Random plant event: Neoregelia ampullacea 'Dark Star'

It wasn't long ago that this plant surprised me by beginning to produce an offset, something I intended to blog about but apparently never got around to.

N. ampullacea 'Dark Star' is one of those plants I've had forever (since October 2008) that have just never gotten the signal to do much. It's grown a new rosette of leaves a couple times, the first time being in August 2009, and it's lost a rosette once, which I didn't bother to record. But it's always been more or less the same size, growing new leaves occasionally, but not in any hurry or anything. So the offset was interesting, but I figured it just predicted the death of one of the old rosettes of leaves.

It turns out that yes, that's probably what it predicted, but at least I'll get flowers first. Neoregelia flowers (previously) (previouslier) are one of those flowers that I think are actually prettier and more interesting before they open, so I'm happy to have gotten to see them while still buds: usually the whole process happens too fast to catch.

Sharp-eyed readers will also notice that my thrips problem is still ongoing, as of 18 December when this photo was taken: it's one of my better thrips pictures, actually, and I didn't even see it until I had uploaded the pictures to the computer and was flipping through them to decide which one to use for the post. S/He's more or less directly to the right of the tip of the largest flower bud, and directly up from the tip of the flower bud in the lower right. More detail is visible in the full-size view of the photo.
By the rules of bromeliads, this means that the rosette of leaves which is blooming will have a period of time in which to produce new rosettes, after which point it will die, so the whole thing is very good-news-bad-news, but that's plants for you.

Grab bag

Not much to report lately; I'm heavily preoccupied with trying to dump imidacloprid into all the plants. It isn't particularly difficult to do: it just makes watering take longer, so there's less time for anything else. And of course I'm still finding scale as I go, though less of it than I expected.

Here are five things I've found interesting enough to stop and photograph, but not interesting enough to write a whole blog post about, in the last couple weeks:

1. Coffea arabica

Of the eight pots of Coffea seedlings I started back in February, I still have six. (The other two got sold at a consignment store in Iowa City.) I up-potted them to 6-inch/15 cm pots a couple weeks ago, because they were drying out before their turn in the watering cycle came around. I've been surprised at how quickly they've grown: I once believed that the plants we got in at the ex-job, about this tall, in 4-inch pots, were probably about a year old, but it seems more likely now that they were only six months. If even that.


2. Corn

The cornfield behind the house got harvested yesterday.¹ Sheba sometimes worries when the machinery shows up to do things to the field (understandable: it's a large, blurry object making growling noises in the back of the house where she plays: I'd be alarmed too), but she either didn't notice it this time or she's getting used to it.

This is slightly sad for me; I like when the field is planted in corn better than I like when it's planted in soybeans. Since we've lived here, they've alternated plantings, so next year will probably be a soy year.


3. Neoregelia 'Gazpacho'

As expected, the Neoregelia 'Gazpacho' has continued to bloom. Less expected is the fuzzy white fungus that appears to be growing on the spent flowers. I can't recall seeing this before, and my ongoing battle with fungus on the Euphorbias has me worrying more about this than I otherwise would, even though I doubt it's the same fungus.

Aside from that, though, the Neoregelia is behaving normally. It already has two good-sized offsets on it.


4. Ananas 'Mongo'

Speaking of offsets.

This is a lot faster than I was expecting. The fruit is still on the plant and everything, though the reduced light indoors has made it lose a lot of its color. Pretty sure all the true flowers have opened and closed already.


5. Spathiphyllum NOID

Finally, one of my older Spathiphyllums (I got it in January 2007) has self-pollinated a number of times, and has produced a couple hundred seeds, but the seeds have so far mostly fallen to fungus, instead of germinating. I had been hopeful that this spadix, which appeared to have been pollinated successfully, and which seemed to be developing normally, might provide another chance, but instead it started to get these white cauliflower-like bumps, and then I accidentally broke it off its stem while I was trying to get it ready for photos, so I never got to see the cauliflowers develop into whatever they were going to develop into. This may be a good thing, depending on why the atypical growth was happening, but I was a little bummed all the same.

There is one exciting thing to report on the whole Spathiphyllum-breeding project, though: my biggest peace lily (likely 'Mauna Loa' or 'Sensation'²), which I've had since January 2003, is blooming right now, after a long bloomless period. The spathe hasn't opened yet, and I don't know for sure if it will be interfertile with my other plants when it does, but I've wanted to propagate it for years now. In almost 11 years, it has never offset, so the only way I'm going to propagate it appears to be by seed. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

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¹ (Also our first snow, though I didn't get a picture of that.)
² I'm guessing those cultivar names on the grounds that they're the main varieties of Spathiphyllum that I'm aware of which get really big. 'Mauna Loa' is one of the oldest and most popular of the big varieties, and 'Sensation' is the largest variety the growers' guide could come up with that's at all common -- supposedly 'Sensation' can reach 5 feet (1.5 m). Mine's not anywhere near 5 feet tall, but it's been indoors for 11 years, so some stunting would be understandable. Even under my non-ideal conditions, the leaves are all a solid 13-19 inches (33-48 cm) long, and it's vastly bigger than my other spaths.
Allegedly there are even peace lilies out there somewhere that can reach 9 feet (2.7 m) tall, though the largest I've personally seen was this guy:

Who was maybe 5 or 6 feet (1.5-1.8 m), and sold to us as 'Sensation.' Even if not the world's largest Spathiphyllum, I wouldn't want to run into it in a darkened alley or anything. Not considering some of the things I've said about spaths in the past.

