Unfinished business: various

Excoecaria cochinchinensis.
I asked the question earlier, whether Excoecaria cochinchinensis (Chinese croton) is particularly susceptible to spider mites, like its namesake Codiaeum variegatum (croton). The answer is a pretty emphatic yes, as my plant somehow managed to attract an advanced mite civilization (They were already making steam engines!) despite not having any mites visible on the adjacent plants.

I figure I'm pretty committed to keeping the Excoecaria I have, for however long that lasts, but I won't buy another one.

The moral, I guess, is: don't buy any plant that's called a croton, whatever adjectives are in front of the word.

Dischidia ruscifolia.
Y'all didn't know that this was a question, because I didn't mention it (aside from a glancing reference at the end of this post), but I've been wondering for a while whether Dischidia ruscifolia was easy to propagate. I sent cuttings to a reader last summer, and s/he said yeah, piece of cake, just stuck them in water when they arrived and potted them up when they had roots, but I hadn't tried it for myself.

Well. I've tried it now, and if anything s/he overstates the difficulty: there were short roots visible within a week. I didn't bother letting them get longer; I figure anything that starts rooting in water that easily will root in soil even easier. I am now, as I said in the post, fond of D. ruscifolia at least on principle, and maybe even in actuality. It's impossible for me not to like a plant that causes no problems and propagates well.

Hatiora NOID.
The Hatiora NOID from this post, which shattered on me, and then flowered once while dying, is apparently not done for yet: I started four pots of shattered pieces of the plant, and all four have at least one rooted fragment growing in them now. It's still a serious decline from how it looked when it first got here (above), but at least I managed to salvage something:


It's possible that this is just setting me up for an endless cycle of shattering and regrowth, and I'd be better off if the plant had just died and been done with it, but until the plant demonstrates otherwise, I'm going to interpret this as an apology.

Ananas lucidus.
A very, very long time ago, I saw an Ananas lucidus for sale at the ex-job, which I found very, very appealing. I wanted it, but I didn't have any place to put something that big, and I think they wanted some completely ridiculous amount of money for it, like $50ish. So I told myself no, ignored my piteous cries and foot-stomping tantrums, and kept my fingers crossed that 1) they wouldn't all sell, 2) the unsold plants would eventually begin to offset, and 3) someone at the ex-job would separate off the offsets and sell them in a more manageable size and price.

Well, all of these things happened, though I'm afraid my crossed fingers are permanently deformed: I had to wait two years. But as of January, I now have one of my own. It's a little green, because they had it in too dark of a spot for most of the time it was there, but it's been coloring up again since I stuck it under a light:


Now that it's here, of course, I'm remembering how large they get, and questioning my judgment. But. You know. I'm always questioning my judgment.


Last, I am pleased to announce that I have finally been successful at germinating Schlumbergera seeds, following one failed attempt. The only thing I did differently was, I let the seeds dry out overnight after I separated them from the fruit pulp; in the first attempt, I planted them immediately.

It took longer than I was expecting -- for some reason I was thinking they were supposed to germinate almost immediately, but instead, I didn't notice seedlings until 5 March, sixteen days after sowing. In fact, it took them so long that I'd already written this part of the post bemoaning my inability to sow Schlumbergeras from seed, and having a sour-grapes reaction ("Like I need hundreds of Schlumbergera seedlings anyway -- I already have hundreds of Anthuriums, and it's not like the house is that big.") to my failure.

So now we have an interesting problem, which is that the Schlumbergera seedlings are supposed to be uncovered once they start to develop, and the Anthurium seedlings seem to do better if they have the higher humidity of an enclosed container, but they're both in the same container, and both are too small to withstand transplanting. Odds are, I'll let them fight it out and hope that one or the other grows fast enough to transplant. I have plenty of Schlumbergera fruits left, after all. And it really is true that I should probably focus on one genus or the other.

This isn't even all the seed-sprouting news I've got, but I have to leave something for later posts.

List: Succulents Which Don't Need Full, All-Day Sun (But Might Nevertheless Prefer It)

The initial inspiration for this list comes from a post at Garden Web by someone whose apartment only gets partial sun, who still wants to be able to grow some succulents inside. The post has received one response (as I write this), and I mostly agree with what that responder said, but that's no reason not to write a post about it.

This is also a question I've had to face fairly directly myself, since the main flaw of the house is its disappointing lack of south-facing windows. (The few it does have are partly obstructed by the neighbors' house and our garage, alas.)

