They Grow Up So Fast, Part 4

Feeling kinda meh the last few days (long story), and there isn't much new stuff going on with the plants at the moment, and I've spent a lot of the last week or so being distracted by the SCP Foundation,¹ so not a lot to talk about.²

I have, however, noticed that some of my plants have grown significantly, and took pictures of them, so we can talk about that, perhaps. Or I can at least post pictures and say, Look! Look how they've grown significantly!

So first up is Vriesea imperialis, which started out as a tiny offset from a plant at work in 2008:

July 2008. 3" (8 cm) pot.
It grew very, very slowly, for a very, very long time, to the point where I wondered if it was worth trying to grow indoors at all, but has picked up speed lately. It still isn't as big as the parent plant was, but it's gotten large enough that it seems plausible that it might get there someday.

May 2012. 6" (15 cm) pot.
I'd almost sort of prefer that it didn't get as big as the parent, 'cause the parent was huge, but that's another issue entirely.

Up second, the Ficus maclellandii. It was always sort of a big plant --

Oct 2007. 6" (15 cm) pot. I realize it's hard to get a sense of the size from this photo; it's the earliest picture I have.
-- but it's become downright unmanageable since it got up-potted. Part of that was my fault, for putting it in a clay pot, but I think it the only pot I had in the right size when I decided to up-pot. Something like that.

May 2012. 14" (36 cm) pot.
Finally, I can't believe I haven't shown you the Araucaria bidwillii before this. I guess I had plenty of photos from different times in its profile, but still: that's been a while ago. The plant outgrew its spot in the plant room, so I moved it outside for the summer, and I realized while looking at it out there how much bigger it is than it used to be.

Oct 2007. 4" (10 cm) pot.
I really had no idea it would grow as fast as it has, back when I first got it, though I'm pleased that it does.

May 2012. 8" (20 cm) pot.
Don't know where I'm going to put it in the fall. The unfortunate part about having lots of plants that are doing well and getting bigger is that they take up more and more space. If the house grew at the same rate, we'd be fine. But.

Perhaps I should do an SCP write-up about a house that somehow (telepathically?) causes its residents to fill with hundreds of plants over a number of years until all their time is consumed with plant-tending and -propagating and then they collapse of exhaustion.

Probably too over the top to be believable, though.

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¹ Which is a group-written, fictional, wiki-type website with the premise that it contains the internal files of an organization called the SCP Foundation. "SCP" stands for "Secure, Contain, and Protect," and the files refer to objects, locations, people, other organisms, and the occasional really odd thing with "anomalous" properties. (Both the organization and the objects it contains are called "SCP," which is confusing.)
It's more or less a site for horror-fiction. I, inexplicably, have a high tolerance for scary stuff so I don't find most of it particularly freaksome, but some people report nightmares and stuff so YMMV. There's a whole complicated backstory for how the organization came into being (actually, there are several -- part of the fun is having no official canon as to what is "true" in the SCP universe and what's not), which is what I find most interesting, personally.
      As for individual files of interest, my definite personal favorite is the possibly-sentient, probably-trans-dimensional Japanese vending machine (and definitely also read the Experiment Log for SCP-261). Similar, also-good SCPs with extended experiment logs include The Clockworks and The Coffee Machine.
      For the more straightforward creepy horror stuff, my personal introduction to the site was via The Stairwell, which is pretty good. I Am a Toaster is both riotously funny (to me) and creepy as hell. The Sculpture was the original SCP, and still wildly popular, though I think they've done better stories since.
      I should warn that several of the SCP descriptions and photos are unimaginably squicky, The Mother of Them All and the photo for Hard-to-Destroy Reptile being way up there. The site also has an unfortunate tendency to use rape as the go-to worst thing possible, when they want to emphasize that a particular SCP is something really, really bad, as in Special Personnel Requirements and Expunged Data Released (the latter is also highly squicky), so you may not want to bother checking out the whole site for that reason. (I'm pretty sure the vending machine, clockworks, and coffee machine are all rape-free, though.)
      My interest is partially just because it's a whole lot of decent, unpredictable, easily available short fiction to read, and I get bored a lot, and partly because once I figured out how the site worked, I decided I really, really wanted to write a plant-related SCP. (They already have several, of varying quality and realism; my favorites are probably The Bladewood Grove, The Greenhouse, The Serrated Lawn, and Seed Bead. As you might expect from a horror-driven site, there's a strong tendency toward plants that are sharp and hurt people, and carnivorous, particularly human-eating, plants. Which are certainly scary things, but I think they're leaving a lot of territory unexplored.^a)
      I sort of have an idea for my own SCP, after thinking about it for a couple weeks, but it's not realistic enough to post here, and the group over there pride themselves on being incredibly harsh on submissions, particularly with respect to any ideas that have previously been used in any SCP ever (and at ~1200 SCPs, plus several that were deleted for being sucky, that's a lot of back material to be familiar with), so I may not want to put myself through that. We'll see.
      But so that's part of what I've been doing lately.
      ^a But then, considering what happens when they steer clear of the carnivorous and impossibly sharp plants (examples: 757, 843, 822, 1180), perhaps we don't want to encourage them to stray too far from the formula.
² (Besides the SCP Foundation, obviously.)