Random plant event: Neoregelia 'Gazpacho'

Hi again.

Efforts to bring the outdoor plants back indoors have kind of stalled; out of about 130-140 that were outside at the peak of summer, I've managed to find spaces for all but about 30-40 of those, mostly Agaves that may or may not have scale. So that's kind of both good and bad. And the scale situation inside the house hasn't really improved either; it's still confined to certain spots, as far as I can tell, but it's hit a few plants that I didn't think were scaleable. So I'm finding plants more depressing than interesting right now. What's ultimately going to have to happen, I'm afraid, is another purge,¹ but that will take some working up to. (All the plants that would be easy to throw out already have been.)

So the post isn't a complete bummer (if I'm only going to post once every three days, I should try to make it pleasant enough to show up for), here's a Neoregelia 'Gazpacho' that's surprised me by blooming this month.

I knew it was old enough to bloom -- the parent plant flowered almost five years ago, and its offspring are now larger than the parent was then --

-- but it's been large enough to bloom for at least a year, maybe two, so the only reason I can think of why it would have chosen now is, I repotted it in May, along with the other two of the original plant's offspring. I also gave them a partly-obstructed south window, instead of a pretty wide-open east window, this summer, which may or may not have had something to do with it. (That still wasn't enough to give it full color: had I been able to grow it outside like it would have preferred, it would all have been red with green spots, instead of mostly green with a red-and-green center.)

The original 'Gazpacho' lived for another year and nine months after blooming, and about half to a third of the offsets survived. It would probably have had a higher survival rate if I'd let the offsets get a little larger before giving them their own pot. In any case, all three plants currently have at least one offset already, and the one from this post is going to start pumping them out now that it's bloomed, so I suppose I should brace myself for a Neoregelia population boom in the next year or two.

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¹ (I can't afford to buy the amount of imidacloprid it would take to dose every plant in the collection, never mind the amount of time and extra effort that would require. And there's no guarantee that, if I did spend the money, time, and energy, it would even be effective.)

List: Houseplants That Have Red Flowers

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aeschynanthus lobbianus.

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

Cyclamen persicum NOID.

Episcia 'Silver Skies.'

Hatiora (formerly Rhipsalidopsis) NOID.

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis.

Kalanchoe blossfeldiana NOID.

Neoregelia 'Maria.'

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Not pictured:

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

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

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

Walkaways Part 16: The Walkawayening, plus one new plant

Just assorted plants that were interesting but left on the shelf. This covers at least a couple months, possibly longer: I had a photo-backlog problem for a lot of the summer and fall.

Acalypha wilkesiana 'Beyond Paradise.'
This would actually have been cheap, unlike almost everything else on the list, but I managed to realize before buying it that I had no spot in the house for a fast-growing plant that needed sun. And, you know, once you have that realization, it takes all the fun out of buying the plant.

Aglaonema NOID.
I don't think I've ever met an Aglaonema I didn't like. (I'm not even sure it's possible.) So this one is on the wish list.

Alocasia 'Loco.'
The variety name wasn't on the plant at the store, but that's what I think it is, based on some internet searching. It's become weirdly common here, all at once -- I'd never seen it before a couple months ago, and then suddenly it was everywhere. I passed it up because, you know, Alocasia = spider mites, and also because I kind of think it's ugly, but it's ugly in an interesting way, at least.

Begonia rex-cultorum NOID (possibly 'Fireworks?').
Never of any serious interest -- I don't intend to buy another rex begonia unless/until I have a dedicated terrarium or greenhouse or something to put them in. And even then, I probably won't bother. But pretty.

Calathea 'Corona.'
Way too big, therefore also way too expensive. Also it's not the best specimen (some burnt margins and scars and stuff, if you look close), and it didn't photograph that well either. But I'm getting dangerously close to buying another Calathea, because I've had my C. makoyana for a year and a half and it hasn't died (probably more a matter of luck than skill). I should probably fight that impulse, though if I found a nice Calathea ornata cheap somewhere, I'd have a hard time resisting.

Hoya NOID.
I don't think I've ever seen a Hoya for sale before that was this loaded with blooms. No ID, though. (Any guesses? UPDATE: Lee, in comments, suggests Hoya nummularioides, which looks like a match from the Google image search results. Thanks!) The flowers were very fragrant, though I didn't entirely like the smell.

Hoya NOID, close-up.
Same plant as above, in the hopes that showing a tighter shot of the flowers would lead to more/better ID guesses.

Kalanchoe tigrina?
Of interest primarily because I've been seeing it forever without knowing what, exactly, it is. I still don't know what it is, but at least I've finally come up with a guess. I would never buy it, because of the aforementioned lighting problems and the fact that about 85% of my experiences with genus Kalanchoe have been bad. Mostly because of lighting. I think.

