 'Maria.'

Parodia microsperma. Some other Parodias have red flowers as well, though yellow is more typical.

Tillandsia ionantha. Some other Tillandsias have either red flowers (T. funckiana, T. latifolia) or red bracts (T. juncea, T. abdita, T. vinalesensis, T. boliviensis, T. tenuifolia, T. brachycaulos, T. queroensis, T. leonamiana).
This is a tough list to do recommends / anti-recommends for: for all of these, I either have 1) no experience, 2) exclusively bad experiences, or 3) very mixed experiences. If forced to come up with something, though, I would reluctantly recommend Aeschynanthus, Episcia, and Neoregelia.

My personal experience with Aeschynanthus lobbianus was mostly negative, but I don't think it was the plant's fault: I should have kept up better with the watering. Other Aeschynanthus species have done well for me, enough so that I'd feel comfortable recommending them to other people. The main obstacles to cultivation are light (they need at least bright indirect light, and I'd highly recommend at least some direct sun) and temperature (always above 60F/16C).

I enjoy Episcias, but varieties either tend to do really well for me ('Coco,' 'Suomi,' several NOIDs, 'Faded Jade,' 'Raspberry Parade') or really poorly ('Pink Acajou,' 'Kempenfest,' 'Burning Embers'), without much of a middle ground. 'Silver Skies' is one of the good ones, though it's a bit slower than the others, and stays smaller. Main obstacles to cultivation: temperature (always at least 60F/16C), water (don't let them dry out to the point of wilting) and humidity (higher is better).

I was a huge fan of Neoregelia at one point a few years back; I've cooled off on them somewhat since then, for various reasons, but they're perfectly fine plants if you have the space for them and don't mind getting caught on their sharp marginal spines occasionally. Biggest obstacle: light (at least bright indirect, with some direct sun strongly recommended).

For the anti-recommend, I guess I'll go with Hibiscus, though Cyclamen and Kalanchoe were really close. They all can be grown indoors successfully, but none are particularly well-suited to it. Cyclamen goes in and out of dormancy at erratic intervals and is easily overwatered as a result; Kalanchoe virtually always goes downhill once purchased, because it needs extremely bright light.

Hibiscus has both problems: it defoliates in the winter, to a greater or lesser degree depending on how it's treated, and it's very difficult to rebloom in the house if you don't have a lot of light. (Though it's easier than Kalanchoe.) Hibiscus has one problem that the other two don't, though, which is that they're incredibly appealing to pests. At work, we were always wrestling with spider mites, whitefly, and aphids; I've also had spider mites on plants at home. Hibiscus are gorgeous, obviously, but it's just not worth the hassle to bring them inside for the winter. People with huge windows or small plant collections might find Hibiscus more rewarding than I do.


Not pictured:

• Some Abutilon cvv.
• Acalypha reptans. (pinkish-red)
• Acalypha wilkesiana. (not particularly ornamental; pink-red; small)
• Some Adenium cvv.
• Some Aechmea spp./cvv. (bracts)
• Ananas comosus. (bracts; pink-red; true flowers are blue-purple)
• Some Anthurium hybrids are true red.
• Ascocenda Sweet Pea 'Ruby.' (pinkish red)
• Austrocylindropuntia subulata. (variable, ranges from orange-red to pink; usually closer to pink)
• Some Begonia cvv. (usually more pink or pink-red, though Reigers, wax, and tuberous begonias can all have true red flowers)
• Some Billbergia spp./cvv. have flower stalks with red bracts, though pink is more common. The true flowers are generally some combination of blue, green, and white.
• Some Bougainvillea cvv.
• Bryophyllum daigremontianum.
• Bryophyllum tubiflorum. (orange-red)
• Calliandra emarginata. (pink-red; possibly not actually a houseplant)
• A few orchids in the Cattleya alliance produce flowers that are red to some degree or another; two of the more striking examples are Laeliocattleya Rojo x Cattleya aurantiaca (picture) and Lyonara cv. (Schomburgkia undulata x Sophrolaeliocattleya Rojo) (picture)
• Clerodendrum thomsoniae. (white bracts / red flowers)
• Some Columnea cvv./spp. might qualify, though usually they're more orange or orange-red than red.
• Crassula falcata.
• Dischidia pectinoides. (true red to pink-red; small)
• Echeveria coccinea (red or orange-red; see post) and some other Echeveria cvv. (They're usually pink or orange-pink with a yellow rim/tip, though.)
• Epidendrum Max Valley (orange-red) and some other Epidendrum cvv.
• Some Epiphyllum cvv.
• Some Euphorbia milii cvv.
• Some Euphorbia pulcherrima cvv., though I would never recommend that anybody get a Euphorbia pulcherrima.
• Some Ferocactus spp./cvv.
• Graptopetalum bellum. (pink-red; I don't know if this is cultivated often enough to count for the list)
• Graptopetalum pentandrum var. superbum. (also sometimes called G. superbum; brick red at petal tips)
• Several Guzmania cvv. have red, purple-red, or orange-red bracts.
• Some Heliconia spp./cvv., though I'm not sure Heliconia should qualify as houseplants.
• The spathe of Homalomena 'Perma Press' is red (link). It's arguably not a houseplant either (too big), even though I'm growing it as one.
• Hoya DS-70. (variable: dark red, orange-red, pink, pink-red)
• Hoya polyneura. (dark red / pink-red / purple-red, with white)
• Hoya pubicalyx. (dark red)
• Several Huernia species have red flowers to some degree or another, usually very dark maroon or burgundy. These include: Huernia aspera (dark red), Huernia confusa (dark red), Huernia guttata (dark red), Huernia insigniflora (large red annulus¹ on peach petals), Huernia keniensis (flowers are white or pale yellow with a very dark red interior), Huernia leachii (dark red stripes on pale yellow), Huernia oculata (very, very dark red petals around a central bright white circle; I didn't know about it before this post, but now I want one really badly), Huernia piercii (dark red spots on white), Huernia plowesii (dark red annulus with dark red spots elsewhere), Huernia procumbens (dark red), Huernia schneideriana (dark red), Huernia transvaalensis (dark red annulus), Huernia zebrina (usually dark red annulus, plus dark red stripes on yellow petals, but color varies).
• Justicia carnea (true red) and Justicia spicigera (orange-red). Some Justicia species are grown as houseplants, though I don't know whether J. carnea or J. spicigera are among them to a meaningful degree.
• Kalanchoe tomentosa flowers are hard to describe. See the pictures at this link.
• Some (most?) Kohleria cvv.
• Loropetalum chinensis? (pink-red; uncertain about its suitability as a houseplant)
• Some Mammillaria spp. have pink-red flowers, though they're typically much closer to pink than to red.
• Some Mandevilla cvv. (link)
• Masdevallia schlimii (color varies in photos: brick red, dark orange-red, dark purple-red)
• Maxillaria tenuifolia maybe barely qualifies as red. (dark red-brown)
• Some Miltoniopsis cvv., arguably. (tend to be more pink-red or purple-red than true red)
• Some Musa spp. have some red in their inflorescences, though it isn't usually the main color. Ensete ventricosum has an inflorescence which is primarily dark red.
• The central leaves of several Neoregelias will flush red at the center when blooming, though the actual flowers are usually lavender or blue-purple.
• Some Nerium oleander cvv. (pink-red; suitability as a houseplant is questionable)
• Some orchids in the Oncidium alliance, though there doesn't seem to be a lot of true red: most lean toward either brown or pink. Some of the closer ones: Burrageara Nelly Isler (link; pinkish), Miltassia Charles M. Fitch x Odontocidium Black Beauty link; very dark red), Vuylstekeara Aloha Sparks 'Ruby Eyes' (link; washed-out and orange-red), Wilsonara Lisa Devos (link; brick red and pink), Oncidium Sharry Baby (link; dark red), Miltonidium Bartley Schwartz 'Highlander' (link; dark pink-red)
• A few Opuntia spp./cvv. flowers are red or orange-red, including O. aciculata and O. bergeriana. O. 'Claude Arno' is a dark violet-red.
• Pachira aquatica is not likely to bloom indoors, but the flower has yellow reflexed petals with lots of long, white, red-tipped stamens. You wouldn't look at it and say "now there's a red flower," but there's definitely quite a bit of red involved.
• At least one Pachyphytum sp. or cv. has flowers with dark red interiors, though I don't know which one and it doesn't appear to be typical for the genus.
• Pachypodium baronii has solid-colored, true red flowers; P. namaquanum has yellow flowers with petals that don't open very wide and are red-brown at the tips. All other Pachypodium spp., including the most commonly-grown ones, have white, yellow, or pink flowers.
• A few Pachyveria hybrids have flowers that look reddish in pictures, though pink, yellow, and green are more common.
• Phragmipedium orchids get close to true red once in a while. Closest two I've personally run into were Phragmipedium Sargent Eric 'Timberlane' (pretty true red; a bit orangey) and Phragmipedium Fox Valley 'Fireball' (pretty close to true red, a little pinkish).
• Pedilanthus tithymaloides. (unlikely to bloom indoors)
• Some Pelargonium x hortorum cvv. are true red or dark red.
• Pereskia bleo are either orange-red or red, according to photos; Pereskia flowers are more typically pink/lavender. I don't know P. bleo's suitability for indoor culture, though at least one Pereskia (P. aculeata) does well indoors.
• A few Phalaenopsis orchids tend toward something like red, though I have yet to see any true red phals.
• A handful of Philodendrons produce inflorescences with solid red spathes; the most commonly sold is P. 'Moonlight,' but the species P. eichleri also does. The spathes of P. martianum (aka P. cannifolium) are white with a dark red base.
• A few Pinguicula spp. have true-red flowers, most prominently P. laueana. Maybe also P. caryophyllacea?
• Some Rhododendron cvv. are brilliant true red, though I would argue that they're not houseplants.
• Some Saintpaulia cvv. are dark red or pink-red; I have yet to see true red.
• Salvia elegans.
• Schefflera actinophylla. (dark red, very unlikely indoors)
• Several Schlumbergera cvv. are vivdly red.
• Sedum burrito. (rare; variously pink, coral, or pink-red)
• Sedum morganianum. (rare; photographs show true red, red-orange, dull red, dark red)
• Sempervivum cvv./spp. flowers are typically (but not always) dull red or pink-red.
• Some Sinningia cvv./spp.
• Most Stapelia flowers involve dark red or dark purple-red somewhere, though it's never a particularly vibrant red, and not very many of the flowers give an overall impression of red. Most notable exceptions: Stapelia cedrimontana is black-red with red and yellow stripes near the center; Stapelia hirsuta has very dark red stripes on a peach background, giving the overall impression of dark red; Stapelia leendertziae -- which I also covet -- is solid dark red or dark purple.
• Stenorrhynchos speciosum.
• Stenosarcos Vanguard 'Fireball.' (pink-red)
• Some Streptocarpus cvv. (pink-red)
• Stromanthe sanguinea cvv. (red or pink-red; unlikely to happen indoors)
• Synadenium grantii. (dull dark red, small, unlikely indoors)
• Many Vriesea hybrids, and some of the species (notably V. splendens) produce inflorescences with red bracts.