Assorted random plant events: Vriesea, Anthurium, Musa, Aeschynanthus

Just kind of throwing a bunch of stuff out there to see if anybody finds any of it interesting; I had intended a different post for today and then realized fairly late that I wasn't going to be able to finish it in time to post.


The Vriesea splendens started to bloom back in March, and it was one of those deals where I really meant to get a decent picture of it in bloom but never actually did. So I don't have very good documentation. But I do at least have documentation that it's going to let me try again; a new rosette is beginning to form. As I explained in the profile, it's normal for plants to produce a single pup to replace the dying original, and this is a gradual enough process that you wouldn't notice that the original plant is dying if you weren't paying close attention.


I have successfully sprouted quite a lot of the Anthurium seeds I started in July (and none of the Schlumbergera ones, which means that I did it wrong: I think there's supposed to be a step in there where one lets the seeds dry out briefly before planting them); these are them in August. I've added more to the container since this, which have also germinated pretty well, and the original Anthurium seedlings from September 2009 are still doing okay too, more or less -- two of the four that survived long enough to transplant choked out the other two, but it's looking more or less like an Anthurium now. The Anthurium seedlings are another case where I've meant to get more and better pictures; there's quite a bit more green in the tray than shows up in the above photo.


This is more of a question for the hive mind. The last time I posted about this plant, it was to say that it was re-suckering and growing more normally-spaced leaves now, after a long period of being obviously unhappy about something or another. As you can see in the above photo, the leaves are still pretty close together, but they look close together in the way they were when I first got the plant, not all wadded up at the top. However, what I've got now is a weird, bulbous thing a few inches up from the soil line. I assume this is related to the earlier problems, and I'm not exactly worried about it, but I'm wondering if there's anything I can do to make it less strange, or if I just have to wait until the stalk in question dies and is replaced by the suckers. It's a nice problem to have, since I didn't expect this plant to last half as long as it has (since May 2010); many bad experiences with Musa at work.


Finally, the Aeschynanthus longicaulis has been blooming nicely this year. The flowers are still not pretty, but even so, it's nice that there are so many of them. (Also: the plant itself has tripled in size since last year.) It's nice to feel like I'm doing something right.

Rumble Among the Jungle, Matches 2.1-2.4

Rules and Stuff
1) It's probably possible to vote more than once per poll, but please don't. If I believe that someone is voting repeatedly, I will throw out those results, repost the poll, and seriously question that person's priorities.
2) If you want to link to a poll on Twitter / Facebook / your blog / whatever and encourage your friends to come and pump up the support for your favorite plants, you are encouraged to do so.
3) You are also encouraged to leave comments on Rumble posts, if so moved.
4) All photos will enlarge if opened in a separate window/tab.
5) You can choose which plant is "best" according to whatever criteria you decide for yourself. My personal process is a bit convoluted.¹
6) All polls will be open for three days.

