These Damn Plants

Nymphaea alba at the North Carolina Botanical Gardens, 24 August...

squeezebottle — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 23:56:17 -0400

Nymphaea alba at the North Carolina Botanical Gardens, 24 August 2012.

Elephantopus tomentosus growing in situ around Chapel Hill, NC....

squeezebottle — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 23:45:11 -0400

Elephantopus tomentosus growing in situ around Chapel Hill, NC. This is one of my favorite flowers. Unfortunately this one had already finished blooming for the year, but when they do, their flowers are pretty, though insignificant, and look like this. It is easy to guess they are members of Asteraceae, the daisy family.

Here’s a better picture of the Cycnodes, in better light,...

squeezebottle — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 19:11:10 -0400

Here’s a better picture of the Cycnodes, in better light, with more blooms opened.

This is my most consistent bloomer, bar none. Cycnodes is called...

squeezebottle — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 11:49:00 -0400

I was going to post this one a few days ago and caption it "soon"

This is my most consistent bloomer, bar none. Cycnodes is called a “nothogenus” because it indicates that this orchid in question is an intergeneric hybrid. What that means is that it is a cross between two closely aligned, but different, genera. This is quite common in the orchid kingdom, but less so among other flowers. For instance, I’m pretty sure you can’t cross a rose with a strawberry even though they are both in subfamily Rosoideae. Anyway. This one, Cycnodes Wine Delight ‘Jem’ is a cross between Cycnoches lehmannii and Mormodes sinuata. Do you see what they did there? Cycnoches and Mormodes. Cycnoches is a nice looking genus, they are collectively known as the “swan orchids” because some fanciful Victorian believed the flowers looked like nodding or flying swans.

Mormodes is another very interesting genus. Orchids are, far and away, androgynous as far as flower anatomy is concerned. With very few exceptions, there are no male and female flowers; each flower can be fertilized and produce seed, with many orchid species being self-fertile. In other words, all you have to do is knock the pollinia onto the stigma and boom. Mormodes is not like that. Each plant, given maximum health and perfect growing conditions, will grow female and male flowers at different times. This property was apparently passed on to Cycnodes, at least on occasion, because I got two sets of flowers last year. The female flowers are the ones you see above; big, red, showy, intensely fragrant (sort of like cherry syrup). The male flowers, on the other hand, were like all men: wan, listless, musky, pale, and unimpressive. They also produced so much sap they could hardly even open on their own. I had to use a toothpick to prize the petals apart at the tips. Who knew even male flowers could be unctuous.

For any person who doesn’t think they could be an orchid grower because they’re “too hard,” I would recommend giving Cycnodes a shot. As long as they are potted in well-draining media, they almost can’t be overwatered during growing season. If I let even a single day go by without drenching the thing I’d start to see the pseudobulbs start to shrivel. Maxillarias are like that too but that’s another story. The best part about Cycnodes is that it requires two distinct seasons. After it blooms and the leaves fall off, you just stop watering it entirely and ignore it. It shrivels up, looks dreadful, many of the roots will die back, you feel a little bad for it. But then, when it starts getting warmer and sunnier, it’ll poke out a new leaf tip, and then you just start soaking the thing and it will be like it can’t grow too many new roots.

Plus I like anything with super fragrant flowers. The flowers aren’t even completely open yet, which means that the scent hasn’t come anywhere near reaching its peak, and I can stand at the top of the stairs and their cherry soda fragrance is all I can smell. The picture doesn’t even really capture how deep red the flowers are, and they’re very thick and waxy. Just gorgeous.

Over the past few days this thing has been under attack by spidermites and I have no idea where they even goddamn came from. I filled a sprayer with 91% isopropanol and just coated the sucker, and now they are all gone. That’s another thing to say about waxy flowers: alcohol doesn’t damage them as easily.

Summer brought a whole lot of nothing as far as flowers were...

squeezebottle — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 10:31:00 -0400

Summer brought a whole lot of nothing as far as flowers were concerned. I also had a few fatalities which inevitably come with a big move; at least we moved to a region that had a climate that is a TEENSY bit (read: a ton) more amenable to orchids’ tastes, so just over the past couple months I’ve already had an explosion of new growth. We’ll see if that translates to more flowers in the winter and spring, even though at this point all of my winter bloomers are done for and if anything else blooms in the winter it’ll be off season for it. One can still hope.