Most of the stuff in this list that I've personally grown still gets at least a couple hours of afternoon sun or all-day bright artificial light, so don't take this as the final word on what you can grow in these conditions -- it'll depend on how big of a window you have, how obstructed it is, and so on. But if you have a spot with some sun, just not all-day sun, you should still be able to grow:

Agave victoriae-reginae. I wouldn't believe this if I hadn't done it myself, but my largest, oldest victoriae-reginae has been in a west window for the last two years and is apparently just fine with that. (The leaves are perhaps a little further apart than they would be in a brighter spot, and I'm not sure if they're maybe not also a bit longer. But still. Doable.) It's not even very close to the west window. I don't recommend any other Agave species for anything other than full sun or extremely bright fluorescent light, though.

Beaucarnea recurvata. My Beaucarnea and I have only recently started getting along, more or less since I switched fertilizers. I've never really had the option to give it full sun, but it hasn't seemed to mind that too much, so long as it got some direct sun. It's presently close to a west window.

Cereus peruvianus. I've tried a lot of cacti here -- at one point, cactus-collecting was verging on becoming a full-blown thing for me -- and most of them just don't seem to be able to cope without a lot more light than I can provide. Cereus peruvianus is one of the few that can handle a west window without getting all etiolated and weird. They don't bloom, they don't grow fast, but the base of the plant remains roughly the same size as the new growth.

Dischidia ruscifolia. Dischidia ruscifolia seems perfectly content to live in a semi-obstructed east window in the husband's office, and has been doing so for long enough that I think it's safe to say that it could keep doing so for years.

Euphorbia NOID. I've been calling this plant "Euphorbia kokopelli" in my brain, because the shape sort of resembles the deity as he is commonly portrayed --


-- but you may or may not see the resemblance. The plant's height has forced me to try to grow it in less than ideal locations, and it's performed admirably in them. Currently, it gets only artificial light, and not even very much of that, yet it still grows, and it looks the same as it ever did.

I got E. "kokopelli" from someone through Garden Web, and have never had an ID for it, or even much of a guess as to an ID, so if you thought to yourself when you saw the above picture, oh, that's obviously a Euphorbia ___________, you should leave me a comment telling me what you thought.

The above picture that's a plant, not the above picture that's a humpbacked flute-playing fertility god.

Haworthia limifolia var. limifolia. Haworthias are pretty reliable plants for reduced-sun spots; I had one in a north window, where it never got any direct sun, for a couple years, and it did fine.

Ledebouria socialis. My history with Ledebouria is complicated. My plants have done better in a south window than in the west window where they currently reside, but fertilizer is a large part of that, and to be honest, they're also not terribly close to the west window, so I still think an east or west window should provide sufficient light for a Ledebouria.

Selenicereus chrysocardium. Jungle cacti are pretty flexible about light, as a group. My observations are that Selenicereus chrysocardium will grow faster with more light, but otherwise it behaves the same -- the stems aren't smaller, the color's the same, etc. My best results to date have been with the plant in a hanging basket, suspended below a shop light, but they've grown fine in minimal fluorescent light as well, just a lot more slowly.

Senecio rowleyanus. Senecio rowleyanus initially grew in a good spot in a west window, but it was slow, and stems periodically would just up and die for no obvious reason. The reason I know this wasn't a light problem is because it's been in the same spot this spring and summer, growing like a monster, and the only thing that changed was the fertilizer. (Again, I know. But fertilizer is sometimes very important.)

Stapelia gigantea (and probably other Stapelia spp.?). My Stapelia actually burned when I first brought it home, which you can actually see a bit on the stems in the picture. I thought I was being nice, giving it a spot outside where it could get all the light it could possibly want, but instead it burned. Ungratefully. So it came inside, and has been growing nicely in a west window ever since.

Ordinarily I would pick out three of these to recommend especially at this point, but I'm fairly fond of all of the above plants, and I've already talked about them a little, so we'll skip that part this time.

Not shown:

