New Plants (and one Walkaway)

Here are the plants of interest from the trip to Cedar Rapids on Sunday, including the supercool one I was so excited about on Monday.


I bought this first one at Lowe's, because I thought it was an orange bird of paradise, Strelitzia reginae. I've been looking for a decent S. reginae for quite a while, so this was exciting. What got me thinking that it was a reginae (even though it was tagged S. nicolai, the white bird of paradise), was that a couple of the leaves have sort of orangish midribs, which I knew happened with reginae but I didn't think happened with S. nicolai, plus the leaf texture was a bit heavier and stiffer than on my nicolais at home. True, the tag said otherwise, but since when do we believe the IDs on the tags at Lowe's, right?


So I was pretty certain I had a reginae when I bought it, but the more I thought about it after getting it home, the more I was like, don't the orange BOPs have grayer leaves than this? And narrower? And it was tagged as a white. Maybe the leaf texture is just because they're grown in better conditions. This could be a white BOP after all.

But! I had noticed that the UPC sticker said that the plant was produced by Costa Farms, a company in Florida who I sort of knew, by virtue of following their account on Twitter. So I thought, okay, I'll just harness the power of social networking and tweet them the question and we'll see if it's plausible that I could have a 6" orange BOP, easy-peasy.

So I tweeted, and their first response was to tell me that they thought I had a Heliconia. So then I had to send another message explaining that no, it didn't actually have orange flowers on it, I know it's a Strelitzia, I'm just trying to figure out which species of Strelitzia. And then while I was waiting on the response, I realized that they surely had a website, and I could just look at the website and see whether they grew orange BOPs and find out that way. So I went to the website, where I found . . . "Strelitzia reginae [White Bird of Paradise]." Which is to say, they had mismatched the names, so I still didn't know.

And then they tweeted an answer to the effect of, "Yes, we sell white bird of paradise" and asked me to refer future questions to an e-mail account, which made me think I was probably pissing them off, so I let it drop there even though that didn't answer my question either.

So but I still don't know. Do Strelitzia nicolai plants grown in high light get orange midribs? Are Strelitzia reginae leaves always grayish, or can they be as green as nicolai? And does Costa Farms produce both species in 6" pots? Just the white? Just the orange? These really shouldn't be difficult questions to get answers to, but my whole day was like that on Monday.

Even if the new plant is just another white (I already have three of them, so a fourth is really not necessary), it was crazy cheap ($8-something), and there are four plants in the pot, so it was a good deal. And it's a plant I like, see above re: already had three of them. So whatever. But I do kind of need to know whether I should continue questing for Strelitzia reginaes or not.

Anyway.

The one notable walkaway from the trip isn't pretty or interesting so much as bizarre and unpleasant: it's a cigar plant (Cuphea ignea) with white flowers.


To me it looks ten kinds of wrong. I mean, Cuphea ignea is pretty worthless without the flowers (and even more worthless indoors, by the way: I'm having a really bad experience with it so far, and it's not thrilled with me either), and the flowers are so tiny that they have to be a bright, screaming color in order to be noticeable. This just wasn't a good idea at all.

But it's different. So now you've seen that.

TANGENT: Speaking of plants in wrong colors, has everybody seen the picture of the dark-purple Catharanthus roseus at Greensparrow Gardens? Equally wrong, but I really like those. They're very nearly cool enough to make me forget that I hate Catharanthus roseus intensely and for many reasons. (Bad work experiences.)


And then finally, we have the plant I was so excited about. I'm not thrilled with the way this picture turned out, but it's as good as they got:


It's a Dracaena deremensis 'Malaika.' I'd had it on the want list in the sidebar for a long time, because I'd seen pictures on-line and thought it was neat, but I'd never seen it for sale around here and didn't think I probably would anytime soon, and anyway I have a gazillion variations on D. deremensis already so what do I need with another.

