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What type of plants are you interested in growing?
This poll is closed.
Perennials! 142 20.91%
Annuals! 30 4.42%
Woody plants! 62 9.13%
Succulent plants! 171 25.18%
Tropical plants! 60 8.84%
Non-vascular plants are the best! 31 4.57%
Screw you, I'd rather eat them! 183 26.95%
Total: 679 votes
[Edit Poll (moderators only)]

 
HappyHippo
Nov 19, 2003
Do you have an Air Miles Card?
So someone left this in the garbage room. I adopted it and repotted it (it was in a much smaller pot):



Does anyone know the species?

The reason I'm posting however is that in the process of repotting some spines fell out. Do spines typically grow back?



Sorry if the pictures aren't the best.

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unprofessional
Apr 26, 2007
All business.
Those spines are gone - it happens. Pretty sure it's some form of Echinocereus.

Your potting mix looks high in organics. More than 50% should be inorganics, like vermiculite or turface, otherwise you risk rotting your nice litle cacti.

Kubricize
Apr 29, 2010
I have a question about orchids. I got this one in early May for $5. It was on the last one at the store.




Since then it has been doing beautifully but it has slowly been loosing it's flowers, from the original 12 it had, it's down to three, one on one spike, two on the other. Once the last two fall off do I trim the spike back or leave it alone? One of it's larger leaves has also start flopping in the middle because of how big it's gotten, hiving it a bit of a dog eared look. The leaf itself is fine though, no breaks or bruising where it folds so I'm assuming it's not sick or anything but should I prop it up just in case? I'll have to post pictures of the rest of my plants later when I water them.

unprofessional
Apr 26, 2007
All business.
If the stalk stays green, leave it; you'll often get smaller reblooms.

Does your leaf have wrinkles in it? If it's still nice and thick, no worries.

Your orchid is a Phalaenopsis, if you're interested in researching them.

TheMightyHandful
Dec 8, 2008


So I've put a few plans in. It's going to take a lot more than I thought but looking really nice

FlamingLiberal
Jan 18, 2009

Would you like to play a game?



Your orchid is fine, everything it's doing is normal. I also agree that you should hold off on cutting off spikes until they are no longer green. I've had several phalenopsis grow new buds on the same spikes.

Hummingbirds
Feb 17, 2011

Can someone tell me what these fuckers on my mom's lantanas and geraniums are?




I'm home for a week and she asked me to get rid of them for her.

Bees on Wheat
Jul 18, 2007

I've never been happy



QUAIL DIVISION
Buglord

Eeyo posted:

Personally I like the look of wilder lawns, but then again I'm not a homeowner so it might just be my enviro-hippy mindset showing. I think it's reason enough to plant a more diverse and local variety of plants so you can be more water conscious. Where I live there are a couple of houses that don't have traditional lawns, they just let non-grass plants grow wild on their property (although they probably planted and took care of them). I bet their neighbors hate it and it might have implications to your property value or something like that. For context, I live in a fairly liberal area so it might not be advisable to do anything drastic in an area where they are more attached to lawns. And there might be some laws against it or your homeowner's association may not allow it. Unfortunately I can't help you with grass choice I just want to wish you luck!

Thanks! I really like diverse landscapes too. Uniform plantings of things are boring and awful, and if one plant gets diseased, they're all hosed. Having more diversity means I get bees and butterflies to visit, which also helps with my vegetable gardens. :buddy:

I don't think we have a HOA here, or at least the landlord didn't mention it. If we do, it's the most lax thing ever because there are some ugly yards and houses around here. It's not a bad neighborhood or anything; some people just don't give a drat about having a perfectly manicured lawn or fitting in with everyone. There's a house down the street painted bright yellow, with green and red trim (I think it's a daycare center), and another house with a huge mural of Smurfs at a nightclub painted on the garage. I guess we're pretty liberal here too.