Results for matches 1.49-1.52:

In match 1.49, you bastards chose Adenium obesum over Episcia cvv., by a margin of 73 to 44, in what I am forced to conclude was a horribly misguided attempt to upset me. WELL IT DIDN'T WORK! I'M FINE! NOT UPSET AT ALL!²
Match 1.50 was quite close, a lot closer than I expected it would be, but in the end, Zamioculcas zamiifolia scraped together a victory over Alocasia amazonica 'Polly.' The score was 63 to 49.

Adenium and Zamioculcas will throw down in match 2.25, on 13 October.

Ficus benjamina cvv. defeated Begonia rex-cultorum in match 1.51, by a score of 70 to 44.
Finally, match 1.52 looked for a while like it was going to be a blowout -- Haworthia cvv. was at one point getting nearly 81% of the vote against Asplenium nidus / A. antiquum -- but some Asplenium supporters showed up at the last minute and reduced Haworthia's lead. Haworthia still wins, though, 80 to 39.
Ficus benjamina cvv. and Haworthia cvv. go up against one another on 13 October as well, in match 2.26.

And now, we begin round two.

Match 2.1
Clivia miniata cvv. vs. small hybrid Vriesea cvv.

Top: Clivia miniata. (Picture by Guérin Nicolas at Wikimedia Commons.) Bottom: NOID cv.

(All unidentified Vriesea hybrids.)





Match 2.2
Cryptanthus cvv. (earth star) vs. Tradescantia pallida (purple heart)

Clockwise from top left: C. 'Elaine,' C. 'Black Mystic,' NOID, NOID, NOID.

(Both T. pallida.)





Match 2.3
Saintpaulia cvv. (African violet) vs. Echinopsis spp.

Saintpaulia cvv.
Top row, L-R: NOID, assorted NOIDs, NOID.
Middle row, L-R: NOID, NOID, NOID.
Bottom row, L-R: 'Harmony's Red Star,' 'Mellow Magic' close-up, NOID.

Unidentified Echinopsis sp. Probably.





Match 2.4
Epipremnum aureum cvv. (pothos) vs. Crassula ovata/argentea/arborescens (jade plants)

Clockwise from top left: Epipremnum aureum 'Neon,' 'Marble Queen,' 'N'Joy,' trained on a totem.

Clockwise from top left: variegated Crassula ovata, C. ovata 'Gollum,' C. arborescens var. undulatifolia, C. ovata.





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¹ I'm deciding according to a hypothetical situation in which all of my houseplants are gone, as are all the other houseplants of the world, except for one producer/supplier/retailer. Said person is offering to restock me with one or the other of the plants in question but refuses to give me both. Which one would I choose?
² (*sob*)

Rumble Among the Jungle, Matches 1.61-1.64

Rules and Stuff
1) It's probably possible to vote more than once per poll, but please don't. If I believe that someone is voting repeatedly, I will throw out those results, repost the poll, and seriously question that person's priorities.
2) If you want to link to a poll on Twitter / Facebook / your blog / whatever and encourage your friends to come and pump up the support for your favorite plants, you are encouraged to do so.
3) You are also encouraged to leave comments on Rumble posts, if so moved.
4) All photos will enlarge if opened in a separate window/tab.
5) You can choose which plant is "best" according to whatever criteria you decide for yourself. My personal process is a bit convoluted.¹
6) All polls will be open for three days.

Results for matches 1.45 to 1.48:

In match 1.45, Dracaena deremensis cvv. beat Nematanthus cvv., 62 to 44. (The Asparagaceae are having a good first round, in general; I have plans to discuss the results by family, once the first-round results are all in.)
Match 1.46 saw Gardenia jasminoides losing to Schefflera actinophylla / arboricola by 47 to 65, which I predict is going to upset some Gardenia-lovers.

Dracaena deremensis cvv. will next compete on 12 October, when they go up against Schefflera actinophylla and S. arboricola in match 2.23.