As usual, I am totally open to it if readers want to make additional suggestions in the comments.

-

¹ The annulus is the raised ring around the center of some stapeliad flowers. One is sort of visible in the first picture on this post.

The Very Slow and Occasionally Sticky Inferno

So here's what's been going on.

Watering the plants has always been time-consuming and tedious, but it got worse in April. I've been watering almost everything in the house on a 14-day rotation. A lot of the plants would prefer more frequent checks than that, but 14 days is what I'm able to do, so they either live with getting watered every 14 days, or they die, or I make a special exception for them and check them every seven days. Previously, the special exception category was limited to about 10-15 plants on a small table in the plant room, but in April, I decided that about 500 plants in the basement also needed to be getting checked every 7 days, because a lot of them were seedlings or newish cuttings or plants that are just really drought-sensitive, and they wouldn't survive if I tried to keep them on the 14-day schedule.

What this has meant is that instead of checking about 1000-1050 plants every 14 days, I was suddenly checking about 1500-1600 plants every 14 days. So I took the most tedious and time-consuming part of the hobby and made it like 50% worse, basically.

And because of the extra work, I thought to myself at some point in May or June or probably both: I bet I'm never going to be lying on my deathbed thinking, "Gee, I wish I'd spent more time watering plants." And as I started mailing out plants to people I was selling to or trading with, I started fantasizing about how I could scale back the collection in a way that didn't involve outright killing anything, because that always makes me feel bad.