• Albuca bracteata? (formerly Ornithogalum longibracteatum)
• Aloe 'Blue Elf' (may be A. x humilis 'Hedgehog')
• Aloe harlana
• Aloe vera
• Aloe 'Walmsley's Blue'
• Alworthia 'Black Gem' (will grow beautifully, though color will be green instead of brown/black; it takes a lot of light to turn one brown/black)
• Cissus quadrangularis
• Epiphyllum spp.
• Euphorbia milii
• Euphorbia tirucalli
• Euphorbia trigona
• Gasteraloe x beguinii
• Gasteraloe 'Midnight'
• Gasteria bicolor var. lilliputiana
• Gasterworthia 'Banded Pearls' or 'Royal Highness' or whatever it is; Gasterworthias in general, really
• Hatiora spp. including H. salicornioides
• Haworthia attenuata
• Haworthia limifolia var. ubomboensis
• Haworthia NOID maybe retusa
• Haworthia tessellata
• Hoya bella
• Hoya carnosa
• Hoya kentiana
• Hoya lacunosa
• Hoya polyneura
• Huernia zebrina
• Mammillaria spinosissima (though spines will likely be less colorful)
• Pachypodium spp.
• Pedilanthus tithymaloides (Euphorbia tithymaloides)
• Peperomia clusiifolia
• Peperomia ferreyrae
• Peperomia obtusifolia
• Peperomia pereskiifolia
• Pseudorhipsalis ramulosa
• Rhipsalis grandiflora
• Rhipsalis rhombea (ID?)
• Rhipsalis teres var. heteroclada (ID?)
• Sansevieria cylindrica
• Sansevieria hargesiana
• Sansevieria trifasciata
• Schlumbergera cvv.
• Sedum morganianum
• Selenicereus anthonyanus
• Senecio macroglossus
• Synadenium grantii (Euphorbia umbellata)
• Zamioculcas zamiifolia

Explicitly NOT recommended for windows without full sun (and in some cases, not recommended indoors for windows with full sun either):

• Aeonium spp.
• Agave spp. that aren't victoriae-reginae
• Aloe congolensis
• Aloe juvenna
• Aloe 'Minibelle'
• Aloe variegata
• Anacampseros rufescens
• Astrophytum myriostigma
• Astrophytum ornatum
• Bryophyllum daigremontianum
• Bryophyllum tubiflorum
• cacti generally (though there are a few exceptions)
• Crassula falcata
• Crassula muscosa
• Crassula perforata
• Crassula rupestris
• Echeveria spp.
• Euphorbia anoplia
• Euphorbia drupifera
• Euphorbia enopla
• Euphorbia flanaganii
• Euphorbia grandicornis
• Euphorbia horrida
• Euphorbia pseudocactus
• Hylocereus spp.
• any Kalanchoe sp.
• Lampranthus blandus
• Lithops spp.
• Myrtillocactus geometrizans
• Pachyphytum cvv.
• Sedum burrito
• Sedum rubrotinctum
• Sempervivum cvv.

I lack sufficient experience with these to say one way or the other, or have had mixed results, or it grows fine but isn't as colorful, etc.:

• Adenium obesum
• Adromischus spp.
• Alluaudia procera (gets a hesitant thumbs-up at the Garden Web thread, but I've never tried to grow it personally)
• Aloe arenicola
• Aloe brevifolia
• Aloe dorotheae 'Sunset' (definitely won't turn red; still seems to grow okay, though)
• Aloe ferox
• Aloe 'Fire Ranch'
• Aloe greatheadii var. davyana
• Aloe maculata (A. saponaria)
• Aloe striata
• Aloinopsis rubrolineata
• Argyroderma spp.
• Browningia hertlingiana
• Ceropegia woodii
• Cissus rotundifolia
• Crassula arborescens
• Crassula ovata
• Dischidia nummularia
• Euphorbia ammak
• Euphorbia bougheyi
• Euphorbia lactea
• Faucaria spp.
• Furcraea foetida cvv.
• Gasteria 'pseudonigricans'
• Hoya obovata
• Isolatocereus dumortieri
• Leuchtenbergia principis
• Pleiospilos spp.
• Portulacaria afra
• Senecio crassissimus
• Senecio jacobsenii

List: Houseplants Which are Also Epiphytes

It's a lot easier to define the word epiphyte than it is to provide examples. The reason is that epiphyte is less a type of plant than it is a lifestyle, and with lifestyles, one can dabble, or one can commit. The line between regular plants and epiphytes, therefore, is kind of fuzzy.

But first things second. What epiphytes actually are, are plants that grow on other plants, generally trees. (Epi - on or above; phyte - plant) They're not parasites: they don't steal nutrients or directly harm the plant they grow on. They may get large enough to break branches off, but that's an accident, and doesn't serve the epiphyte's needs any more than it serves the host. There are a few sinister epiphytes that begin development growing on branches or trunks but eventually outgrow, overwhelm, and kill their host, notably the "strangler figs" like Ficus aurea.