This one is some sort of Zygopetalinae; it wasn’t labeled so I can never be for sure, but I have it in my books as Zygonisia Cynosure ‘Blue Birds’. Of course I’d never claim that in any sort of official capacity, but it looks REMARKABLY similar to other specimens that are confirmed as Cynosure, and that name is a lot catchier than “Unlabeled Zygopetalum hybrid.” There really aren’t, to my knowledge, too many hybrids of Zygopetalum just because there aren’t really too many species of Zygopetalum, and the ones that exist are all very similar in appearance. Zygo. maculatum, Zygo. mackaii, Zygo. graminifolium, and Zygo. intermedium, for instance, are remarkably similar. Likewise, the presumptive hybridizer, Acacallis/Aganisia cyanea, has a distinctive shape that I believe I see present in these petals. Plus, every pure Zygopetalum has dappled green/brown tepals and a purple labellum, and this has a purple labellum but dappled white and purple tepals (a quality of Acacallis cyanea). Then again, it is always easier to conjecture when you are already assuming the outcome you want.

Regardless, it is intensely fragrant, just like its presumptive forebears in Zygopetalum, and presents itself, with little variance, in purple and violet tones dappled with white, which is a color combination I find most appealing. The blooms exclusively come in twos, but sometimes there will be more than one spike from the same pseudobulb, resulting in multiples thereof. I originally had two spikes on here, but a shock of poor weather made the tank oppressively dark and humid, which killed one of the spikes when it was most sensitive. Alas, there is always next year.

You may recall, only a couple months ago, I had given up on this...

squeezebottle — Fri, 18 May 2012 15:22:41 -0400

You may recall, only a couple months ago, I had given up on this thing as dead. Well, what a difference a fresh sterile potting medium can make! After repotting it, it set about blooming nearly immediately, with three new canes shooting up in short order afterwards. Additionally, there are two keikis forming: one on a dormant cane, and another near the base of the same cane that is blooming. This one is one of my all-time favorites, Dendrobium Green Lantern, which is a mix of Den. cruentum and Den. formosum (I believe a 75-25 mix).

I did have a minor mishap where I dropped my watering can on the new growths. I’m still not sure whether they’re going to die (again, ugh) or power through. It was more than a week ago and it seems to be holding steady. Hopefully the growing core was not damaged and I’ll only get a little bit of die-back on the outermost leaves, but honestly it’s too soon to tell. If it hasn’t grown any more in a month I’ll know that the new canes are toast. But hey, at least the keikis are doing well!

This was sold to me, in November, as Dendrobium anosmum. I had...

squeezebottle — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:04:00 -0400

This was sold to me, in November, as Dendrobium anosmum. I had no reason to doubt the seller; he grows, shows, and sells orchids for a living. He seemed to know what he was talking about. Besides, it looked like a Den. anosmum; how many pendulous Dendrobiums can there be?

Well, I noticed last night when I was watering it that the buds were opening. This was very surprising to me, because they hardly had any color to them, I figured I had at least another couple weeks before they darkened to the characteristic lilac color that I expect Den. anosmum buds to be. I shrugged it off, initially, as this being some strange, lighter-colored cultivar (which was annoying in and of itself, because I wanted an ordinary, species, Den. anosmum).

Imagine my surprise this morning when I go in to water it again, and the buds have fully opened to reveal… It is not Den. anosmum at all. I had been sold Den. aphyllum. This was really disappointing because I sought out Den. anosmum, I bought this plant from this guy because it was a blooming-size specimen of Den. anosmum, and there was evidence that it had already bloomed, in which case he should have been able to tell that it was not Den. anosmum. The two flowers look nothing alike. For one, Den. aphyllum has a fuzzy yellow labellum.