Match 1.47 was the one I was most interested in. I knew there are rabid fans of Hedera helix out there, but I wasn't sure how many. I still don't know exactly, but it's not enough of them to achieve victory over the rhizomatous Begonias: Hedera lost, 45 to 64.
Finally, in match 1.48, Sansevieria trifasciata cvv. defeated Lithops cvv., 77 to 46. This is about what I would have expected for most plants going up against Sansevieria, though.

Rhizomatous Begonias face Sansevieria trifasciata cvv. next, in match 2.24, on 12 October.

And now, the FINAL SET of first-round votes:

Match 1.61
Vriesea splendens (flaming sword) vs. Hippeastrum cvv. (amaryllis)

(All are Vriesea splendens, probably the cv. 'Splenreit.')

L-R: Hippeastrum NOID, Hippeastrum NOID (probably 'Apple Blossom?'), Hippeastrum NOID.
Left picture donated by Tigerdawn. Right picture is from Arpingstone, via Wikimedia Commons.





Match 1.62
Agave spp. vs. Cattleya alliance orchids

Clockwise from top left: Agave victoriae-reginae, A. americana medio-picta alba, NOID (maybe A. desmettiana?), A. marmorata.

Clockwise from top left: Cattleya aurantiaca, Potinara Eye Candy 'Sweet Sensation,' Sophrolaeliocattleya Hazel Boyd 'Debbie,' Potinara Eye Candy 'Mellow Yellow.'





Match 1.63
Opuntia spp./cvv. (prickly pear cactus) vs. Codiaeum variegatum cvv. (croton)

Various unidentified Opuntia spp.; the top left and bottom right plants might be O. microdasys. Center bottom plant might be too, but a different variety.

Clockwise from left: Codiaeum variegatum 'Petra,' 'Picasso's Paintbrush,' 'Revolutions,' 'Mrs. Iceton.'





Match 1.64
Calathea spp./cvv. vs. Radermachera sinica (china doll)

Clockwise from top left: Calathea ornata, C. roseo-picta 'Medallion' (?), C. makoyana, C. insignis, C. zebrina.

(Both Radermachera sinica.)





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¹ I'm deciding according to a hypothetical situation in which all of my houseplants are gone, as are all the other houseplants of the world, except for one producer/supplier/retailer. Said person is offering to restock me with one or the other of the plants in question but refuses to give me both. Which one would I choose?

Rumble Among the Jungle, Matches 1.1-1.4

Rules and Stuff
1) It's probably possible to vote more than once per poll, but please don't. If I believe that someone is voting repeatedly, I will throw out those results, repost the poll, and seriously question that person's priorities.
2) If you want to link to a poll on Twitter / Facebook / your blog / whatever and encourage your friends to come and pump up the support for your favorite plants, you are encouraged to do so.
3) You are also encouraged to leave comments on Rumble posts, if so moved.
4) All photos will enlarge if opened in a separate window/tab.
5) You can choose which plant is "best" according to whatever criteria you decide for yourself. My personal process is a bit convoluted.¹
6) All polls will be open for three days.

Match 1.1
Kalanchoe tomentosa (panda plant) vs. Clivia miniata cvv.

Clockwise from top left: Kalanchoe tomentosa, K. tomentosa flower, K. tomentosa, K. tomentosa 'Chocolate Soldier.'

Top: Clivia miniata. (Picture by Guérin Nicolas at Wikimedia Commons.) Bottom: NOID cv.




Match 1.2
Peperomia obtusifolia cvv. (baby rubber plant) vs. small hybrid Vriesea cvv.

Left: P. obtusifolia 'Golden Gate.' Right top and bottom: P. obtusifolia variegata.

(All unidentified Vriesea hybrids.)




Match 1.3
Ficus elastica (rubber plant) vs. Cryptanthus cvv. (earth star)

Clockwise from top left: F. elastica 'Burgundy,' NOID, 'Tineke' (or some similar cv.), 'Burgundy.'