A lot of the aroid epiphytes (Anthurium, Monstera, Philodendron) can either begin life on a tree branch and eventually drop roots down to the ground (primary epiphytes) or begin life on the ground and crawl until they find a tree to climb (secondary epiphytes). Either type of plant is sometimes called a hemiepiphyte. (hemi - half, partial) Some other plants can grow either terrestrially (in the ground) or as epiphytes, depending on where they find themselves, but any individual plant picks one or the other spot and sticks with it. On the other hand, some epiphytes are unable to live terrestrially, and either find themselves a branch as a seedling or they die.

Epiphytes are over-represented in the houseplant world. I suspect the main explanation for this is that epiphytes are naturally adapted to shade, so they adjust better to the lower light levels found in the home. The most common groups of epiphytic houseplants are found in the aroid, bromeliad, cactus, and orchid families.

The list that follows is far from exhaustive; I was kind of in a hurry. (This post is partly so I can be eligible for an epiphyte-centric plant giveaway Steve Asbell is doing; details on how to enter are at his post here.) I'll certainly add other plants if anybody wants to suggest some.

Aechmea fasciata.

Anthurium x 'Marie.'

Dischidia ruscifolia.

Guzmania NOID.

Hylocereus sp.

Oncidium Tsiku Marguerite 'NN #1.'

Platycerium sp.

Schlumbergera NOID.

Selenicereus chrysocardium.

Tillandsia xerographica.

I haven't grown some of the plants in this list (Anthurium, Tillandsia), and one I haven't had for very long (Oncidium), so I'm not sure the recommendations and anti-recommendations are going to be all that useful, but we'll try.

I'm a big fan of Schlumbergeras. They have slightly quirky needs, but they're less complicated than I'd been led to believe, the flowers are really pretty, and the plants can last forever.

Dischidia ruscifolia doesn't do a whole lot, but as far as I can tell, they're easy to keep happy.

Aechmea fasciata should be available a lot more often than it is, because it's a very nice plant, even when it's not flowering. I find them very easy to care for, too, which helps.

(I also suspect that I would probably like Tillandsia xerographica if I got to know it, but they're rarely available here, and when they are available, they're really expensive. So I don't have one yet.)

For the anti-recommend, I'd have to go with Anthurium x 'Marie,' even though I haven't actually grown it, because I've grown a couple other foliage Anthuriums and it hasn't worked out. They're not hard to keep alive, but they need a lot more light than I can provide: without it, the leaves get either enormous and thin (A. "hookeri") or small and twisted (A. podophyllum), and neither one looks particularly good. (I haven't had a good time with my Platycerium either, but I'm not sure which of us is more to blame for that, so they might work out fine for other people and I won't discourage you from trying one.)

All epiphytic plants have certain expectations for what kind of material they're going to find around their roots, and sometimes if you have trouble with an epiphyte, the soil is the problem, not you or the plant. I've recently started adding coarse, unchopped sphagnum moss to the potting mix I usually use, in about a 1:1 ratio, for my Anthurium andraeanums and bromeliads, and it seems to have made a world of difference there. (This may be why the Platycerium hasn't worked out: for it, I used the straight potting mix, with no modification, which is possibly too heavy.) Orchids are typically grown in mixed chunky pieces of bark but are sometimes also grown in 100% coarse sphagnum. For a lot of the epiphytic cacti, my regular potting mix seems to be okay with no modification most of the time.

Not pictured:

Most other Aechmea spp. (epiphytic or terrestrial)
some Aeschynanthus spp. (epiphytic or terrestrial)
Anthurium andraeanum (epiphytic or terrestrial)
Anthurium crystallinum (epiphytic or terrestrial)
Anthurium podophyllum (epiphytic or terrestrial)
some Begonia spp.
most Billbergia spp.
Cattleya and Cattleya alliance orchids like Potinara, Brassolaeliocattleya, Sophrolaeliocattleya, etc.
some (?) Cryptanthus cvv. (?) (epiphytic or terrestrial)
Cymbidium spp.
most (?) Dendrobium spp.
Dischidia spp. including D. nummularia 'Pebble Beach'
Epiphyllum spp.
Ficus benjamina (not a lot of information about it being a strangler fig out there, but it comes up often enough that I think it must be occasionally)
Hatiora salicornioides and other Hatiora spp.
a few Hippeastrum spp.
some Hoya spp., including H. carnosa (?) (epiphytic or terrestrial)
Lepismium spp.
Monstera deliciosa (hemiepiphyte)
Myrmecophilia spp.
Nepenthes spp.
some Neoregelia spp. (epiphytic or terrestrial)
Oncidium and Oncidium alliance orchids like Miltoniopsis, Beallara, Odontoglossum, Vuylstekeara, Wilsonara, etc.
some Paphiopedilum spp.
Phalaenopsis spp.
Philodendron bipennifolium (hemiepiphyte)
Philodendron bipinnatifidum (hemiepiphyte)
Philodendron hastatum (hemiepiphyte)
Philodendron hederaceum (hemiepiphyte)
Philodendron martianum (epiphytic or terrestrial)
Philodendron mexicanum (hemiepiphyte)
Pseudorhipsalis ramulosa
most (all?) Rhipsalis spp.
Schomburgkia spp.
Syngonium podophyllum (hemiepiphyte)
Many but not all Tillandsia spp. ("air plants")
Vanilla spp. (hemiepiphyte)
Vireya spp.
some Vriesea spp., including V. splendens
Worsleya rayneri