Open this in its own tab and you can even see its disgusting little legs.
And then the scaling back started to happen, in the most literal way possible: I started finding scale insects on the plants. One plant at the end of March. A handful at the beginning of May. And then at the end of June, the floodgates opened and I was finding scale everywhere:

1 Alpinia zerumbet variegata (plant room; 31 March; discarded)
3 Alworthia 'Black Gem' (basement; 1 May; discarded)
1 Aloe NOID (basement; 8 May; discarded)
1 Albuca bracteata (basement; 28 May; treated)
1 Strelitzia reginae (plant room; early June?; treated)
1 Aloe polyphylla (basement; 26 June; discarded)
1 Philodendron squamiferum (living room; 27 June; treated)
1 Agave desmettiana, variegated (basement; 28 June; discarded)
1 Agave titanota (basement; 2 July; treated)
1 Agave americana (basement; 2 July; treated)
2 Agave 'Blue Glow' (basement; 2 July; treated)
2 Agave lophantha (basement; 2 July; treated)
3 Aloe vera (basement; 3 July; discarded)
3 Gasteraloe x beguinii (basement; 3 July; discarded)
1 Aloe x 'Silver Ridge' (basement; 3 July; discarded)
13 Alworthia 'Black Gem' (basement; 3 July; discarded)
5 Hoya polyneura (basement; 9 July; discarded)
1 Philodendron hederaceum micans (basement; 11 July; discarded)
1 Philodendron erubescens 'Red Emerald' (basement; 11 July; treated)
4 Pereskia aculeata var. godseffiana (basement; 12 July; discarded)
1 Ficus benjamina 'Black Diamond' (basement; 12 July; treated)
1 Hippeastrum 'Red Lion' x ? (basement; 16 July; discarded)
1 Hippeastrum 'Red Lion' x ? (basement; 23 July; treated)

I think there were three separate infestations here, based on what plants were affected and when I noticed.

The first plant, the Alpinia, was I think was a single isolated infestation: I don't know where the scale could have come from, since I hadn't brought anything new into that area, but the plant was stressed, so it's possible it had a low-grade infestation for a long time, and then it got a lot worse really fast when it got stressed.

Scale on the Alpinia.
The second infestation barely counts: somebody sent me a cutting in June that had some scale on it, but I found them pretty much immediately, and it wasn't very advanced, so I think that's not going to be a big deal either.

And then the third. I think it came in on an Aloe polyphylla I received in December as a gift, because the outbreaks have all been taking place on plants that had been grown near the plant in question at one point or another. This is the infestation that swept the basement, might still be sweeping it, and what's caused all the troubles.

It's now been a couple weeks since any new scale was spotted, so possibly the worst is over. For a while there, though, I'd have to throw out more plants every time I watered, and that was depressing as hell.

But did I let myself sink into despondency and depression? Hell, no! I took action! For a few plants that I suspected had been exposed, but which I couldn't find any scale on, I decided to get out there ahead of the infestation and spray neem oil on them, to stop the infestation before it became visible. Which sounds like a good idea, right?

Yes. Well. You know how the directions on neem oil say not to use it on plants that are in direct sun, or that will be exposed to sun within a few hours of application, and all that? They should probably also add fluorescent lights to that warning, because within 24 hours, I'd completely defoliated two small Euphorbia trigona cuttings, and produced a few bleached spots and several ominous dark brown blisters on my baby Agave victoriae-reginaes. The former have bounced back, but the latter look to be permanently disfigured:

Agave victoriae-reginae, neem damage.
Which was even more discouraging, not that I learned my lesson. I then sprayed a plant room Euphorbia milii and Pedilanthus tithymaloides with neem because there was some kind of fungus that had been growing on their leaves. The Euphorbia responded by dropping about 95% of its foliage, immediately. The Pedilanthus was less of a drama queen about it, and only lost about 30% of its leaves, over the space of a month. Either way, though.

Euphorbia milii, after neem oil treatment for fungus. It was technically a success, I suppose, in that I'm no longer even remotely concerned about the fungus. Probably what happens next here is that I take cuttings and start new plants, but I haven't tried that yet.
Also, some of the Agaves I treated with neem and stuck outside also bleached (no blistering, though); they'll probably come back inside again in the fall, because the scale is probably not a problem anymore, but it'll be sad regardless, since they looked better when they had scale but no sunburn: I didn't really have the time or means to try to ease them into the outdoor light, and we don't have much for shady spots.

So then I started sinking into despondency.

All this was happening on top of the usual plant attrition, too. Not saying I encourage it or anything, but it's normal for me to lose a plant here, a plant there, for various reasons over time, and this was an exceptionally good summer for that.

I finally had it with Crassula ovata 'Gollum' and threw the lot out, because they persisted in developing a stupid fungus (maybe the same fungus, maybe a different one; I have no idea) even though I told them not to, and I didn't have a way to make them stop if they weren't going to listen.