Monstera adansonii.
I'm not particularly into M. adansonii, but this is an impressively large one.

Neoregelia NOID.
Apparently, this particular variety needs an insane amount of light to maintain its color. This is an old picture, but the plants are still for sale: they've just turned green and are nowhere near as interesting now. This is in the ex-job's greenhouse, which seemed plenty bright when I worked there, so supplying enough light for good color indoors must involve banks of 50 kW lasers or something.

Philodendron bipennifolium.
I had a P. bipennifolium once, and it didn't do well, likely due to inadequate light and humidity. (It didn't actually say what the problem was.) I love the leaf shape, so maybe someday I'll be able to try again.

Not with this particular specimen, though. I didn't check the tag, but I'm sure it must have been like $14,000 or something.

Sansevieria trifasciata 'Bantel's Sensation.'
Didn't need to get this, 'cause I have one (it's been up and down and up again, but it's still alive and producing new growth; currently we're on the upswing), but I was impressed with the size. The only adjustments to this photo were cropping and coloring, but I think it looks more like a real Sansevieria trifasciata when vertically compressed:

Sansevieria trifasciata 'Bantel's Sensation,' 328 x 700 px size. (The above is 328 x 1000 px.)

Schefflera actinophylla NOID.
The last plant I passed up is this yellow Schefflera actinophylla at the ex-job. They told me the cultivar name more than once, but I've forgotten, and I couldn't find it on-line. (I found plenty of names under which people are marketing yellow or chartreuse Schefflera actinophyllas, just not the name they were using for this particular plant. I'm pretty sure I'd recognize it if I saw it again.) I like chartreuse/yellow plants, but again, no money, no room, no light. So I left it.

The one plant I have bought since the last new plants post may be an error in judgment:

Peperomia rugosa.
A lot of the appeal was that I didn't know what it was. The stems looked a lot like those of a cane-type Begonia -- thick, watery, a bit translucent -- and the leaves were wrinkly in the manner of Peperomia caperata but thicker and slightly succulent-feeling, like with some Begonias. There was also a hint of Pilea mixed in there, from the deep grooves running the length of the leaf.

Initially, I assumed that it was probably hard to grow, and declined to buy it on those grounds. Then we went back to the same store a week later, and it looked the same, so I thought maybe this was a recommendation, or at least it was maybe less delicate than I'd originally thought. Also, when I bought it, I was kind of hoping it was an unusually exotic and symmetrical-leaved Begonia, even though I knew that was unlikely.

Of course it wasn't a Begonia. I asked at the UBC Indoor Plants forum, and they told me it was a Peperomia rugosa, which turned out to be correct, damn it. I sort of wish I could take it back, but so far, so good -- after thirteen days, it's only dropped a single leaf, so maybe it has more in common with Peperomias like obtusifolia and clusiifolia (which I do okay with) than with argyreia and caperata (not so much). Time will tell.

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

There's probably a name for the condition of having writer's block, but having it with everything you try to do, not just writing. I don't know what the term would be, but I lived the experience all day yesterday (Monday). Couldn't bring myself to water, couldn't get anywhere writing the blog, mildly depressed (the AdSense decision factored into this, but I don't think it was the main cause), couldn't even manage to take a nap. In the end, I wound up on the couch, watching Beavis and Butthead Do America, which is my emergency self-treatment of choice for depression. It worked, in that it cheered me up (it always does; that's why it's the treatment of last resort. It'd be the treatment of first resort, but I'm afraid overuse would decrease the potency, so Beavis and Butthead only get brought out in extreme situations, maybe once or twice a year), but it didn't make me any more able to get anything done.

Which is why we have transmitted light photos again. Although I traditionally try to come up with a comment about each photo individually, I'm going to stop doing that unless I can think of something worthwhile to say: not only does this save me time writing, it also saves me the agony of trying to come up with something clever (or interesting (or even remotely connected)).

For this particular batch, with one pink exception, we have a green-or-orange thing going on. Hope you like.

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

Homalomena 'Perma Press.' It's turned out to be a less-terrible houseplant than I was expecting, from my experiences with H. 'Emerald Gem.' The main problem is that it wants to be really, really big, so all the petioles are bent and twisted because I don't have a spot where they can extend themselves the full two feet that they want.

Neoregelia NOID. It's really, you know. Pink.


Anthurium andraeanum cv. I don't know what happened to cause the water-soaked patches here: I didn't do anything to the leaf as far as I know, and although it's happened before, it's pretty rare. But it makes for a more interesting Anthurium photo than usual.

Ficus benjamina 'Midnight.'

Hemerocallis NOID, flower petal.

Syngonium wendlandii. Bad photo, but it's a good plant. I'm happier with my S. wendlandii than I have been with any of the S. podophyllums, amazingly enough.

Codiaeum variegatum NOID (most likely 'Petra.').

Zingiber malaysianum.

Solenostemon scutellarioides 'Splish Splash.' Tied for my favorite picture from this batch.

Canna 'Tropicanna.' The other picture that's tied for favorite. Less dramatic than the previous Canna photo, but arguably that works in its favor. The other one was pretty intense.

[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.