Unfinished business: various

One of these again.

The first bit of unfinished business that I should bring up is the announcement I hinted at last Monday. I am really, no fooling, finally in the process of writing a book, as of Wednesday night.

I am doing it entirely wrong, of course. I have no idea whether it will wind up being a book. I have no publishing deals. I've not even talked to any publishers since a couple years ago, nor are there any plans to do so soon. And I don't know whether it will ever be for sale as a self-published thing either. I also don't know how long it's going to take me to write or how long it will be. Basically, I have no idea what I'm doing at all. But the thing is: I have been intending to write something for a very, very long time now. You're surely tired of hearing me say this; I'm definitely tired of saying it. And I haven't been writing anything, all this time, because I've been trying to get everything lined up properly in advance. What do I write about? How shall I format it? Should I try to write a book proposal up for a real publisher, or plan on self-publishing? Etc.

As of Wednesday, I am officially no longer caring about any of that. Those are not fun things to think about, and I don't know how to make those decisions with the information I've got at the moment anyway. So I am going to write a thing, and then I will try to decide what to do with it after that. At this point, I'm only planning to do plant profiles, and I have twenty-one candidates.¹ Probably not all of those are going to happen, and others will turn into something else. Also I might well give up on the whole idea before finishing any of them, but: what little vision I have of the future is currently revolving around those twenty-one plant profiles. For whatever it's worth, I'm starting with Madonna.

I'll eventually set up a progress page or sidebar or something to let you know how it's going.

I do not know, at this point, whether this is going to affect blogging frequency or quality. The hope is kind of that writing the profiles -- which I always used to enjoy, however much I also complained about them -- might make me more excited about, and interested in, plants again, so you may not notice a difference.

And now some plant-related content.


Random plant event: Columnea orientandina (30 August 2012)

The near-perfect pentagon formed by the leaves of the Columneas wasn't planned; I didn't notice it until after I uploaded the photos.
A few of the Columnea orientandina seedlings I started last summer are still with us, though most aren't -- I transplanted twelve pots' worth of C. orientandina seedlings, I think, and only three of those still contain living plants. Eight of the remainder got too dry or too wet or both; one got thrown out because of scale.

I've started two additional rounds of seedlings since then, but the sprouts are so tiny and stringy when they first emerge that I'm scared to handle them. Consequently, I haven't transplanted them yet, and they're probably going to die before I can psych myself up to do it. In the future, I'm going to try starting them directly on soil, rather than trying to start them in vermiculite and then transfer them. If it works, then I don't have to worry about hurting them during transfer, and if it doesn't, well, there will be more seeds later.

Though it sort of doesn't matter anymore, since the seedlings in those three pots are large enough to take cuttings from. I don't have to start them from seeds if I don't want to.


Selling and Trading (30 April 2012)

For all intents and purposes, I won't be selling or trading plants in 2013. It's the whole scale-and-thrips business, mostly: the worst of that seems to be over, but I don't know if I've actually gotten them all. There are other reasons too (mailing plants is a big time drain; sometimes people are supposed to pay for their plants and then don't; I don't always know what I'm going to get when I agree to a trade), but not wanting to mail bugs to people is the main thing. And anyway, I supposedly have a new project now; see above.

Having said that, I'd now like to undercut it by saying that if you've seen a plant on PATSP that you're desperate to have, and you've checked the "Plants I've Tried" list and I'm still claiming to have one, feel free to e-mail and ask about it. (Especially if it's something I've talked about offering for sale in the past.) I'm not going to try to be all organized and official about selling and trading this year, but there are still a few plants I could send out, and maybe a few plants I'd be interested in bringing in, so we'll see what happens. If you're looking to trade, you should check out the "Plants I Want" page first, because there's a whole big list there at the bottom, of plants I am definitely not interested in, and checking that could save us both some time.


Somewhat last-minute grab bag (3 April 2012)

The Philodendron bipinnatifidum sucker is still there. Not growing very quickly, but still there, and the parent plant keeps getting bigger (very slowly), so I guess it didn't signify anything bad.