Random plant event: Dischidia ruscifolia flowering

I bought a Dischidia ruscifolia last February, because it was there and I had money and I thought what the hell, maybe it's cooler than it looks.

The pot is 6 inches (15 cm) in diameter.
And it's settled in well. Some leaf-dropping initially, but it hasn't done that in a long time, and for most of the last eight months it's just kinda sat there. It has a similar style to Hoyas -- do nothing for a long time, then produce a new long shoot almost overnight, then do nothing again. (Hoya and Dischidia are closely related, so that's not a huge surprise.)


Anyway. So I went into the husband's office, where the Dischidia lives, earlier this week to ask him something, and glanced down and saw flowers! Not big or interesting flowers -- in fact you can barely even see them at all -- and I couldn't detect a scent, either. But still.


There are rumors of a yellow-flowering Dischidia, but as far as I've seen, rumors are all they are. Wouldn't really matter, though, would it?


In very bright light, the leaves will turn red; my own plant hasn't done that because it only gets filtered sun from an east window, but I've seen a plant at work get a little bit red, when we had it hanging close to the ceiling. That was a lot of sun, though.

D. ruscifolia is still in no danger of becoming the kind of plant I recommend to everybody, but it hasn't given me any trouble, it says please and thank-you, it washes its hands before dinner without being told, and all that good stuff. Plus now it's flowered for me too. So I can't really complain. I think the final big test will be to see how well it propagates. If it's easy to propagate, too, then I'll have to be at least a little bit fond of it, on principle.

List: Houseplants With Circular (or Nearly Circular) Leaves

It occurs to me that I could do these list posts differently: instead of telling you what that the criterion is and then listing the plants that fit it, I could give you the list of plants and have you tell me the criterion. Basically "$10,000 Pyramid" for houseplants.

I won't do it that way, because it'd screw with anybody trying to google their way to a list of plants that had the criterion in question. But it'd be amusing. To me.

This one was unexpectedly difficult: I anticipated that I'd find circular leaves all over the place, but actually there are very few. Many otherwise-promising candidates actually have leaves which come to a point at the tip (there's a reason why we call it "leaf-shaped"), or are a little a little too stretched-out to call "nearly circular," or whatever. An even larger number among the succulents had almost round leaves, but with a thick petiole connecting them to the stem (like Crassula ovata or some of the Aeoniums and Echeverias), so the overall shape was more spoon-shaped than circular, and I didn't count them. But so here's what I came up with:

Calathea rotundifolia.

Cissus rotundifolia.

Dischidia nummularia 'Pebble Beach.'

Peperomia obtusifolia variegata.

Pilea nummulariifolia.

Plectranthus verticillatus.

Polyscias scutellaria.

Saintpaulia ionantha cvv.

Saxifraga stolonifera.

Soleirolia soleirolii.
Perhaps to make up for the difficulty of finding a set of ten plants, the recommends are exceptionally easy for this list. Peperomia obtusifolia variegata, Saxifraga stolonifera, and Plectranthus verticillatus are all very easy and tolerant plants. Peperomia prefers somewhat warmer temperatures than the other two, and Plectranthus grows so quickly that it requires a little more maintenance, but they're all pretty easy, 2.0 or below on the PATSP difficulty scale.

The anti-recommend winds up being a tie between Calathea rotundifolia and Soleirolia soleirolii, both of which need a lot of moisture in the air and soil in order to grow well. Soleirolia works out well in terrariums, where it can spread out and form a mat. Calathea maybe would do well in a terrarium too, but it'd need a pretty big terrarium, as C. rotundifolia gets to be a big plant. Davesgarden.com recommends a spacing of 18-24 inches (46-61 cm) between C. rotundifolias when planted outdoors, suggesting that they can get at least that big across. Your average planted fish tank isn't going to be able to accommodate that.