This is, nevertheless, a beautiful flower. You can tell I didn’t winter it long enough because it’s still got leaves, but that didn’t evidently interrupt its willingness to bloom this spring. There are not nearly as many blooms as there should be because I had a slug get to it over the winter, destroyed every single flower bud on one of the canes before I caught it. Those things can do some major damage overnight, as this one did. Oh well, until next year I suppose. There are some keikis growing off of this one that I will eventually break off and repot, so if anybody’s interested in a Den. aphyllum, I’ll have some to spare at some point.

The saddest part is that this seller had a lot of plants that were interesting, but if he sells mislabeled plants, I won’t be buying any more from him. This is just not acceptable in the orchid trade.

Edited to add: Because of the absolute frustrating endeavor that labeling orchids turns out to be, even calling this Den. aphyllum seems to be incorrect. Like Den. pierardii as well, these all seem to be incorrect labels applied variously to different plants at different times, and it seems that it is now, actually, called Den. cucullatum. I hate everything.

squeezebottle: I’m just going to do a post spam here, I’ve had...

squeezebottle — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 23:02:48 -0400

squeezebottle:

I’m just going to do a post spam here, I’ve had these pictures piling up on my phone for a while and finally got around to dumping them onto the computer.

This one is a rose, obviously, of the Portland variety (I’ll often call it a Damask, but evidently the two are different), called Comte de Chambord. I didn’t do any fiddling with the colors in this photo whatsoever, they really are that intense. They’re actually a bit more intense in real life, but this photo really did a pretty good job capturing the color. They are also intensely fragrant; the entire bush is in bloom right now and you get knocked over by the most beautiful rose scent you can imagine as soon as you walk out the back door.

squeezebottle: This one is a Hybrid Tea rose called Garden...

squeezebottle — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 23:02:18 -0400

squeezebottle:

This one is a Hybrid Tea rose called Garden Party. It is a very pure white rose, with the tips of the petals kissed in pink. Even on the same bush, at the same time, some will be pinker than others; I have no idea why. It is also scented, though not nearly as crazy strong as the Comte de Chambord. These roses smell like how I sort of conceptualize how roses “should” smell. Not overpowering, but not entirely scentless either (like the long stem cut roses).

I never understand why anybody would want to spend 20 or 30 dollars on a dozen cut roses when you can just grow roses and have them in great abundance for 6-8 months out of the year. There is remarkably little time during the year when roses don’t grow; some varieties even thrive in USDA Zone 3, which is god damn freezing if you ask me.

squeezebottle: A bud on the Comte de Chambord. It’s remarkable...

squeezebottle — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 23:01:51 -0400

squeezebottle:

A bud on the Comte de Chambord. It’s remarkable how all of those petals fit in to such a small package. I find the buds on this one to be particularly beautiful. Sometimes I’ll just cut them at this stage, put them in a bud vase, and let them bloom on the kitchen counter.

First roses of the spring are starting to come out. I usually...

squeezebottle — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 14:17:35 -0400

First roses of the spring are starting to come out. I usually don’t go for red roses, but this variety was just so striking. Though it should be a crime, when I bought it it was not labeled, so I have no idea what the variety is. It is, obviously, a dwarf, however.

Hippeastrum in full bloom. I was honestly not aware of this, but...

squeezebottle — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:04:24 -0400

Hippeastrum in full bloom. I was honestly not aware of this, but it is actually quite fragrant. A very delightful spiciness that seems to get a bit stronger at night. I love walking by it.

The Hippeastrum finally opened at some point last night....

squeezebottle — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 17:46:01 -0400

The Hippeastrum finally opened at some point last night. I’m sure it was very dramatic, going from being wrapped up in the sheath to the large flower buds suddenly dropping out, wish I could have seen it. Maybe next year I’ll have a Hippeastrum vigil. Apparently Hippeastrum always has four flowers come out of one stalk. You can see there are two well-developed buds, one less-developed one, and one just starting.

Behind it, you can see the second (and third) Pescatorea. You may remember a couple months ago I got the Pescatorea cerina off of ebay, which turned out to be three plants in one, and that I had read that it was a cool-too-warm growing epiphyte and so I decided to do an experiment. Well, I think the experiment has concluded. The plant, which I put in finely broken bark medium and placed in a very bright, warm window has done very well. New leaf growth, very vigorous new root growth, altogether a great looking plant. The other two, which were smaller and I had put in moss medium and down in the cooler (but still bright) section of the basement, have not done a thing. They have not deteriorated, but they have also not grown at all. This leads me to conclude that the cool temperatures put the plants into stasis, and the warmer temperatures tell them to grow. For that reason, I moved the two basement one (in the same pot) upstairs to the same window where the other one is. We’ll see what happens.