Actually, having flowers or gravel instead of grass is pretty common around here. The house I lived in when I was a teenager had a small hill with flowers and trees out front that my mom cultivated. I drove by the other day and the current owners had ripped everything out and replaced it with a flat, uniformly green lawn, and I thought it was the ugliest thing. Makes the house and the yard look much smaller, too. That yard used to have cherry plums, apples, crabapples, cherries, grapes, and pomegranates growing there, between a good mix of annual and perennial flowers, and a nice privacy fence we had built. :smith:

MrGreenShirt
Mar 14, 2005

Hell of a book. It's about bunnies!

Hummingbirds posted:

Can someone tell me what these fuckers on my mom's lantanas and geraniums are?




I'm home for a week and she asked me to get rid of them for her.

Your pictures are a little blurry, but based on the size and color I'd guess either mealybugs or whiteflies. Looking at them closely mealybugs will be flat grubby looking things covered in a powdery waxy material often with a row of filaments along their lateral edges, while the whiteflies as adults look like tiny white moths and as larva are flat grubby looking things without a powdery coat and lateral filaments.

For both I've had found that washing the leaves by hand with a mild detergent will often eliminate the infestation, and if they come back then spraying on a pyrethroid insecticide (like pyrethrin, resmethrin or bifenthrin) once a day for two weeks will definitely get rid of any hangers on.

Edit: On second glance the cottony stuff in your first picture definitely looks like wooly whitefly larva. Good luck!

MrGreenShirt fucked around with this message at 04:19 on Aug 14, 2013

HappyHippo
Nov 19, 2003
Do you have an Air Miles Card?

unprofessional posted:

Those spines are gone - it happens. Pretty sure it's some form of Echinocereus.

Your potting mix looks high in organics. More than 50% should be inorganics, like vermiculite or turface, otherwise you risk rotting your nice litle cacti.

Too bad, thanks for the info.

EagerSleeper
Feb 3, 2010

by R. Guyovich
A CELEBRATION OF MONOCOTS

Sing to me, o Heavenly Muse,
of those often ignored and maligned souls,
those Monocots.
Who since the day of their birth have been doomed
to dwell forever more under the shade of the chosen brother,
the Dicots,
who hast outgrown them in height.

Tell of their triumphs,
how so they did cross the land and seas,
and come to rest upon high peaks,
mud plains,
and arctic ice,
that caused the mightiest of the dicots, the trees, to weep and gnash toothed leaves.

Regale me once more of the daylily,
which ate the summer sun's seering fires,
and made its splendor from it;


I don't know what I'm saying here so anyway. Monocots are pretty cool, eh? They're much more than simply vining plants. We got Agaves, pineapple plants and aloes which grow in a rosette shape. We have grasses, which are responsible for most of the world's sources of grain. And many monocots can become trees as well, despite not having secondary woody growth like dicots do.

Anyway, if you found yourself interested in a monocot, than you should be happy to know that they're extremely easy to propagate from cuttings since they have an ability to form adventitious roots. That means that they can form roots anywhere (and quite readily) regardless of nodes or internodes.

You'll be happy to see how hardy of abuse monocot can be while still being happy!

EagerSleeper fucked around with this message at 17:20 on Aug 16, 2013

Smugworth
Apr 18, 2003

Speaking of the Norfolk Pine from the last page, any tips on keeping one smaller/shrub sized? I have one that I got a year or so ago that's thriving, it was maybe 2 feet tall when I got it and the main stalk is pushing 4 now. Ideally I'd like to keep it this height (or prune it back a bit?)

unprofessional
Apr 26, 2007
All business.
Every year when it pushes new growth, trim the leader down to about an inch mid-june or early july. The new buds will set at this point. You'll want to do the same on all the branches, or else you'll end up with a very fat squat plant. Eventually you should end up with a nice full tree. This is the same method christmas tree growers use to keep their trees full and well-shaped, except they're usually just trimming each leader to about 6". Haven't heard of anybody doing this with a norfolk, but you don't lose anything by trying, and most conifers act pretty similar in this growth pattern.