Not pictured (please suggest others if you think of some):

Alluaudia procera, sort of (some specimens seem to have more of a tendency toward a teardrop or oval shape, but others have round leaves; this is maybe a difference in conditions, or possibly the plant is just naturally variable)
a few Begonia cvv. are kinda roundish, if not actually circular (especially the extremely spirally cultivars like B. rex-cultorum 'Escargot')
Breynia disticha 'Roseo-Picta'
Calathea makoyana, roseo-picta, and some other spp.
Coccoloba uvifera
Ficus deltoidea, barely (often more triangular than round, but there seems to be a lot of variation between specimens, and some produce rounder leaves than others)
Ficus pumila, barely (usually more heart-shaped or oval)
Hoya kerrii, very occasionally (much stronger tendency to be heart-shaped, though sometimes leaves will have less of a notch at the tip)
Hoya obovata, most of the time
Lemmaphyllum microphyllum, sometimes (often more oval or leaf-shaped)
Maranta leuconeura kerchoviana, sometimes (usually more oval: younger plants tend to have rounder leaves)
Muehlenbeckia complexa
Pellaea rotundifolia, frond leaflets
Peperomia argyreia
Peperomia 'Jayde'
Peperomia prostrata
Peperomia urocarpa
Pilea depressa
Pilea glauca
Pilea involucrata 'Norfolk'
Pilea microphylla? (leaves are nearly too small to really tell what shape they are)
Pilea peperomioides
Plectranthus amboinicus
Plectranthus ciliatus
Plectranthus oertendahlii
Polyscias balfouriana
Portulacaria afra
Sedum sieboldii
Senecio rowleyanus (More spherical leaves than circular ones, but close enough.)
Sinningia cvv.
Tropaeolum majus (Though nasturtiums are not very often grown indoors, and they're super-prone to spider mites when they are.)
Xerosicyos danguyi

Walkaways Part 8 / New Plants

On Valentine's Day, the husband and I went to Cedar Rapids. The decision was complicated, but in essence, boiled down to: Nina needed crickets and wouldn't be able to wait a week for them, we were going to have contractors in the house all week (turned out not to be the case, but that's what I thought at the time), and so we had to get her crickets on Sunday. And as long as we're going out anyway, why not Cedar Rapids?

We went five different places (Pierson's, Lowe's, Frontier, Home Depot, and Earl May, in that order). Earl May didn't even have enough plants to sneer at,¹ and Home Depot had tons but they were all buggy, half-dead, or buggy-or-half-dead-adjacent, so I wasn't tempted there. (Seriously, Home Depot: when the plants are so buggy that they're brown, shriveled, and sticky to the touch, give up. They're not going to sell. Please get this right or stop trying.) So this post is about what I found at the other three places.

Pierson's:
Pierson's is making me sad lately. I understand if they don't want to focus on the tropicals right now, because none of the other independent garden centers are either. Late winter and early spring are about propagating, starting seeds, bringing in plugs. That sort of thing. Plus it was Valentines Day, which requires a certain period of preparation beforehand. So maybe they hadn't had time lately.

However, it seems like Pierson's has been ignoring their tropicals and houseplants for a lot longer than just the last couple months. Everything looks . . . scruffy. Unkempt. And the tropical selection was terrible, just as it has been the last two or three times I've visited. I know they're capable of better.

Nevertheless, I was tempted by one plant, sort of on Nina's behalf:

Selaginella uncinata.
There's no way I could grow this in the house (inadequate humidity), but I thought maybe Nina would be interested, as a replacement for some of the plants that have failed in the terrarium. She has been saying she wanted me to put in carpet. (Also a hot tub. And something about a formal dining area with a "built-in, stainless steel cricket warmer," whatever that is. Save your allowance, I tell her.)

However, I didn't buy it for her because it was right next to some 3/4-dead-looking Selaginella specimens, and I didn't know if this was actually in good shape (as it appeared) or in bad shape and just not showing it yet. Plus, I haven't yet decided whether Nina's getting a new place. If she is, then I should probably wait and buy the new plants and the new terrarium at more or less the same time.

Lowe's:
From Pierson's, we went to Lowe's, which had apparently just gotten in new stuff. I got two hanging baskets of semi-unusual plants there.

Dischidia ruscifolia.
I've seen Dischidia ruscifolia around here and there and not really known what to make of it. We had one for a while where I used to work, and it didn't ever give me any trouble, but it also didn't stand out: I'd worked with it for eight months before I even noticed it was there. Lowe's had 6-inch hanging baskets for $9-something, which was cheap enough to take the gamble. So go ahead, Dischidia, wow me.