I moved my Dendrobium lindleyi upstairs, as it has become nearly entirely dessicated, and so I’m also starting to water it vigorously. Hopefully I’ll get the damn thing to bloom. The Den. anosmum has started to erupt in buds, so I’ve started to water it again more frequently, but am leaving it down in the basement until the buds become better developed, in which case I’ll move it to successively warmer (and brighter) windows to bloom.

Other spring bloomers, the Dendrochilum and the Maxillarias, are not showing any signs of activity. But I seem to remember the Maxillarias sort of flowered out of nowhere and had no real signs they were going to do so until they were blooming so I guess I won’t give up on them. The Dendrochilum has never bloomed so I don’t know what its deal is. Some people have suggested that it is “fussy” about being repotted, and I have had to repot it just about every year for various and stupid reasons, so maybe it’s my fault. We’ll see.

Went to the Charlotte Botanical Garden, took some photos.

squeezebottle — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 17:36:00 -0400

Went to the Charlotte Botanical Garden, took some photos.

No pictures, but that Hippeastrum from the previous post has exceeded the height of that window. The...

squeezebottle — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 02:19:15 -0400

No pictures, but that Hippeastrum from the previous post has exceeded the height of that window. The flower spike is now 28” long. Still no sign of opening or even changing color. This thing is going to be epic. All doubts about not being able to raise Amaryllids, completely dispelled. The weather forecast is so warm that I’ve moved the Lycoris, Colocasia, and Persea outside, and moved the Hippeastrum downstairs, hopefully it will decide that it is tall enough and bloom. I’ll probably have to move it to an even larger pot before the season is even through. Signs of bud growth on the Dendrobium anosmum. Moved the Dendrobium lindleyi upstairs, started watering again. Hopefully this will be a flowery spring.

This is a (bad, horribly backlit, late afternoon) photo of one...

squeezebottle — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 17:26:57 -0500

This is a (bad, horribly backlit, late afternoon) photo of one of those “Amaryllis” (actually Hippeastrum) hybrids that you can get as a “kit” near the checkout lane at Lowes for $5 around the end of December and the beginning of January. I got this last year on super-blowout (they were trying to get rid of the ones that didn’t sell, and that had already started to bloom) for I think something like $1-$2. The bulb was covered in mildew, the flower spike had aborted, and the leaves were broken. Well, I figured that I liked the foliage, so I peeled off all the mildewy papery outer layers of the bulb, rinsed it down really well to remove any residual mold, broke off the damaged leaves, and stuck it outside in some dirt. A couple months later I had approximately 10 leaves that were 2-3 feet long, and it kept going from there. In fact, it was still going strong, and had sent off another bulb when I decided to stop watering it, chop off all its leaves, and shove it in the basement around the end of last October.

About 3 weeks ago I decided that I guessed it was time to replant it in a larger pot (though not much larger; I may repot it again after it finishes flowering) and see if I could get it to bloom. Just about a day after I started watering it again, it started with the huge leaves again and I was initially pretty disappointed because there didn’t seem to be any sign of a flower stalk, despite the vigorous leaf growth. They are usually sold with only a flower, but no leaves to speak of, so I was worried that I had missed the boat on flowering, had not wintered it long enough, etc.

However, only about 1 week ago did I start seeing a flower peek out from aside where the leaves were growing from, and then man did it go wild. On average, the flower stalk has been growing from 2-4 inches per day and showing no sign of stopping or opening and is now 21” tall. The leaves are already around 25-30” long. The leaves are so long that I need to use the window as support for them, since left on their own they break under their own weight (and then more leaves grow out to replace them). All in all, a pretty good payoff for a $2 flower. Plus if last year is any sign, I’ll probably get some vegetative self-propagation and soon have MORE Hippeastrums.