The Salvia elegans all dried out (even getting checked weekly, they still dried out!) and died, save for one, which had a round of spider mites and is only barely alive now.

The Aeschynanthus radicans all gave up due to underwatering.

I threw out most of the Gynura aurantiacas I had when became clear that nobody was ever going to want to buy one. This is something I should probably have learned last year, but I'm slow.

The Fatshedera x lizei got spider mites and was thrown out. In fairness, I should note that I'd been expecting that to happen for almost two years, so it should probably get some kind of posthumous medal.

One of the Hatioras ("Easter cactus") imploded, the way they do.

And so on.

It was basically like the plant collection had caught fire. A very slow, and occasionally sticky, inferno. Everything was sort of slowly falling apart: scale, drought, scorching, defoliation, 50% more watering to do, spider mites, and fungus. It also wasn't getting any better. I had no way to know what plants might go bad next. There wasn't much I could do about it. And when I tried to do something about it, I mostly just made things worse.

The upshot of all this being that for about two or three weeks, I basically hated my plants. I didn't want to think about them, talk about them, or take pictures of them, and I sure as hell didn't want to water them, because the surest way to find something horrible hiding in your plant collection is to pick them up and look at them. Which you have to do, in order to water the way I water. (I still did take care of them, of course, because I recognized that I'd probably like them again eventually, and that there was no point punishing the healthy plants upstairs for the scale infestations of the plants downstairs. I just hated doing so more than usual.)

Echinacea 'PowWow Wild Berry,' at the ex-job, with what I believe to be aster yellows disease. PATSP has an official celebratory flower (Gazanias), so it seems only appropriate that PATSP should have an official flower of depression (It's pretty amazing that I've gotten by without an official depression flower for four and a half years, honestly.), and this was kind of the best I could come up with. My apologies to any Echinacea fans in the audience.
It's now been a couple weeks since I've found a new scale infestation. (New mealybugs as of last Wednesday, alas, but the scale seems to have slowed down.) In the last couple weeks, the plant collection has done two big things which I am choosing to interpret as apologies too. I won't tell you what those are yet, but there should be posts about them in the relatively near future. So we're getting back to the point where I'm able to appreciate plants again, somewhat, but I'd still rather not spend a lot of time thinking about them.

The blog, consequently, will be a bit up in the air for a while. I'm officially no longer on hiatus, but I'm probably not going to be posting very often, and I'll probably only be doing that when something exceptionally cool happens. And I'll keep going like that until . . . something changes and I start doing something else, I guess. Your guess is pretty much as good as mine right now.

[Exceptionally] Pretty pictures: transmitted light -- Part XLVII

Catch-up week continues. This particular batch has an unfortunate tendency toward greenish-yellow, which I fear will clash with the background, but this is the set that was queued up and ready to post, so this is the set you get. Wear eye shielding if you feel it's appropriate to do so.¹

(The previous transmitted light posts can be found here.)

Commelina communis. Is it weird if I admit that I'm looking forward to seeing the first C. communis sprouts coming up outside this spring? I mean, I know it's a weed and all, but I really enjoy the flowers.

Aglaonema 'Silver Queen.' I recently cut my 'Silver Queen' back, and am trying to root the tops in soil. This had to happen -- the plant was too tall and gangly -- but the stumps haven't resprouted yet, and I can't tell whether the tops are rooting, so I'm a little anxious about the whole thing. It's a variety that used to be all over the place but doesn't seem to be anymore, so if it doesn't survive the beheading, I may have trouble finding a replacement.

Cordyline glauca, dying leaf. My goodness, some of these photos are ancient: I only realized it because I haven't had a Cordyline glauca for nearly a year now.

I like this picture. It has something to do with the colors, but I'm not sure how to explain.

Arctium sp.

Philodendron 'Congo Green.' The line across the top of the photo isn't a shadow; it's actually part of the leaf coloration. Because Philodendron leaves start out curled up (or at least those of 'Congo Green' and a lot of other Philodendrons do), a freshly unfurled leaf will sometimes be darker on the portion of leaf that was exposed to light during development, and lighter on the part from the interior of the spiral, which is what's happened here.

Mahonia aquifolium.

Alpinia zerumbet variegata. Alas, this is not turning out to be as easy to care for indoors as I'd thought it would be. I still have one, and if it continues to live, I'll continue to keep it, but if it dies on me, I don't think I'm going to try the plant again.

