Random plant event: not a Schlumbergera or Anthurium (!)

You may have gotten the impression that I no longer have any plants that are not Schlumbergeras or Anthuriums. If so, you are wrong, but I forgive you, because it's . . . basically true.¹ There are, nevertheless, other kinds of plants here, and sometimes they still do things. No Eucharis has bloomed for me since June 2013, and this particular Eucharis hasn't bloomed since December 2010. I wasn't trying to make this happen, so it was a pleasant surprise:

And they still smell wonderful, of course.

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¹ 754 Anthurium seedlings, 25 specimens of named varieties used to generate seedlings (though some of the named varieties' names are not actually known -- I'm assuming they have names -- and some of the named varieties have not yet actually produced any seedlings); 193 Schlumbergera seedlings, 26 cuttings of seedlings, and 10 named varieties. As of February 20, this means that 65% of the individual plants in my collection are either Schlumbergeras or Anthuriums. Expand that to include the other plants I'm producing from my own self-generated seeds (32 Spathiphyllums, 34 Coffea arabicas, and 4 Euphorbia leuconeura) and about 70% of my plant collection is self-produced now.
And that's me being slightly restrained -- I have a whole fruit's worth of Leuchtenbergia principis seeds I could start but haven't, plus a bunch of Salvia elegans seeds I collected in late fall that I'm not sure how or when to start, and I have enough Canna seeds that I could just about fling them throughout the house and then skate from room to room:

Six Plants I'm Currently Mad At

This turns out to be a pretty competitive field (wait'll you see the Dishonorable Mentions), but I've narrowed it down to six. By "I'm Currently Mad At," I mean "the idea of throwing the plant away entirely and never attempting it again has crossed my mind," though that's only a serious possibility with three of the six plants on the list.

1. Phalaenopsis NOID
I am so tired of orchids and all their fucking orchid bullshit. I'm not even exaggerating for comic effect. I know I've said this before, but this time I'm telling you -- I'm telling you -- orchids and I are never ever getting back together.¹ Remember how cautiously excited I was two months ago?

Yes, well. I really should have known better. Here it is now:

And here's the end of the spike:

Yep. Just fell right off, the whole top of the spike, including all the flower buds. I have no idea what happened to it -- it's conceivable that the top of the spike got caught in the shelves when I took the plant off to water or something, but I feel like I would have remembered that. It can't really have been chewed off by an animal -- Sheba would have said something. So I'm thinking it just dropped the top of the flower spike as a way of giving me the finger, because it's an orchid, and orchids are fucking assholes.

The Phalaenopsis is being permitted to stay, for the time being, but the very first excuse I have to throw it out, it's going out. (Even if it calls me up and it's like, "I still love you.")


2. Furcraea foetida 'Medio-Picta'
If my fury at the Phalaenopsis is white-hot,² then with Furcraea I'm only a dull red. The plant's done well outside this year, and has grown some really nice, broad leaves, enough that I'm thinking the current pot is probably way too small for it. And for most of the summer, this was making me happy.

But I found a scale insect on it a week or two ago. So far, it's just been the one, and I did give the plant a pretty thorough inspection so that might be the extent of it, but what are the odds that it's really only one scale insect? Is it ever just one?

Et tu, Furcraea?


3. Polyscias balfouriana (variegated)
The Phalaenopsis is being spiteful, the Furcraea is disloyal, and the Polyscias balfouriana is catatonic. It's never been one of my best plants or anything, but when I got it, in July 2010, it looked like this:

And now, after growing for three years, one of the plants in the original pot has died,³ and the other looks like this:

Weak stem (it periodically leans over enough to throw itself off the shelf it lives on), not much foliage (that's actually the most it's had in a very long time, in that picture), regular spider mite infestations, which it passes to other plants -- P. balfouriana is another one that's probably going in the trash as soon as I have any kind of excuse. Considering its history, I should maybe not wait for an excuse.


4. Synadenium grantii
It was bad enough that Synadenium grantii caught the fungus that's been infecting all the Euphorbias.⁴ I moved it outside, in the hope that this would help it shake the fungus, and that actually seems to have worked.⁵ The problem is that it's not happy with being outside, either. Although when I did the research for the Synadenium profile, I found information telling me that they could survive temperatures down to about 20F / -7C, leaf damage apparently begins somewhere in the high 50s F, or about 14C, and takes the form of broad tan patches on exposed leaves:

I suppose this is my own fault, for not figuring out sooner that I was seeing cold damage. (I'd thought it was sunburn.) The plant could maybe have explained itself better, though.