EagerSleeper
Feb 3, 2010

by R. Guyovich
I love coming back into this thread and being amazed by everyone's garden projects each time. :swoon:

A while back in this subforum's very own bonsai thread, I had linked a blog of a guy who was doing a very interesting strategy in order to get a tree with a thick enough trunk in a fairly quick amount of time. And I decided to try it out for myself.

Here's a top shot of a single vigorously growing Caesalpinia pulcherrima in a plastic cup, right?


Surprise! It's actually four separate plants tied together.


The technique that guy tried out was fusion. He attempted to fuse 150 Japanese maple seedlings into a single tree. Here, it's only four. I was expecting a low germination rate with the seeds that I got, and surprisingly they all sprouted. Sadly, as these plants grow into pretty big bushes/trees, I would be forced to cull all but one of them. But if this works out and they successfully fuse together, doesn't that mean that they all get to enjoy their shot at life?

I'm not to sure, and maybe I'm getting a bit too philosophical here. I hope this idea works either way. I'll update with progress, and let you guys know if I become the plant version of the human centipede scientist.

Edit: fusionbonsai.com is the link you want to go to if you want to see the fusion experiments that inspired me.

EagerSleeper fucked around with this message at 01:27 on Aug 22, 2013

TheMightyHandful
Dec 8, 2008

This is pretty cool. I can't wait to see how this works....

Smugworth
Apr 18, 2003

unprofessional posted:

....Haven't heard of anybody doing this with a norfolk, but you don't lose anything by trying, and most conifers act pretty similar in this growth pattern.
Thanks for the tip, turns out Norfolks don't take to well to being topped like normal pines, my grandfather actually recommended some sort of growth inhibiting hormone.

unprofessional
Apr 26, 2007
All business.
Growth hormone regulators are becoming a very big deal in horticulture. Investigate florel, as it's one that's easy to come by, for cheap. I do think that as long as you didn't completely cut off the current year's leader, you could still work with the tree (surely, in nature, young trees get topped by critters from time to time), but go for whatever you think might work for you!

Murg
Oct 22, 2008
Could anyone help me identify this mystery plant? I'm well and truly clueless on the subject and my girlfriend really want to know. Apparently it's the only plant she has that she doesn't know the species of. So any tips would be much appreciated!



kedo
Nov 27, 2007

Murg posted:

any tips would be much appreciated!

Water it so it doesn't die, that poor thing looks like it's on its last legs.

unprofessional
Apr 26, 2007
All business.
Scratch the leaves; does it give off a specific scent?

Also, repot in good media and give it some water.

Murg
Oct 22, 2008
I know it looks like it's about to die, but that's what it has looked like for over a year now and it has grown a lot despite looking like that. :shobon: It was repotted a few days ago and does get water regularly, the soil is moist right now. No scent as far as I can tell.

Murg fucked around with this message at 17:10 on Aug 23, 2013

EagerSleeper
Feb 3, 2010

by R. Guyovich
^^^^^Whoops, beaten. Good to know that it grows happily despite the dead leaves.

Uh, if I were to guess what plant it looks like, I think it would be an ivy. It looks like the trellis/support came with the plant, and most plants in stores that are wrapped around a trellis tend to some type of ivy, ergo...maybe? I did a google image search, and although it might just be confirmation bias, I think they are some types of ivy that fit the growth pattern of yours. Notably, one that seems to fit well is poison ivy. (:gonk:) Yeah, I have no idea what that plant is.

unprofessional posted:

Also, repot in good media and give it some water.

Yeah, a repotting should do a lot of good for the plant, since the soil looks like it might retain a lot of water. I recommend adding a handful of perlite to help with root aeration. May I ask if the plant container has a drainage hole at the bottom too?