Aeschynanthus longicaulis. On the other hand, A. longicaulis is remarkably easy and vigorous, at least for me. Tons of flowers this winter, too, which would be easier to get excited about if the flowers were more colorful. But still. Hard to dislike a plant that's so easygoing.

Quercus sp., autumn. Either this one or the next one is my favorite from this batch. I like both the geometry and the colors on this picture; I want to say it reminds me of an afghan my grandmother crocheted.

Caladium 'Fire Chief.' This is a little more BANG! POW! In your face! than the other, but Caladium pictures tend to be that way.

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¹ It may surprise the reader to know that the Preview function in Blogger does not render the post as it will appear on the blog: the words and pictures are all present, and in the right sizes and positions relative to one another, but the background is plain white, and there's no sidebar. This isn't a huge deal, but sometimes not being able to view an actual preview means that I post pictures that clash uncomfortably with the background, or a video gets posted that overlaps part of the sidebar, or things of that nature.

Assorted random plant events: Vriesea, Anthurium, Musa, Aeschynanthus

Just kind of throwing a bunch of stuff out there to see if anybody finds any of it interesting; I had intended a different post for today and then realized fairly late that I wasn't going to be able to finish it in time to post.


The Vriesea splendens started to bloom back in March, and it was one of those deals where I really meant to get a decent picture of it in bloom but never actually did. So I don't have very good documentation. But I do at least have documentation that it's going to let me try again; a new rosette is beginning to form. As I explained in the profile, it's normal for plants to produce a single pup to replace the dying original, and this is a gradual enough process that you wouldn't notice that the original plant is dying if you weren't paying close attention.


I have successfully sprouted quite a lot of the Anthurium seeds I started in July (and none of the Schlumbergera ones, which means that I did it wrong: I think there's supposed to be a step in there where one lets the seeds dry out briefly before planting them); these are them in August. I've added more to the container since this, which have also germinated pretty well, and the original Anthurium seedlings from September 2009 are still doing okay too, more or less -- two of the four that survived long enough to transplant choked out the other two, but it's looking more or less like an Anthurium now. The Anthurium seedlings are another case where I've meant to get more and better pictures; there's quite a bit more green in the tray than shows up in the above photo.


This is more of a question for the hive mind. The last time I posted about this plant, it was to say that it was re-suckering and growing more normally-spaced leaves now, after a long period of being obviously unhappy about something or another. As you can see in the above photo, the leaves are still pretty close together, but they look close together in the way they were when I first got the plant, not all wadded up at the top. However, what I've got now is a weird, bulbous thing a few inches up from the soil line. I assume this is related to the earlier problems, and I'm not exactly worried about it, but I'm wondering if there's anything I can do to make it less strange, or if I just have to wait until the stalk in question dies and is replaced by the suckers. It's a nice problem to have, since I didn't expect this plant to last half as long as it has (since May 2010); many bad experiences with Musa at work.


Finally, the Aeschynanthus longicaulis has been blooming nicely this year. The flowers are still not pretty, but even so, it's nice that there are so many of them. (Also: the plant itself has tripled in size since last year.) It's nice to feel like I'm doing something right.

Rumble Among the Jungle, Matches 3.9 and 3.10

Rules and Stuff
1) It's probably possible to vote more than once per poll, but please don't. If I believe that someone is voting repeatedly, I will throw out those results, repost the poll, and seriously question that person's priorities.
2) If you want to link to a poll on Twitter / Facebook / your blog / whatever and encourage your friends to come and pump up the support for your favorite plants, you are encouraged to do so.
3) You are also encouraged to leave comments on Rumble posts, if so moved.
4) All photos will enlarge if opened in a separate window/tab.
5) You can choose which plant is "best" according to whatever criteria you decide for yourself. My personal process is a bit convoluted.¹
6) All polls will be open for three days.

Results of matches 3.1 and 3.2:

Greensparrow, paivi, and Paul are going to be upset by 3.1: Clivia beat Cryptanthus, 65 to 50.

I found 3.2 really interesting to watch, because close votes usually swing back and forth between competitors, with one plant in the lead, then the other plant, then the first one again. Saintpaulia cvv. and Epipremnum aureum were frequently tied, but Saintpaulia grabbed a one- or two-vote lead after the first day, and remained either tied or with a tiny lead thereafter. Epipremnum remained close enough that it could have caught up at any moment, but it didn't: by the end, Saintpaulia had built a seven-vote lead, winning 63 to 56.