The poor plant has been terribly, terribly abused, so it's a wonder it's even still alive, never mind growing and self-propagating and all that.

Euphorbia milii 'Candyland' eventually succumbed to the Euphorbia-ravaging fungus. The leaves kept fuzzing over. I pulled them off, but it kept happening. I tried spraying with various things. It kept happening. Finally, in frustration, I cut the top off the stupid thing. The theory was that if there weren't any leaves to infect, the fungus would give up and go home. Instead, the plant got upset about being beheaded, and rotted, and I wound up throwing it out anyway. Oh well.


Unfinished business: various (6 March 2012)

The Excoecaria cochinchinensis lasted until February 2013, so not quite a year. It wasn't dead, and I didn't have a strong recurrence of spider mites (there were occasional small infestations), but it had dropped a lot of leaves, it wasn't replacing them quickly, and it had gotten floppy in a way that was inconvenient. I could have let it stay if it had continued to be pretty, but it wasn't even doing that, and this was during the spell when I was trying to get rid of a bunch of plants I didn't like anymore, so out it went.

The Hatiora with magenta flowers is still around, but it obviously hates it here. Only two of the original four salvaged pots are still around, and one of those just shattered because I moved it up to a bigger pot. Also it's never rebloomed, though that's probably because it's in the basement, where the days are always too long for it to set buds.

The Ananas lucidus is still doing nicely. Here it is in March 2013:

Random plant event: Crassula perfoliata var. falcata (5 March 2012)

And now I'm like 0 for a billion, on Crassulas. This was the one Crassula that was halfway working for me, but then I had to move it out of the south window because it got too big, which it didn't like. Then in the late fall I dropped it, or something fell on it, or something like that, and the main stem broke off. The remaining branches grew for a little while after that, but since they weren't getting the same amount of sun, and the plant was taking up water more slowly (both because there was suddenly a lot less plant there and because it was colder), they eventually wound up rotting. So I'm just done done done done done with Crassulas. They have nice qualities, but they're not well-suited to what I can do here.

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¹ The "people:"
Juliet Capulet • Little Brother • Drag Queen • Patient Zero • Sinead O'Connor • Night Owl • Character Actor • Madonna • Lab Assistant • Stunt Double • Wanker • Fish Out of Water • Understudy • Michelle Rodriguez • Real Estate Developer • Joan Jett • Rosemary's Baby • Labor and Management • Stick in the Mud • Yayoi Kusama
I'd list the plants that go with those, but at the moment, I'm thinking I'd rather not give too much away in advance. Even if I gave you a random-order list of the plants involved, some of them are obvious enough that you'd be able to figure them out, ruining the surprise anyway. So for right now, I'm not going to say which plants, other than to note that two of them are plants I've already written profiles about, but I think I can improve on those so I'm going to attempt to write them again.

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: Green-Leaved Plants With Red or Purple Undersides

I could have sworn that I'd read that leaves with red or purple undersides are an adaptation by understory-dwelling plants to collect more light. Damned if I can find a source to back me up, though: Google failed me completely. I checked some of my books, too. So maybe that's not true. Most of these do appear to be understory plants, though, whatever the reason for their pigmentation.

Alpinia luteocarpa (bamboo ginger)¹.

Calathea roseopicta 'Medallion.' I think.

Cissus discolor (begonia vine).

Cyanotis kewensis (teddy bear plant).

Excoecaria cochinchinensis (Chinese croton).

Hemigraphis exotica (purple waffle plant).

Nematanthus NOID (guppy plant).

Philodendron hederaceum micans (heart-leaf philodendron).

Selaginella erythropus cv. (red spike moss)

Tradescantia spathacea. (oyster plant, Moses in the cradle)

Making recommendations from this batch of plants is pretty easy, since there are only four plants on the list that I've had good experiences with (Cyanotis, Nematanthus, Philodendron, Tradescantia).