Clockwise from top left: C. 'Elaine,' C. 'Black Mystic,' NOID, NOID, NOID.




Match 1.4
Yucca guatemalensis (spineless yucca) vs. Tradescantia pallida (purple heart)

Clockwise from top left: Y. guatemalensis, NOID variegated cv., NOID variegated cv., sprouts from cane section cuttings.

(Both T. pallida.)




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¹ I'm deciding according to a hypothetical situation in which all of my houseplants are gone, as are all the other houseplants of the world, except for one producer/supplier/retailer. Said person is offering to restock me with one or the other of the plants in question but refuses to give me both. Which one would I choose?

Errata, Taxonomy

I know the Errata posts are not the most fascinating, but I feel sort of obliged -- if I'm going to be responsible for spreading bad information, the least I can do is post the good information when I find what it is. Also I figure some of y'all are nerdy enough to care about these things for their own sakes.

So. In the most recent round of name changes, we have:

Maranta leuconeura kerchoviana.
Maranta leuconeura kerchovEana --> M. l. kerchovIana. It's probably a bad assumption, but I've been assuming that the "correct" version of names is probably the one that shows up most often in Google searches, at least when we're talking about spelling variants. "Kerchoveana" is also pretty widespread, and I'm not positive it's wrong, but it seemed worth changing anyway, since I was already there to update all the posts to link M. l. kerchoviana to the M. l. erythroneura profile, having realized that the odds are very, very slim that I'll ever write a separate profile for M. l. kerchoviana.

Bryophyllum tubiflorum.
Kalanchoe tubiflora has become Bryophyllum tubiflorum.

Aloe 'Doran Black.'
The eternal alternation between Aloe 'Doran Black' and Aloe 'DorIan Black' is once again in a 'Doran' phase, and this had better be the last time I have to change this, goddamn it.

Anthurium crystallinum 'Mehani.'
I've decided I'm pretty sure that Anthurium 'Mehani' is actually A. crystallinum 'Mehani,' as certain other websites claim.

Plectranthus verticillatus.
Plectranthus nummularius got switched to P. verticillatus. I've been calling it nummularius for so long that I don't expect I'll be able to remember this, but we'll see. I pretty much never shut up about this plant, so if nothing else I got a lot of practice typing "verticillatus:" who knows, maybe it'll help me remember.

Phlebodium aureum 'Mandianum.'
Polypodium aureum 'Mandianum' and 'Blue Hare' have been changed to Phlebodium aureum 'Mandianum' / 'Blue Hare.' This is also going to be a tough one for me to remember.

Albuca bracteata.
Ornithogalum bracteatum and O. longibracteatum are now obsolete names for Albuca bracteata. This is also going to be impossible for me to remember, as Ornithogalum has been the name for as long as I've been reading plant books, and has a bit better memory hook ("ornitho" means "bird;" I don't know what the "-galum" part means) than Albuca (no clue, on the meaning of "albuca"). But I will do my best.

Vriesea imperialis.
Alcantarea imperialis becomes Vriesea imperialis, which was long overdue; most people were well ahead of me on that one already.

Justicia scheidweileri.
I'd mentally switched names already, and was using the correct name in the new posts, but I finally went back and changed Porphyrocoma pohliana to Justicia scheidweileri in the old posts.

Astrophytum ornatum.
Finally, in one spot I referred to Astrophytum ornatUM as A. ornatA: ornatum is correct, and this has been changed.

I'm aware of certain other incorrect plant names being used here at PATSP, but I can only stand to change names for just so long before it becomes unbearably tedious. Also: I just don't think some of the changes can be correct (Dracaena marginata --> D. reflexa); in other cases it would be incredibly difficult to go back and make the changes to every post in which the plant appears (Dracaena deremensis --> D. fragrans); and sometimes I just find the new name aesthetically displeasing and am hoping that they'll change it back even though I don't think they will (Synadenium grantii --> Euphorbia umbellata).

Now go and get on with your Saturday.

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.