But Frontier Garden Center had one. For way cheap, too (it was $9.73 after tax). It's sort of a backwards 'Lemon-Lime,' or a yellowish 'Warneckei:' the margins are very dark green, with a gray/chartreuse center. The picture doesn't really do it justice. This is maybe a little better:


The plant's tag had a link to a website in the Netherlands, which I think may be the least helpful plant-related website I've ever seen. More animated dragons per page than any plant-related website I've ever seen, and so few plant sites think to include a page for children to color anymore, so I appreciate that. But in terms of finding out anything about the plants, disappointing. Monday was just a bad internet day, apparently.

List: Houseplants Which Have Orange Flowers

Why orange? I don't know. Why not orange? I like orange, in plants anyway. Not so crazy about it for curtains or appliances and so forth. Van Gogh is said to have called orange "the color of insanity" (and he would know); a few little dots of insanity here and there is good. Large, uninterrupted fields of insanity is more problematic, though.

Very few of these plants have flowers which are exclusively orange. In some cases, environmental conditions influence bloom color, though usually not a lot, and in a lot more cases, non-orange varieties, as well as orange varieties, exist. If the flower color is particularly important to you, and apparently it is or else why would you be here, you should buy plants which are already in bloom or get the seller to confirm the bloom color before you buy.

Aeschynanthus speciosus. As far as I know, this species only produces orange flowers, though there are some photos on line that look a lot more red than orange. Also, Aeschynanthus species all look more or less alike until they start to flower, and some of the other species have red or reddish-purple blooms.

Anthurium andraeanum 'Florida' (shown), some other cvv. Anthurium has been heavily hybridized and cultivated, so there are many, many different varieties out there. The most commonly-found are red, white, and pink. Orange, red-violet, and violet flowers can occasionally be found. Yellow, brown, maroon, green, peach, and multicolor (usually red or pink plus green "ears," or white with red or pink streaks) flowers all exist but are quite rare in retail.

Clivia miniata cvv., most cvv. There are yellow, peach, and cream-colored varieties out there, though any random non-blooming plant you buy is most likely to be orange. Photo by Hedwig Storch, at the Wikimedia Commons page for Clivia miniata, because my plant still hasn't flowered yet.


Columnea cvv., possibly 'Early Bird.' Columnea varieties tend to be orange or red-orange, but some red and yellow varieties also exist.

Cuphea ignea. As far as I know, Cuphea ignea flowers are always this red-orange color.

Heliconia psittacorum 'Bright Lights' (shown), and other cvv. Flowers from the Heliconia genus are typically mostly red, sometimes with orange or yellow highlights. H. psittacorum are more consistently orange, though some red, yellowish, or mixed-color flowers can be found.

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, NOID cv. Hibiscus rosa-sinensis are available in a wide range of color: white, yellow, red, orange, pink, peach, coral, brown, blue, lavender (though brown, blue and lavender are uncommon), and probably others. Red, pink and yellow are the most common around here, but it's not difficult to find an orange one if that's what you really want.

Kalanchoe blossfeldiana, NOID cv. There are many, many varieties of Kalanchoe blossfeldiana, with a wide range of bloom colors. Red, yellow, and orange seem to be the most common, but there are also a lot of pink, lavender, and white-bloomers out there.

Nematanthus cv. Nematanthus are most frequently orange, though cultivars with white, yellow, orange-pink, red, and multicolored flowers are also sometimes available.

Strelitzia reginae. Strelitzia reginae are almost always orange and blue, though there is at least one uncommon variety which has yellow and blue flowers. You're also fairly unlikely to get flowers on a plant being grown indoors. Photo by Lauren Chickadel, at the Wikipedia entry for Strelitzia reginae.
For the recommendations, I like Aeschynanthus, Anthurium, and Clivia, with Strelitzia as an honorable mention.

Aeschynanthus is a little bit difficult: mine bloomed in 2008 and 2010 but not in 2009 (probably because of the move), and it's still a little lopsided and gangly looking. This is probably because it started out as a bunch of leaf cuttings, and is still working on filling itself in (even two and a half years after the leaf cuttings were taken). Still, though, the flowers are very bright orange, they last for a pretty long time, and when the plant is happy, there are a lot of them. Plus for a gesneriad, it's not terribly difficult.