Of those four, Philodendron hederaceum micans is far and away the easiest; it's an adaptable, flexible plant that will survive a fair amount of abuse while still looking good. Tradescantia spathacea is next: it's a perfectly nice plant, and also very tolerant, but it won't develop the purple coloration without a lot of light, so it is demanding on that one point.

Cyanotis kewensis and Nematanthus cvv. are both a little fussy for me: both are usually robust and fast-growing, but both also sometimes die back for no obvious reason, and Nematanthus sometimes abruptly defoliates, which is likely either a cry for more light or a delayed response to drought. Both also need fairly bright light, and not all Nematanthus varieties have the red underside. So those are tied for my third recommendation.

The rest of this field is not very promising.

I've never tried Alpinia luteocarpa, but the ginger family plants I am acquainted with aren't plants I'd necessarily recommend to anybody.²

Calatheas are virtually never a good idea, for anybody, though they're not the worst choice from the list.

I've heard of people keeping a Cissus discolor indoors for any substantial length of time, but I think the people telling those stories are lying.

Excoecaria cochinchinensis and I only just met, so I have no idea what it's like.

I've tried Hemigraphis exotica twice now and will not be buying a third one; they need very intense light to maintain their coloration, plus they can't go dry, even briefly. Since briefly going dry is something that's very likely to happen to a plant that's in intense light, this basically means that you really have to be on the ball with the watering.

And, finally, Selaginella erythropus, which may be the very worst choice possible from this list, unless you plan to put it in a terrarium. In a terrarium, it'll probably do great.

Not pictured:

• Several Alocasias have green or gray surfaces with purple undersides, including A. amazonica 'Polly,' A. 'Mayan Mask,' and A. lauterbachiana. They're a bit too attractive to spider mites for my tastes, and 'Mayan Mask' is huge, but it is possible to grow them indoors. (suggested by tay696)
• Many Begonia cvv. have red undersides; B. x erythrophylla, the "beefsteak begonia," has a particularly vivid green-red contrast and is easy to grow.
• Virtually all Calathea varieties have red or purple undersides: C. burle-marxii, C. insignis (rattlesnake plant), C. makoyana (peacock plant), C. ornata, C. roseopicta, C. 'Corona,' C. rotundifolia, and C. rufibarba would all qualify, among several others. The only two I can think of that don't have a contrasting underside are C. concinna and C. zebrina. None are particularly recommended as houseplants, for a number of reasons.
• Some Columnea species / varieties have red undersides; the only one I know of specifically is C. orientandina, and its leaves are only red underneath at the leaf tips. Columneas seem to grow okay for me, though I've only had any since spring; other people appear not to find them terribly difficult. (suggested by allandrewsplants)
• A handful of Euphorbia species have green leaves with red-violet to violet backs: E. millotii, E. pachypodioides, and Synadenium grantii;³ Synadeniums are typically either uniformly green with red flecks or uniformly red-violet, but there are plants out there which are green with a red-violet flush on the undersides of the leaves. I have only grown Synadenium, which is ridiculously easy; I don't know what the other two are like in cultivation. (suggested by Sentient Meat)
• Geogenanthus poeppigii (seersucker plant; formerly G. undatus) has highly textured leaves (texture is similar to Peperomia caperata) which are dark green with silver stripes on top and purple underneath. I don't know what it's like as a houseplant; I don't think I've ever even seen it for sale, but it's in a lot of the books, so people must have grown it once.
• Tahitian bridal veil, Gibasis geniculata, has small green leaves with purple undersides when grown in good light, and is a fairly easy-to-grow, if messy, plant.
• Homalomena 'Purple Sword' has broad leaves, mottled in green and gray, with purple backs and petioles. (It is, for some reason, often sold as an Aglaonema or Schismatoglottis; there doesn't seem to be much consensus on the ID, from what I could find on Google.) I haven't been happy with the Homalomenas I've tried to grow (though 'Emerald Gem' and I did eventually reach an understanding), and I've never seen a Schismatoglottis for sale so I assume they're probably difficult as well. Aglaonema and I get along great, which is a major part of my concluding that the plant in question is probably not an Aglaonema. (suggested by tay696 as Aglaonema)
• Hoya curtisii has small heart-shaped leaves which are marbled green and silver on top and flush brownish-red on the underside in certain conditions. I've never grown one, but assume their care is similar to that for other Hoyas. (suggested by Tigerdawn)
• In bright light, Maranta leuconeura var. erythroneura (prayer plant) leaves will have a red back. The other varieties of M. leuconeura never have red undersides, as far as I know. Not recommended, though people do grow them.
• Monadenium rubellum (sometimes M. montanum var. rubellum) is an unusual caudex-forming succulent. The leaves are green with dark red undersides. I've never seen one for sale or tried to grow it.
• Musa zebrina has large green leaves which are splotched with red above and solid red below. I've never tried to grow this one, either, but I would guess it's probably fairly difficult indoors. They may be grown outdoors during the summer and then brought in to go dormant during the winter.
• Paphiopedilum delenatii and some other Paphiopedilums have reddish-purple backs on the leaves, at least in some conditions. Not recommended for beginners, but growable. (suggested by orchideya in comments)
• Peperomia rugosa has glossy, bumpy, olive green leaves with a red underside. I don't know how it is as a houseplant, but I'm about to find out 'cause I just got one. (I didn't know what it was, or I wouldn't have. I'd been hoping to find out that it was a Begonia with atypically symmetrical leaves.)
• Pereskia aculeata cv. 'Godseffiana's (lemon vine, yellow rose cactus) leaves aren't so much green on top and red underneath as they are yellow on top and hot pink underneath, but I figure it's close enough. I've only had one briefly (since May), but I like it a lot, and all indications are that it's going to be an easy plant.
• Philodendron linnaei is sometimes, but not always, green with a purple underside (possibly light-dependent?). It doesn't seem to be sold very widely, so I have no idea what it's like as a houseplant.
• Philodendron mexicanum has glossy, long green leaves with a red back, and is pretty easy to grow.
• Plectranthus ciliatus (candlestick plant, blue spur flower) develops a purple underside in strong light; I had trouble finding a way to get enough light on my plant, when I tried growing it indoors.
• Plectranthus x 'Mona Lavender' leaves are green on top and dark purple underneath. Easy to keep alive indoors, but best color requires ridiculous amounts of light. My main problem with them has been water-related: a potbound plant dries out too quickly, but when I repotted, the plant died. (suggested by Don and Kapt'n Splash in comments)
• Many but not all Saintpaulia (African violet) varieties will get red undersides to the leaves under good conditions. Saintpaulia and I have a troubled history, so I don't recommend them personally, but many, many people get along with them very nicely, and hey, you might be one of those people.
• Saxifraga stolonifera's (strawberry begonia) leaves are gray with a red back. It's usually a very easy plant; mine are being weird at the moment and I'm not sure why.
• Stromanthe sanguinea 'Magicstar' has dark green leaves with white flecks and a red-violet underside; 'Triostar's leaves are pink underneath and irregularly brushed with white and green on top. Both are approximately Calathea-level difficulty; I've been successful with mine, over reasonably long periods, but not everyone is so lucky.
• Syngonium erythrophyllum has dark green leaves with red undersides; I have only ever seen it for sale on the (now defunct) Asiatica Nursery and have no idea what it's like as a houseplant. (suggested by tay696 as Syngonium)
• Some cultivars of Tradescantia zebrina (green/silver on top, red-purple beneath) or Tradescantia fluminensis (dull olive green on top, purple beneath) qualify. It's also possible to turn a T. zebrina that's supposed to be purple green by not giving it enough light; I think in those cases the underside turns green too, but it's been a while since I've seen it so I'm not sure. T. zebrina is easy to grow, if prone to running a bit out of control; T. fluminensis didn't do well for me indoors the one time I tried it. (T. zebrina suggested by Tigerdawn)
• -->I'm open to other ideas, if anybody can think of other plants that fit the category.<--

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¹ "Bamboo ginger" is also the common name of Costus stenophyllus, which looks nothing like this and has leaves which are solid green on both sides. Just so you know. ² Except maybe for Zingiber malaysianum, which did very nicely for me for a very long time, though we're having some relationship problems at the moment. Some of this is Sheba's fault. ³ (Which is technically Euphorbia umbellata now, but sometimes I have trouble letting go of the names.)