5. Eucharis grandiflora
So I have three pots of Eucharis now. The one that's stayed in the house is doing fine. Not blooming or anything, but it's doing fine. The two that are getting to summer outdoors, on the other hand, started looking really ratty almost as soon as they went out. Well, I thought, that's to be expected -- probably it's a combination of sunburn and getting thrashed around by the wind. The replacement leaves will be better. But the replacement leaves were not better. And then, one day, I lifted up one of the pots for some reason and there was this fat, gray-green caterpillar underneath it. I picked it up and flung it into the yard, hoping the birds would deal with it. Then a few days later, I was watering, and I saw a similar-looking caterpillar, curled up, floating in the water inside the pot. So I picked it up and threw it out onto the driveway (figuring that the birds would be quicker to spot it on concrete than they would on grass). I haven't seen any caterpillars since then, but it almost doesn't matter: the replacement leaves are coming in slowly, and the older leaves are trashed almost beyond recognition. So the Eucharis won't be going outside next year either, even if they beg and plead and claim that that's the only way they'll ever flower.

The plants that got to go outside have, as a group, been very resistant to bugs -- the only other cases of visible insect damage outside have happened on two Agaves, and I think are also caterpillar-related. But the Eucharis have taken a real beating. Makes me unhappy.

The only positive note is that I have finally achieved houseplant pest bingo. (That'll teach me not to hope publicly for caterpillar infestations, even in jest.)


6. Epipremnum aureum 'Neon' and 'Marble Queen'
Lastly: I can grow Epipremnum aureum varieties just fine, beautifully even, so long as I avoid anything that they might interpret as transplanting.

Which is to say, I've had no problems water-rooting cuttings. But when I put the rooted cuttings into soil, I lose about two-thirds of them. Every single time, no exceptions. Soil-rooting cuttings is a little better, but even then, I lose about half. And repotting is a disaster every single time, no exceptions. (You'd think I would learn.)

'Neon' and 'Marble Queen' made the list because I've tried to root cuttings of 'Marble Queen,' and I've tried to repot 'Neon,' and both have been calamitous. Here's what 'Neon' looked like before the repotting:

And after repotting, removal of obviously dead vines, and cutting a few back in hopes that they'd resprout:

What did I do wrong? I have no idea. It certainly seemed like repotting was warranted: the plant was always wilted when its turn for water came around, sometimes badly, and it was dropping leaves as a result. Giving it more soil, to keep it wetter longer, seemed the logical solution. But instead, the plant punishes me by committing suicide. What a dick.

I don't have a photo for the 'Marble Queen' cuttings, but you'll have to just trust me that they look even worse. Everybody else in the entire world can do anything they like to this plant and it's fine, but -- I don't think it's for me.

So . . . yeah.

I'll have a post later, about plants that aren't making me angry, but I feel it's important for houseplant "experts"⁶ to acknowledge that there is no level of horticultural skill that will completely prevent plants from being douchebags.


Dishonorable mentions:

• Aloe variegata: overwatered, root rot. Still around. Unlikely to try again.
• Anthurium crystallinum 'Mehani:' never did very well here, probably due to dryer and cooler air than it would have liked. Was doing even less well this year, which I suspect might have been related to soil breakdown. Discarded. Almost certainly will never try again.
• Araucaria heterophylla (or maybe A. columnaris): root rot and massive branch drop because I overpotted last winter. Discarded. (This one was really painful: I'd had the plant for five and a half years.) I'll probably try it again.
• Begonia 'Puffy Clouds:' too much direct sun and/or too hot? Discarded. Unlikely to try again.
• Columnea microphylla: sudden decline for no discernable reason. Discarded. Unlikely to try again.
• Cyanotis kewensis: stem dieback, possibly due to underwatering. Still around.
• Episcia 'Pink Smoke:' Never did well. Discarded. Unlikely to try again.
• Episcia "prayer plant:" too wet, too dry, or possibly both at once. Still around. Will probably restart from cuttings.
• Episcia 'Suomi:' slow steady decline that turned into a fast and ever-accelerating decline; reason unknown. (I'm getting pretty fed up with Episcias.) Still around, but only barely. Will probably allow to remain until it dies and then not try it again.
• Euphorbia milii hybrid with large yellow flowers: I cannot make the fungus go away on the small specimen (indoors); the large specimen got blown over repeatedly so the leaves are all creased/torn/punctured/scarred. Still around.
• Euphorbia pseudocactus: one tall stem turned brown and rotted away for no obvious reason very early in the summer. A second big tall new branch started growing after that. It managed to hold itself erect for about a week, then flopped over, and has been growing more or less horizontally ever since. The rest of the plant isn't doing anything and never really has. Still around.
• Euphorbia tirucalli 'Firesticks:' tried to blind me that one time. Still around.
• Euphorbia trigona: I cannot get rid of the fungus on the cuttings in the basement, though the parents, outdoors, are doing okay. Still around.
• Euphorbia trigona 'Red:' I cannot get rid of the fungus, but also the parent plants won't branch and sometimes get root rot. Still around.
• Ficus 'Green Island:' sort of continuously dropping leaves, whether in or outside. Refuses to grow vertically. Still around.
• Gasteraloe 'Green Gold:' definite severe root rot, due to overwatering. Still around, but unlikely to make it back into the house this fall. Unlikely to try again.
• Gasteraloe 'Midnight:' has never liked me very much. Probably some root rot. Almost certainly will never try again.
• Homalomena 'Emerald Gem:' both under- and overwatered, leading to substantial defoliation. And then the bugs (spider mite-like, but I was never sure if they really were spider mites) showed up. Discarded. I'm not desperate to replace it, but I might at some point, if I see one cheap.
• Kohleria 'Queen Victoria:' (chronically?) miswatered. Discarded. Pretty much certain never to try again.
• Neoregelia 'Fireball:' never rebounded from a repotting several years ago; I don't know what its problem was. Discarded. Unlikely to try again.
• Pereskia aculeata var. godseffiana: scale. Discarded. I still have a back-up plant.
• Philodendron erubescens 'Red Emerald:' small, weak growth for about a year, year and a half now. Lots of leaf drop. Still around.
• Schefflera actinophylla: has not performed well outdoors. A tremendous amount of leaf drop, poor color, gets blown over a lot by the wind. Still around. I'll keep growing it, probably, but it's not going outside again next summer.
• Selenicereus anthonyanus: does not appear to understand how to grow the long, weird stems that are the main reason to grow it. I don't know why it won't and S. chrysocardium will. Still around.
• Vriesea splendens: flowered, then started to produce a replacement rosette, but the replacement rosette is really struggling for no obvious reason. Still around, but I suspect its days are numbered. The smaller duplicate plant rotted out and died last March.
• Zamioculcas zamiifolia: another one like Epipremnum aureum, that does beautifully until I try to pot it up, at which point it begins falling apart. A less water-retentive potting mix might help, but I'm more inclined to just let it die and never attempt to grow it again: I don't especially like the look of it in the first place. (The leaflet cuttings of 'Zamicro' are doing fine, but I haven't tried to repot them, either. Maybe I never will.)

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¹ Unless it's one of the blue-dyed Phalaenopsis, because I have a theory about the identity of the blue dye that I'd like to test. So I might buy one of those, but only so that I could grind up the flowers in a mortar and pestle and perform science experiments on them. Which would actually probably be kind of cathartic.
Also: sorry for the earworm. I couldn't resist.
² Probably more blue-hot, I think. (I feel like most of the energy being given off by my fury is being emitted in the ultraviolet / soft x-ray range.)
³ (I cut it back because it was hitting the lights and scorching, but it didn't resprout. I kept hoping, because the stem was staying firm, even if it wasn't producing a new growing tip, but eventually it went soft and I pulled it out of the pot.)
⁴ Synadenium grantii is officially Euphorbia umbellata, according to Plant List. The name I learned before that was Euphorbia pseudograntii. I'm sticking with the name I learned originally, partly because the taxonomists don't seem to have made up their collective mind yet, and partly because if I do decide to change it, there's a whole lot of blog posts that'll need to be edited too, and I would prefer not to do that.
⁵ It worked better on some species than others. E. lactea and E. tirucalli cleared up pretty quickly but weren't that bad off in the first place; Euphorbia milii and Synadenium grantii had pretty serious problems but improved after a few weeks. E. trigona took most of the summer to get there, but is good at the moment, as far as I can see. Pedilanthus 'Jurassic Park 2' may never shake the fungus.
⁶ (a designation I'm not happy seeing applied to myself, by the way)

Random plant event: Eucharis grandiflora

Finally it's gotten warm enough that this year's outdoor plants can all stay outside for a few consecutive days, which makes my life a bit easier. (It's also been very rough on me mentally -- it's just too weird to be hoping for the weather to be warmer.)