(Thus far, since getting home, all that's happened is that it's dropped a few leaves.)

Hoya polyneura.
The second plant from Lowe's is Hoya polyneura, which was also $9-something for a 6-inch pot. I'd seen one of these a while ago, where I used to work (it wasn't for sale: WCW brings a few plants into the greenhouse to overwinter every year, and it was hers), though I didn't have a name for it at the time.

WCW had offered me cuttings, but I didn't take her up on it (more a matter of timing, I think, than not wanting one: when I thought of it, she wasn't there, and when she was there, I wasn't thinking of it). Clearly the universe wants me to have one anyway, though. So okay. Twist my arm.

Frontier:
Then to Frontier, where I saw an odd Philodendron.

Philodendron NOID.
No ID on it, and when I asked, they said they didn't have a name for it either, just some hybrid Philodendron. It's not that it's particularly beautiful, but it's something I've never seen before. It kinda looks like 'Imperial Red,' and kinda looks like 'Autumn,' and kinda looks like 'Congo Red,' but the color is wrong for 'Autumn,' and the overall shape and size are wrong for the other two. I suppose it could be a young 'Imperial Red,' possibly. I dunno. Any ideas?

Frontier also had a kentia palm (Howea forsteriana), which I've been wanting for a while, and it was even more or less reasonably-priced ($60, for maybe a three- or five-gallon pot)² and about five feet (1.5 m) tall. Unfortunately, it also looked like it had a light spider mite infestation, and for $60, not only do I expect that there will be no bugs coming with the plant, but I expect the plant to actively roam the house seeking out and destroying bugs. Like a Roomba. So that was something of a heartbreaker.

But the real heartbreaker, the one I'm still thinking about more than a week later, was Calathea zebrina:

Calathea zebrina.
I'd never seen one of these in person before, much less see one for sale. Much less see one for sale for about $11.

If not for previous experiences, I would have grabbed the plant off the table, clutched it tightly to my chest, and ran to the parking lot with it as fast as I could, chittering happily like a squirrel all the while.

And then at some point I would have realized that I hadn't paid for the plant, and I would have gone back in the store and done so.

But it's a Calathea. I don't think bringing it home with me would have been fair to either of us. I'm not over the Calathea ornata experience yet, it would seem.

But oh.

Oh.

If only.

-

¹ If you're in or near Cedar Rapids: the Edgewood Road one has been pretty good for me for houseplants on occasion: it's where I got my Astrophytum ornatum. The one on Northland Avenue, though, has been just pitiful every time I've been there.
² Again, for folks in or near Cedar Rapids:
Frontier is always very reasonably priced. A hypothetical Dracaena that would cost $20 where I used to work would be $23 at Pierson's, $20-30 at Earl May, $25-30 at Peck's, three-quarters-dead and sticky at Home Depot, $9 at Lowe's, and $10-15 at Frontier depending on whether or not they were on sale (they are almost always having 30%-off sales). More expensive than Lowe's, true. But it's an independent, locally-owned business, the owner is nice, they don't follow you around constantly asking if they can help you, and it surpassed Pierson's some time ago as my favorite place to shop for plants in Cedar Rapids, mostly because Pierson's got worse, not that Frontier got better.
The down sides to Frontier: 1) don't go with your heart set on getting a particular plant. Turnover is pretty fast, and they have very limited display space, so if you go there intending to get something specific, they will not have it. Unless it's Cissus rhombifolia (grape ivy), which for some reason they always seem to have. 2) Check for bugs. Multiple times. Every leaf. They have better days and worse days, with the bugs. 3) They're closed Saturdays.

List: Houseplants Which Trail But (Mostly) Don't Climb

The line here is a bit arbitrary, but sometimes you want a plant that's going to just lay there, and sometimes you want a plant that's going to climb up things. This list is for the plants that are just going to lay there. A lot of these are used as hanging-basket plants.

A few of these plants will climb to some degree if they're being grown outside (some, like Ficus pumila, are downright obnoxious about it), but indoors, you generally have to provide them something to climb and then anchor the stems with some kind of plant tie at regular intervals, or make them some kind of constantly-moist support, or some other impractical thing like that. Most of the plants in this list won't climb particularly well even with assistance, and can be relied on not to get any crazy ideas about running themselves up your curtains. Your mileage may vary, of course.

This is an even less comprehensive list than usual, because the number of plants with this basic growth habit is practically never-ending. I'll add suggestions as people are moved to leave them in comments.