New Plants

The lead-ban post continues to kick my ass behind the scenes. I know way more about lead, environmental science, hunting, fishing, and wildlife management than I did two weeks ago, but the learning curve has been steep, and I'm still not quite there yet. I'm hopeful that I will be able to post it tomorrow, though.

In the meantime, please enjoy these plants, which I've gotten since the last New Plants post:

Aglaonema 'Sapphire Suzanne.' Ace Hardware. $18.
I'd originally dismissed 'Sapphire Suzanne' as being the plainest of the "Jazzed Gem" series of Aglaonemas, but I ran into one that was unusually cheap (The same plant would have been $32 at the ex-job, and this is the only other place I've ever seen one.), and decided it was still a nice plant, and worth buying. I've had it about four weeks, and it's behaved itself so far.

Agave lophantha 'Quadricolor.' (Was tagged 'QuadrAcolor,' but Google calls that a misspelling.) Ace Hardware. $4.50.
I've seen this cultivar for sale a few times, but always more expensive and usually larger specimens. I had pretty much given up on getting one (and anyway I have two of the species to deal with, which are getting ever-larger and pointier, so I hardly needed another), but I couldn't pass up $4.50, especially since I know from the experience with the other specimens that it's likely to do well for me indoors.

Excoecaria cochinchinensis. Ace Hardware. $5.
This plant is relatively new to the area -- I don't think I'd seen them for sale prior to last spring -- and I initially had zero interest in it on the grounds that it was being sold as a "Chinese croton." I don't need any kind of croton, no matter what language it speaks, was my thinking, and it really did look a lot like one, particularly the cultivar Codiaeum variegatum 'Andrew,' which has the same bumpy leaves and marginal variegation but lacks the red underside.

But then a reader who'd just bought an Excoecaria e-mailed me to ask if I knew anything about them, and in the course of looking that up, I discovered that it was in fact not a croton. (Also not a Ficus, even though the tag on the e-mailer's plant said it was an "Exciting new Ficus Variety!") So I was like, well, maaaaaaybe, if I find one really cheap somewhere. And then I ran into the davesgarden.com page for it, where one commenter (of only two) said that s/he'd never seen any insect or mite activity on his/r plant.

I also found information that a different Excoecaria species is known as "blind-your-eye," which sounded a bit ominous, but I have so many Euphorbias already that poisonous sap is almost as much motivation to buy the plant as to not. (Excoecaria, like Euphorbias and Codiaeum, is in the Euphorbia family.)

So when I saw the above plant, tagged $5.99 but during a 20% off sale, I thought, sure, what the hell, and I bought it. The next day, when I went to take the above photo, I noticed what looked like spider mites on the underside of some of the leaves and felt a chill go through me. This may not mean anything: spider mites will sometimes live opportunistically on plants they don't especially like if they can't find anything better, and it's not like it was the cleanest plant area in the world. Maybe the mites wandered over from something else and were all, "What a dump! But we can't afford to move, so. . . ." Or perhaps I'm being uncharacteristically hopeful.

I've since realized that the davesgarden.com commenter hails from Garland TX and may well keep the plant outdoors for most of the year, in which case his/r spider mite experiences are not really relevant to my situation at all and I might have been better served going with my initial "It's a croton? Then I don't want it" impulse. I'll have to keep you posted.

Or maybe you'll have to keep me posted: anybody else have any experience with this plant, for good or ill?