I'd put the younger Eucharis bulbs (the ones I bought two years ago) outside a while back, but then it got cold for several days, and I put all the plants back in their previous spots while we rode out the cool spell, and then for some reason I had neglected to move the Eucharises back out again when the weather improved. They were only out for a couple days, but apparently that short period of brighter light was all the encouragement one of the plants needed to decide to produce a bud.

The smell is as nice as I remember, though it's been a long wait. I didn't move the plant back outside until the flower was already well underway, but that doesn't seem to have hurt it: it's possible that it's lasting longer than the previous ones did.

I should probably note that the foliage behind the flower is not that of the Eucharis: that's this year's attempt to grow Salvia elegans. The two plants have apparently become friends or something. Which is good, since the Salvia was new and all.

Unfinished business: Eucharis grandiflora

In the sell/trade post, I mentioned having gotten Eucharis grandiflora bulbs but not being sure if they were any good or ready to resell. (I got them originally from easytogrowbulbs.com, and have been happy with the service from them so far, if you're interested. Currently they're selling sets of 5 bulbs for $8.95, and then shipping is almost as much again; it worked out to about $3/bulb for me. They'll only ship between March and June, so if you want bulbs from them, order soonish. If you'd rather get a plant that's already potted and sprouted and everything, I will be selling some of them later in the summer; I'm not sure when, but I'm thinking around August. I'll let you know.)

These were the bulbs when they first arrived:


I potted them up on April 22, and here is what they looked like on May 20:


Not particularly lush or impressive, but you can still see that all but two of them (the second and third from top, in the left column) had leaves to some degree or another. One of those two now has a very small green shoot starting to emerge, so I think it's going to be fine. The other was quick out of the gate with a partly-formed green leaf above the soil, then something happened to change its mind, and the leaf turned brown. The bulb still feels firm (or at least what I can feel of it at the top, without digging it all up), so I think it's still alive, but I'm not sure whether it's going to shape up and grow again, or what the problem was in the first place. Still, though, 14/15 is not a bad success rate.

And they're growing fast now that they're fully awake: as I write this on May 30, the leaves are considerably bigger than they were in the picture above. (I apologize for the lack of photo: I originally thought I was doing a different post today.) So we've got some momentum going. I'm excited to see how big they'll get in the next couple months.

List: The Best Houseplants You're (Probably) Not Growing

This list isn't intended to be taken very seriously. It's subjective, and even where it's not, we're only talking about my personal experience, over a pretty limited amount of time;¹ the plant might be completely different for you. Having said that, these are the plants that:

1) have performed well for me for a long time,
2) aren't already common in stores (at least not the stores I visit),
3) typically do well indoors for other people too, as far as I know, and
4) have that special something that makes me want to recommend them to everybody.

This is slightly self-interested, as a few of these are plants I will have available for trade or sale at some point,² but it's sort of a chicken-and-egg problem. I have them to sell because I like the plant, and in a lot of cases I like the plant because it's easy to reproduce for selling. The main point of the list is not to promote plants because I'll have them for sale, I swear, it's to say nice things about plants that have been making me happy lately. Because there are a lot of plants that don't.³ (Including some of the plants I want to sell or trade away.)

Agave desmettiana. Fairly rapid growth, as indoor Agaves go, interesting color (on the variegated variety), and so far it doesn't seem especially needy or buggy. If you have full sun and can water thoroughly and regularly, you can grow this.

Eucharis grandiflora. Beautifully fragrant (if short-lived) white daffodil-like flowers up to three times a year, large, glossy green leaves the rest of the time, cold-tolerant, and I've never had problems with bugs. Needs some light (filtered sun or bright indirect), and don't overwater. May go dormant if too dry or dark.