Clivia miniata cvv. and Saintpaulia cvv. will come together on 23 October, in match 4.1. Until then, we have more round 3 matches:

Match 3.9
Aeschynanthus spp. (lipstick plant, goldfish plant) vs. Spathiphyllum cvv. (peace lily)

Clockwise from top: Aeschynanthus lobbianus or A. radicans, A. longicaulis, A. speciosus.

Center and left top: Spathiphyllum NOID, possibly 'Golden Glow.' Bottom left: NOID, possibly 'Domino.' Top right: NOID, possibly 'Sensation' or 'Mauna Loa.' Bottom right: NOID.





Match 3.10
Chlorophytum comosum cvv. (spider plant) vs. Echeveria cvv. and related plants (Sedeveria, Graptoveria, Pachyveria, etc.)

Clockwise from left: Chlorophytum comosum 'Vittatum,' C. comosum 'Vittatum,' NOID.

Top row, L-R: Echeveria 'Perle von Nurnberg,' E. 'Topsy Turvy,' E. setosa.
Middle row, L-R: Graptosedum 'Alpenglow - Vera Higgins,' Echeveria coccinea flowers, Echeveria 'The Rose.'
Bottom row, L-R: Echeveria nodulosa, Pachyveria x glauca, Echeveria x shaviana 'Pinky.'

DO NOT RE-VOTE IN THIS VERSION OF 3.10 IF YOU WERE PREVIOUSLY ABLE TO GET THROUGH ON THE FIRST VERSION; THOSE VOTES WILL BE COUNTED.




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¹ I'm deciding according to a hypothetical situation in which all of my houseplants are gone, as are all the other houseplants of the world, except for one producer/supplier/retailer. Said person is offering to restock me with one or the other of the plants in question but refuses to give me both. Which one would I choose?

Rumble Among the Jungle, Matches 2.17-2.20

Rules and Stuff
1) It's probably possible to vote more than once per poll, but please don't. If I believe that someone is voting repeatedly, I will throw out those results, repost the poll, and seriously question that person's priorities.
2) If you want to link to a poll on Twitter / Facebook / your blog / whatever and encourage your friends to come and pump up the support for your favorite plants, you are encouraged to do so.
3) You are also encouraged to leave comments on Rumble posts, if so moved.
4) All photos will enlarge if opened in a separate window/tab.
5) You can choose which plant is "best" according to whatever criteria you decide for yourself. My personal process is a bit convoluted.¹
6) All polls will be open for three days.

Results for matches 2.1 to 2.4:

Not as many votes for this set as there were for most of the round one matches; I'm not sure if this means y'all are finding it harder to choose or getting bored with it or what.

In match 2.1, Clivia miniata cvv. take out small hybrid Vriesea cvv. 59 to 36.
Cryptanthus cvv. shut down Tradescantia pallida in match 2.2, 56-34.

Clivia miniata cvv. faces Cryptanthus cvv. in match 3.1, which will be on 15 October.

Saintpaulia cvv. destroyed Echinopsis spp. in round 2.3 by a better than 75%/25% margin (actual score 71 to 21), which makes two in a row. Saintpaulia cvv. is definitely one to keep an eye on as we head to the later rounds.
Round 2.4 had Epipremnum aureum cvv. barely edging out Crassula ovata / argentea / arborescens, 51 to 42.

Match 3.2 is going to be very interesting (and maybe a little nerve-racking) to watch, I think: Saintpaulia cvv. vs. Epipremnum aureum cvv. Voting will open 15 October.

I predict most of you will find today's votes a bit easier to cast than a lot of the previous round two matches have been.

Match 2.17
Dionaea muscipula (venus flytrap) vs. Aeschynanthus spp. (lipstick plant, goldfish plant)

(Both Dionaea muscipula.)

Clockwise from top: Aeschynanthus lobbianus or A. radicans, A. longicaulis, A. speciosus.





Match 2.18
Aechmea fasciata (silver vase plant) vs. Spathiphyllum cvv. (peace lily)

Top left: Aechmea fasciata emerging inflorescence. Others: non-blooming plants.

Center and left top: Spathiphyllum NOID, possibly 'Golden Glow.' Bottom left: NOID, possibly 'Domino.' Top right: NOID, possibly 'Sensation' or 'Mauna Loa.' Bottom right: NOID.