Note: this list was done by request for Joseph Tychonievitch of Greensparrow Gardens, who asked. I don't promise to take all list requests (some lists just can't be done as easily as others), and anybody who wants one is going to have to take a number and wait anyway, because Joseph asked for FOUR of them, but I'm more or less open to doing posts by request, in theory. Just so you're aware.

Aechynanthus speciosus, (goldfish plant) and other Aeschynanthus spp. (lipstick plant)

Cyanotis kewensis (teddy bear vine)

Dischidia ruscifolia (million hearts)

Epipremnum aureum 'Neon,' and other Epipremnum aureum cvv. (pothos)

Gynura aurantiaca (purple passion plant, purple passion vine)

Hedera canariensis 'Gloire de Marengo' (Algerian ivy)

Maranta leuconeura 'Marisela,' and other Maranta leuconeura cvv. (prayer plant)

Pellionia pulchra

Pilea depressa (baby toes)

Senecio rowleyanus (string of beads, string of pearls)
EDIT: Whoops. I published this without adding any commentary on the pictured plants.

I guess my three favorites from the above list are probably Aeschynanthus spp., Gynura aurantiaca, and Pellionia pulchra, with Cyanotis kewensis serving as first alternate.

This is partially process of elimination, because I've had moderately bad experiences with a lot of the other plants on the list, either from bugs (Maranta, Hedera), rot (Epipremnum), or decline from unknown causes (Pilea, Senecio). And I've never actually owned a Dischidia.

Not pictured:

Callisia fragrans (basket plant)
Ceropegia woodii (string of hearts)
Chlorophytum comosum (spider plant, airplane plant, mala madre)
Cissus rhombifolia (grape ivy; oakleaf ivy) (will climb a little)
Cissus rotundifolia (Peruvian grape ivy) (will climb a little)
Codonanthe spp.
Columnea cvv.
Crassula muscosa (= C. lycopodioides) (watch-chain crassula)
Davallia spp. (rabbit's-foot ferns)
Dischidia nummularia ("button orchid," says davesgarden.com, though it's not an orchid)
Episcia cvv. (flame violet)
Ficus pumila (climbing fig) (will climb a little)
Fittonia albivenis (nerve plant)
Hedera helix (English ivy) (will climb a little)
Hoya carnosa (will climb a little)
Hoya lacunosa (will climb a little)
Hoya kentiana (will climb a little)
Hoya kerrii (sweetheart hoya) (will climb a little)
Hoya pubicalyx (will climb a little)
Ludisia discolor (jewel orchid) (Also other "jewel orchids" like Goodyera, Anoectochilus, Macodes, etc., though those are a lot harder to find.)
Monstera adansonii (swiss cheese philodendron) (will climb a little)
Monstera deliciosa (split-leaf philodendron, swiss cheese philodendron) (will climb a little)
Nematanthus gregarius (guppy plant)
Neoregelia 'Fireball'
Philodendron gloriosum
Philodendron bipennifolium (horse-head philodendron) (will climb a little)
Philodendron erubescens 'Red Emerald' (will climb a little)
Philodendron hastatum (will climb a little)
Philodendron hederaceum (heart-leaf philodendron) (will climb a little)
Phlebodium aureum 'Mandianum' (bear's paw fern)
Pilea nummulariifolia (creeping charlie)
Plectranthus ciliatus
Plectranthus verticillatus (Swedish ivy)
Plectranthus oertendahlii
Polypodium formosanum 'Cristatum' (E.T. fern)
Pseudorhipsalis ramulosa
Rhipsalis spp. (mistletoe cactus)
Saxifraga stolonifera (strawberry begonia)
Schlumbergera truncata cvv. (holiday cactus, Thanksgiving cactus, Christmas cactus)
Scindapsus pictus (satin pothos) (will climb a little)
Scyphularia pycnocarpa (possum tail fern)
Sedum burrito (burro's tail)
Sedum morganianum (also burro's tail)
Senecio jacobsenii (trailing jade)
Senecio radicans (string of bananas)
Soleirolia soleirolii (baby tears)
A few cvv. of Solenostemon scutellarioides (coleus)
Stapelia spp. (carrion flower)
Stephanotis floribunda (Madagascar jasmine) (will climb a little)
Streptocarpus saxorum cvv. (streptocarpella)
Syngonium podophyllum (arrowhead vine) (will climb a little)
Syngonium wendlandii
Tolmiea menziesii (piggyback plant)
Tradescantia fluminensis
Tradescantia pallida (purple heart, purple queen)
Tradescantia sillamontana (kitten ears)
Tradescantia zebrina (wandering Jew)