This is a cultivar of the more common Ming Aralia, Polyscias...

squeezebottle — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 16:37:26 -0500

This is a cultivar of the more common Ming Aralia, Polyscias fruticosa. The cultivar, which has been around for forever (in house plant terms), is called ‘Elegans,’ and the common name is the “Parsley-Leaf Ming Aralia.” A name which should be fairly obvious as to its origins. Aralias are in the Ivy family; or, I should say, aralias are the ivy family, as the common ivies like English Ivy (Hedera helix) are also classified into Araliaceae. The comparison in leaf format should be fairly obvious, especially in this “parsley-leaved” version.

I must admit that I prefer the appearance of the “regular” Ming Aralia as opposed to the ‘Elegans’ version, but Elegans is far more compact (that picture you see there is a full-sized plant), and, as I understand it, a bit hardier. Ming Aralias are pretty famous for doing well for a certain amount of time, and then suddenly dying for no apparent reason and never coming back. Usually this can more or less be associated with a sudden drop in humidity, but sometimes they like to die just to keep you on your toes. They are, surprisingly enough, a relatively high-light plant. At least this one likes to have about as much light as my Cattleyas, which is not a small amount of light.

It seems to have first worked on building up height (there are actually three separate plants in here), and now that that is apparently through, it’s now developing the understory. I like the full, layered look that it’s getting now. When I first got it it was just a few fluffs on top of relatively bare stems, and it looked a bit weedy. I expect I’ll have to move it into a larger pot at some point, but probably not for another year or so, since it grows relatively slowly. I wish I could say the same thing about my Spathiphyllum, which continues to double in size every 3-4 months. The plant is probably only a couple years old at most, but I have no idea what the lifespan of these things are so I have no idea what it’s going to do next.

If I wasn’t so terrified of my cats devouring everything green they can reach (which they do) I’d be more tempted to get a full-sized, regular Ming Aralia to complement the set. However those have such long, delicate, wispy leaves, which sounds like kitty crack to me and I expect all they would do is stand there, devour leaves, vomit, and then eat more leaves until there was nothing left. I briefly had a Dracaena (marginata cultivar), and that exact described event occurred. No matter where it was, those long, grassy leaves put the cats into some sort of crazed, roughage-fueled mania that would not cease until the plant was destroyed. Now, if it can’t hang from a window, stay outside, or deal with non-ideal light conditions while up on a stand that the cats can’t jump on to, it doesn’t have a home here. Oh well.

The neighbors have these planted all along the walk. For a...

squeezebottle — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 12:19:49 -0500

The neighbors have these planted all along the walk. For a couple weeks in the spring, the sight is quite stunning. No idea what they are though.

These have been erupting all up and down my street. I had never...

squeezebottle — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 12:18:03 -0500

These have been erupting all up and down my street. I had never seen them before, but I guess that’s more on account of never having noticed, since obviously they were probably there last year as well. They are very pretty purplish-white flowers with dark purple streaks down the backs of the petals and sepals, and occasionally the stripes “bleed through” to the front. The pistils and stamens are hidden a bit in a tube that extends back behind the plane of the petals, which I think adds a unique touch to the bloom. The most unique thing about these plants, though, is the fact that when you crush the leaves or pick the flowers, it gives off the most overwhelming scent of onions. And indeed it is in allioideae, the onion family.

The plant is called Ipheion uniflorum. It was formerly classified as Tristagma, so you might find it under that name as well. Commonly though, it’s just referred to as spring starflower. Like other onions (and indeed like all amaryllids), it’s a bunching, bulbous, and simple-leaved. Unlike other onions though (and by this I mean the true onions), each flower stem only has one bloom, though each plant can send up more than one flowering stem. Because of the lateral growth due to the bunching bulbs, it forms occasionally quite large mats, although it’d have to be left alone for quite some time to really start taking over. A lot of people on the street have already been mowing the poor little things over, cloaking the entire street in the scent of cut chives.

You can probably guess my opinion of people who callously mow over wildflowers.

Another view of the Den. Sea Mary ‘Snow King.’...

squeezebottle — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 10:33:00 -0500

Another view of the Den. Sea Mary ‘Snow King.’ It’s a bad photo, but a neat effect with the diffuse light pouring in through it from the window.