Clivia I like even better than Aeschynanthus, though so far that's as a foliage plant, not a bloomer. One of my two Clivias is too young/small still to be blooming, so I don't mind it. The other, which had yellow flowers when purchased, has not bloomed for me, probably because I haven't given it the cold temperatures it wants during the winter. I'm not under the impression that it's particularly hard to get it to bloom, just that I haven't been able to provide the conditions it wants. Maybe this winter. In any case, it's a nice foliage plant, and the flowers are very pretty, even if I haven't seen many in person.

Anthurium's inclusion on the recommend list should surprise no one, since I'm an unabashed fan of the plant, have had all kinds of great experiences with them, and encourage others to buy one on very little provocation.

Lots of good candidates for the anti-recommend, but I'll go with Cuphea ignea. I have very little experience with them, having only bought one a couple months ago, but what experience there has been has been pretty uniformly negative. All the flowers dropped within a couple days, about a third of the foliage followed closely thereafter, and we're only just now getting around to the production of new foliage (but not, so far, new flowers: I will be very surprised if I can convince the plant to flower for me again). I won't give up on the plant unless it gives up on me, but so far it's looking like one of those outdoor plants that needs to stay outdoors. I could pretty much say the same for Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, but at least with Hibiscus you have a chance of seeing some pretty incredible flowers.

Not pictured:
Abutilon cvv. (some)
Achimenes cvv. (a few)
Aloe 'Doran Black' (pink-orange)
Aloe aristata (pink-orange)
Aloe brevifolia (red-orange)
Aloe ferox (depends on specimen but usually some orange)
Aloe maculata/saponaria (pink-orange)
Aloe striata (red-orange)
Aloe variegata (red-orange)
quite a few other Aloe spp.; usually red-orange or pink-orange
Begonia cvv., esp. Riegers, non-stops (some)
Bougainvillea cvv. (a few)
Calathea crocata (uncommon indoors)
Calceolaria cvv. (some cvv.)
Cattleya and Catt. alliance orchids (some)
Chamaedorea elegans (though not particularly pretty, and only orange in strong light)
Chamaedorea metallica (though not particularly pretty, and only orange in strong light)
Chamaedorea seifrizii (though not particularly pretty, and only orange in strong light)
Chlorophytum 'Fire Flash' (though brief)
Columnia cvv. (most?)
Crossandra infundibuliformis (most; there are a few yellow, pink or peach ones around)
Echeveria cvv. (some)
Episcia cvv. (some?; red-orange)
Euphorbia milii? (a few; more peach than orange)
Gasteria cvv. (most/all?)
Gazania cvv. (not particularly good indoors; most are not orange)
Gerbera cvv. (some)
Gloriosa spp. (some)
Guzmania cvv. (some)
Gynura aurantiaca (though not particularly pretty, and definitely smelly; yellow-orange)
Hippeastrum cvv. (a few)
Impatiens hawkeri cvv. (some)
Ixora chinensis and I. coccinea cvv. (some)
Kohleria cvv. (some)
Lantana cvv. (a few; not a particularly good houseplant in my experience)
Masdevallia cvv. (some; yellow-orange)
Medinilla cvv. (some)
Mokara cvv. (a few)
Oncidium alliance orchids (a few)
Parodia microsperma (at least one variety; they're usually yellow and occasionally red)
Pelargonium x hortorum cvv. (a few; red-orange)
Schlumbergera truncata cvv. (some; pale orange / peach)
Senecio jacobsenii (though not particularly pretty)
Stapelia spp. (some spp.; orange-brown or peach or both)
Thunbergia alata (also white, yellow)
Tillandsia spp. (a few; tend to be more peach than orange)
Vriesea cvv. (uncommon; more red-orange)

Anybody have any suggestions for plants I left off the list?