Gasteraloe x beguinii. (Aloe aristata x Gasteria batesiana). Nice form and color, tolerates fairly low light for a succulent, resilient as hell, offsets are easy to root, never a bug problem. Probably won't flower indoors, but it's my favorite foliage Aloe/Gasteria/Haworthia, easily. Give it at least some sun indoors, or else bright artificial light, and don't overwater.

Hatiora salicornioides. Only minor bug problems so far (spider mites, surprisingly), and the flowers aren't the glamour bombs that Eucharis's are, but the form is interesting, and it's easy to grow with full sun to bright indirect light. Fertilizer seems to be more important than I expected: some of mine have only started putting out new growth since I started using the Miracle Gro.

Hoya lacunosa. Easily brought into bloom (it basically just takes lots of light + fertilizer), and can be more or less continuously in bloom year-round. Neither the flowers nor the leaves are much to look at, but it's fairly non-demanding, and the scent is nice.

Pachypodium lamerei. Less easy than most of the other plants on the list -- it's obviously a pain to repot, and it's inclined to winter spider mite infestations and/or dormancy, plus they'll rot if you get them cold and wet at the same time. But they're still fairly easy to grow, and they're tough enough that I've never actually seen one rot from being too wet: I've only heard about it.

Selenicereus chrysocardium. You're probably never going to see the large, overwrought flowers, but with stems like these, who needs flowers? It's fast, it's huge, it's easy to grow (you need only regular watering and a sensible amount of light), I've never had pest problems, and it's just so weird.

Synadenium grantii. I praise Synadenium pretty much every chance I get, but it's difficult to articulate why I like it as much as I do. I like the textures, both visual (red-speckled green, or plum with specks of green) and tactile; I like that they grow fast and can be endlessly duplicated. I love that I've never had a pest problem on a Synadenium. Just a good, vigorous plant for someone with bright indirect light or brighter. They will occasionally drop lower leaves, for reasons I've never been able to figure out but suspect is water-related.

Vriesea splendens. I've always loved the way these look, but it took me a long time to decide to buy one, because all the books warn about them being fussy and difficult. They're not. I've had no pest problems, they seem perfectly happy under artificial light, bright indirect light, or filtered sun, and recently one has even decided to rebloom for me. Occasionally I let them get too dry, and then leaves curl and yellow, but that's been about it for problems.

Zingiber malaysianum. The leaves are pleasantly (if lightly) scented, glossy, and beautiful with light shining through them. It insists on being kept warm (above 50F/10C) and moist, more so than almost any other plant I own (I deal with this by watering every time the watering cycle gets around to it, and if I start finding that it's dry by the time I'm ready to water it, I move it up into a larger pot.), and I suspect that it's probably prone to mites, though I haven't experienced this personally. But I am so pleased with it.

Honorable mentions:

• Aechmea fasciata -- in the trade for a long time, but I rarely see any for sale that aren't already in bloom, and I don't know why. They're perfectly nice foliage plants, and if you buy one already in bloom then it's just going to die on you. (Granted, that can take more than two years, as it did with mine.)
  
• Araucaria bidwillii -- I know why this isn't sold more in the trade. They're kinda ugly, and even the fuller-looking larger specimens are sharp. I love mine anyway.
• Epiphyllum oxypetalum -- The flowers are pretty, but I'm not sure they're actually worth growing the plant for, since they only last for an evening. I like the plant enough that I'm willing to grow it for the unusual, awkward stems, though.
• Euphorbia trigona -- One of my oldest and best-behaved plants, not counting a minor pest problem when I first got it,⁴ plus I like the shape.
• Haworthia limifolia var. limifolia -- I started out liking other Haworthias more, but this one's grown on me. The color (metallic gray or gray-green, depending on culture) is neat, the texture is pleasant, and it may be the only Haworthia species I've had that's never given me trouble.
• Pandanus veitchii -- Of course. Minor pest problems (caterpillars or crickets or something, when I had mine outside last summer), painful to move around, and the tips burn if the plant is in the path of a heat vent, but mostly a piece of cake to grow.
• Polyscias scutellaria -- Polyscias in general have been nice to me, though they do have their moods. P. scutellaria is my favorite of the genus because it's been the most responsive to my care so far (bigger leaves, more leaves), but I also like the look of it.
• Senecio rowleyanus -- We went through some rough times at first, mostly because I wasn't watering enough, but we've reached an agreement since then, and it's grown a lot in the last year. Haven't seen flowers yet on my personal plant, but I look forward to the day: they smell like Big Red chewing gum.