Match 2.19
Pilea involucrata 'Norfolk' vs. Chlorophytum comosum cvv. (spider plant)

(Both Pilea involucrata 'Norfolk.')

Clockwise from left: Chlorophytum comosum 'Vittatum,' C. comosum 'Vittatum,' NOID.





Match 2.20
Kalanchoe luciae / thyrsiflora (flapjack plant) vs. Echeveria cvv. and related plants (Sedeveria, Graptoveria, Pachyveria, etc.)

Left: Kalanchoe thyrsiflora flowers. Right top and bottom: probably K. luciae.

Top row, L-R: Echeveria 'Perle von Nurnberg,' E. 'Topsy Turvy,' E. setosa.
Middle row, L-R: Graptosedum 'Alpenglow - Vera Higgins,' Echeveria coccinea flowers, Echeveria 'The Rose.'
Bottom row, L-R: Echeveria nodulosa, Pachyveria x glauca, Echeveria x shaviana 'Pinky.'





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¹ I'm deciding according to a hypothetical situation in which all of my houseplants are gone, as are all the other houseplants of the world, except for one producer/supplier/retailer. Said person is offering to restock me with one or the other of the plants in question but refuses to give me both. Which one would I choose?

Rumble Among the Jungle, Matches 1.33-1.36

Rules and Stuff
1) It's probably possible to vote more than once per poll, but please don't. If I believe that someone is voting repeatedly, I will throw out those results, repost the poll, and seriously question that person's priorities.
2) If you want to link to a poll on Twitter / Facebook / your blog / whatever and encourage your friends to come and pump up the support for your favorite plants, you are encouraged to do so.
3) You are also encouraged to leave comments on Rumble posts, if so moved.
4) All photos will enlarge if opened in a separate window/tab.
5) You can choose which plant is "best" according to whatever criteria you decide for yourself. My personal process is a bit convoluted.¹
6) All polls will be open for three days.

Results for matches 1.17 to 1.20:

In match 1.17, Senecio rowleyanus and S. radicans got off to a strong start, but were soon overtaken by Phalaenopsis/Doritaenopsis cvv., ultimately losing by a score of 46 to 67.
Match 1.18, on the other hand, was about as unambiguous as it's possible for a match to be, with Monstera deliciosa clobbering Musa/Ensete cvv. 88 to 19. I'm a little puzzled about this, but hey, I voted for Monstera too, so.

Phalaenopsis and Monstera will face one another in match 2.9, on October 9.

By contrast with 1.18, match 1.19 has been a seesaw since it began, with Sansevieria cylindrica taking an early lead over Mammillaria spp., then falling behind, then regaining. In the end, Sansevieria managed a mere three-vote victory, 55 to 52, the closest margin so far.
Araucaria heterophylla's victory over Chamaedorea elegans in match 1.20 was never in doubt, though. Its votes have outnumbered Chamaedorea's by about a 2-to-1 margin since the poll opened, and it's won with more or less the same proportions, 69 to 40.

Sansevieria cylindrica and Araucaria heterophylla will also square off on October 9, in match 2.10.

And now the new matches for the day.

Match 1.33
Dionaea muscipula (venus flytrap) vs. Pilea mollis 'Moon Valley'

(Both Dionaea muscipula.)

(Both Pilea mollis 'Moon Valley.')





Match 1.34
Ardisia crenata (coral berry) vs. Aeschynanthus spp. (lipstick plant, goldfish plant)

(All are Ardisia crenata.)

Clockwise from top: Aeschynanthus lobbianus or A. radicans, A. longicaulis, A. speciosus.





Match 1.35
Aechmea fasciata (silver vase plant) vs. Rhapis excelsa (lady palm)

Top left: Aechmea fasciata emerging inflorescence. Others: non-blooming plants.

(Both Rhapis excelsa.)





Match 1.36
Coffea arabica (coffee plant) vs. Spathiphyllum cvv. (peace lily)

Coffea arabica, same plant when about 1-2 years old (L) and 4-5 years old (R).

Center and left top: Spathiphyllum NOID, possibly 'Golden Glow.' Bottom left: NOID, possibly 'Domino.' Top right: NOID, possibly 'Sensation' or 'Mauna Loa.' Bottom right: NOID.





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¹ I'm deciding according to a hypothetical situation in which all of my houseplants are gone, as are all the other houseplants of the world, except for one producer/supplier/retailer. Said person is offering to restock me with one or the other of the plants in question but refuses to give me both. Which one would I choose?