What plant(s) you don't see for sale very often would you add to the list?

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¹ The plants on the list have all been in my care for at least 22 months; the most recent addition (Zingiber malaysianum) was purchased in June 2009, and the oldest (Gasteraloe x beguinii) is from November 2006.
² (I've been having trouble getting suitable photos of the plants in question, among other things. Too bright, too dark, always desaturated: it's frustrating. There's also the issue that some of the plants I had hoped to sell are not looking as good now as I had hoped they would, and it's probably too late to whip them into shape, which is demotivating. I spent the bulk of Wednesday taking pictures, and that set is the set I'm going to use, whether they're good or not. I'm currently planning the official unveiling for April 18, but that may be optimistic, given the number of photos I have to sort through.)
³ [shaking fist at sky:] RADERMACHERA!!!!!!!!!! (Actually, I got rid of the Radermachera a couple weeks ago. I'm still angry, though.)
⁴ It was either whitefly or scale; it happened long enough ago that I don't have any pictures, and don't remember that well. I assumed they were whiteflies, because they flew, but my memory tells me they looked more like immature scale. They went away, whatever they were.

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

Ugh. The Schefflera profile is not going well. I suspect the problem is that I'm trying too hard to work in all the information I found, much of which doesn't actually interest me. Sometimes I have to start the profiles several times before I get any kind of flow going; this may be one of those times. *sigh* (UPDATE: Done!)

As for this post, we have more dead leaves than usual. Some months ago, I went through all the transmitted light photos and rearranged them, rather than wind up with four oak pictures in the same set, so this batch includes some autumn leaves from last fall.

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

Plectranthus verticillatus.

Platanus occidentalis (sycamore), autumn. This one is much better full size.

Aglaonema 'Diamond Bay.'

Kalanchoe marmorata.

Magnolia sp., autumn. Not sure what it is, but something about this one really appeals to me. Something about the way the veins are curvy. Might be my favorite from the set, though.

Helleborus 'Painted Strain.' Striking, but almost a little too much.

Eucharis x grandiflora, dead leaf.

Quercus sp., autumn.

Dieffenbachia 'Camouflage.'

Alocasia amazonica 'Polly.' I don't think any of the pictures of 'Polly' turned out very well, but it's still striking.

Pretty picture: Eucharis grandiflora bloom

We had sort of a good flower / evil flower thing going on here on Christmas Day. The good flower was, of course, Eucharis grandiflora, which I first noticed was blooming around the beginning of December. It eventually produced a scape (flowering stem) with four buds on it. The first of those opened on 20 December, and the fourth one opened on Christmas. (The evil flower is the subject of tomorrow's post; I'm not going to spoil the surprise.) Which as far as it goes, the buds are fairly ornamental in their own right:


The smell changes with the time of day, which might be the flowers and might be me. I'm not sure. But at least some of the time, the scent reminds me of a Gardenia, sitting on a table, which has just been dusted with Lemon Pledge: mostly a gardenia smell, but with a bit of something sharper and more citrusy. It's possibly the very best scent in the entire world. At other moments, Eucharis has a heavier, more perfumey smell, which I don't like so much.


One good and bad thing: the scape wasn't really strong enough to hold the flowers upright. It was good because the plant's on a high shelf already, and having the flowers standing straight up would have put them out of smellable range, but it was bad because the photos of the whole plant looked goofy. Eventually I had to tie the scape to a bamboo rod in order to get a whole-plant picture:


Unfortunately, particular flowers don't last very long: the one that opened on 20 December had begun to wither by 26 December, so it's a brief show. I still can't complain about the plant, though: it's been remarkably easy to take care of so far (and I've had mine since January 2009, almost two years), and I really like it as a foliage plant even when it isn't blooming. Plus, even if the show is brief, it could happen again in a few months, if I can figure out how to make it happen again.

Random plant event: Eucharis grandiflora flower bud

I don't remember where I read it, but I saw somebody make the claim that amazon lilies (Eucharis grandiflora) can flower up to three times a year. This surprised me, at the time, because the one I've had here at home hadn't even thought about flowering in the not-quite-two-years I've had it, and at work, they only ever seemed to be available in the winter, which I thought sort of implied that they were winter bloomers.


But whatever they would normally do, and whatever they're capable of, my plant is finally getting a flower bud! And it's winter, so maybe they are winter bloomers.

I'm very excited about it either way; I didn't like the photos I came up with when we had some flower at work two years ago, so this is, I'm thinking, another chance to get that picture. Plus the flowers are scented, and scented stuff is almost always good.

Karen715, in the comments at the above-linked post, said that she'd been told that Eucharis will bloom if they get cool temperatures. Davesgarden.com says they're hardy to about 20F/-7C; Gardino Nursery says not to let them go below 45F/7C. Either way, a lot more cold-tolerant than they look. Which does sound like a winter-flowering plant. Garden Web commenters, on the other hand, recommend stressing it in the winter by letting it dry out.

I'm inclined to side with Garden Web on this one. It's more likely this plant got dried out than that it got cold. Only the plant room, and sometimes the basement, ever get particularly cold here, and the Eucharis has lived in the living room for at least the last year: I don't know when it would ever have gotten cold. Everything, on the other hand, gets dry from time to time here.

It's been very easy to grow, and as far as this goes, I would have been perfectly satisfied with the plant had it never flowered: the foliage is shiny and dark green, and plants eventually get quite large. I've only had trouble with it when I first brought it home from the greenhouse: it dropped a few leaves at the very beginning, but I haven't had any problems since then. (Technically, that should be "when I brought them home: at work, I divided one of the plants we got into I think five 4-inch pots, and then over time wound up buying two of the 4-inch pots from work, which I eventually wound up potting together. Both of the 4-inch plants dropped leaves and needed some time to adjust after they were purchased, though they handled their repottings and division like champs.)

A number of the commenters at davesgarden.com also mentioned having passed plants down through multiple generations of family, which surprised me. Perhaps that's why they're not found in retail that often? If you get the opportunity, either by passalong or from retail, I do recommend the plant. It's much easier than it looks.

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

Today we bring Transmitted Light Week to a close, with a set that leans toward green-and-yellow combinations. I hope you enjoyed the week, but if you didn't, you will be relieved to learn that it probably won't happen again for a long time. It turns out to be really hard to come up different and interesting things to say about 60 pictures of plant veins, which is why only some of the commentary was different or interesting.

What did you think?




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

Agave lophantha. Not terribly interesting as a transmitted light picture, though you can see the slightly-lighter stripe down the center of the leaf, which I like. Undecided about how I like it as a houseplant; it's surviving fine under lights in the basement, but the new leaves are much longer. I don't know if that's because it's not getting as much light (bad), or because it's been divided and now the individual plants have more room to stretch out (good). I suppose I'll find out soon.

Eucharis grandiflora. Kind of looks like ripples on a pond, to me.

Neoregelia NOID. Most of this batch of photos wound up being too dark. I was still learning the camera. This one is also too dark, but it turned out okay: the subtle warping of the lines pleases me. The plant's doing well also, though I've cooled off quite a bit on Neoregelias in general, since the one got scale and a couple of the others have bloomed out and started to die.

Agave NOID. (Possibly a variegated cv. of A. desmettiana.) Whatever this plant is, I love it. It's probably going to get too big to keep indoors pretty soon (it's already noticeably bigger than it was when I bought it, and that wasn't that long ago), but it's got a gorgeous form and color (turquoise and yellow), and it seems to be tolerating the lower indoor light well. So it's got a place here as long as I can make it fit.

Schefflera actinophylla. My second favorite picture from the set.

Tradescantia pallida. I'm beginning to think that this is just an ungettable photo. I keep trying, but I never manage to capture the way it looks to me in person.

Peperomia clusiifolia 'Rainbow.' I've had this plant for a long time now (since January 2007), but I've never been able to bring back the vivid pink edges on the leaves it had when I bought it. Not enough light, obviously.

Epipremnum aureum 'Marble Queen.' Not yellow enough, on this one. I overcompensated. The plant this photo came from has mostly reverted to solid green, unfortunately, due to an extended period without much light.

Aglaonema 'Golden Bay.' Way too yellow, though if you didn't know that, it'd be a pretty decent photo. Still very happy with the plant; 'Golden Bay' is a good cultivar.

Aglaonema 'Cory.' This one's my favorite photo of the set, I think. I like when there are multiple layers of variegation visible.