EagerSleeper fucked around with this message at 19:37 on Aug 23, 2013

Marchegiana
Jan 31, 2006

. . . Bitch.
It looks vaguely like it might be a (very unhappy) clematis to me. I'm guessing it's never bloomed, or else you'd know it was a clematis right away.

e: if it is indeed a clematis, the poor thing would be better off planted outside. Most clematis need a ton of sunlight, and people who try to grow them inside usually say they need to supplement with grow lights to get the plant to be healthy enough to bloom.

Marchegiana fucked around with this message at 18:26 on Aug 25, 2013

unprofessional
Apr 26, 2007
All business.
Clematis has trifoliate leaves, so that doesn't work.

Honestly, I think all growth on this plant is due to it stretching for sunlight. It's not happy at all, otherwise it would retain its lower leaves. Can it be placed outside? Has it ever flowered? It looks very familiar to me, but I can't place it off hand.

Marchegiana
Jan 31, 2006

. . . Bitch.

unprofessional posted:

Clematis has trifoliate leaves, so that doesn't work.

A lot of the leaves in the picture are trifoliate, though, so ???

That's actually why clematis stuck out for me, because it has a lot of the hallmarks- trifoliate, opposite, glabrous leaves on a woody, twining vine.

unprofessional
Apr 26, 2007
All business.
Most clems have somewhat serrated leaves, and I think they're almost all obligate trifoliates, so that's why it doesn't add up for me, but who knows what stress might do to it. It does certainly have a number of similarities with clematis, but I grow about 30 cultivars of clems, and the leaves on this have a certain leathery texture that doesn't seem quite right. Hard to define.

EagerSleeper
Feb 3, 2010

by R. Guyovich
Progress report on plant fusion:



Well two of the seedlings have died already, probably due to a combination of neglect, heat, and cramped conditions during the last week I saw them. The green Velcro ties I used weren't tight enough to make the stems push against each other, so I decided to use different options. I used some twisty ties that are used for bread ties, but trying to tighten them tight enough to make the seedlings contact each other nearly damaged one of stems, so no, that was not a good idea. :ohdear:

Instead, I found that using plain string that I had on hand was the best option, since it could wrap around very easily and securely, without bruising the stems.


And then I decided to wrap some Pasilla bajio plants together just because I'd like to increase my odds of seeing something fuse,


which can be seen done here.


If I can get the hang of this, then it would really help me manage the amount of plants I have in my collection. Before I end this post, I'd like to share some trivia that I read in a book about bonsai's section about grafting: a long time ago in Japan, seasonal festivals were held that often had chrysanthemum flowers as star attractions. There was a famous chrysanthemum tree that was made up from a 100 different varieties of chrysanthemums grafted together.

The more you know~

EagerSleeper fucked around with this message at 03:53 on Aug 30, 2013

unprofessional
Apr 26, 2007
All business.
I think it might work best on things with nice strong woody stems, that way as they rub together and the bark comes off, the cambium is immediately touching, making a strong healing point. I think you had the right idea with the breadties, though - get them nice and tight enough that the tie is going right into that outer bark. There are self-adhesive rubber bands used for grafting that might work really well, too.

I've always wanted to buy a Chamaecyparis topiary and graft a bunch of Thuja plicata 'Whipcord' on the end of each stem, making a sort of Dr. Seuss tree.

Jamski
Nov 8, 2010

This post contains at least 76.4% functional content and no more than 0.65% spam (or other allowed additives) as according to 2009 EU guidelines.

EagerSleeper posted:


I found that website, and according to it I think Phyllostachys nigra should be able to grow in your area, but the bad thing is that like so many other cold hardy bamboos, it's a running variety that could get out of hand. However it seems to be a black bamboo that can survive zone 5, and it definitely looks fantastic too. Edit: It's popular in the UK if that says anything about its cold-hardiness.


I have 4 stands of p. Nigra in my garden here in the UK, and they've got through 3 winters and put up some HUGE culms this summer (12-15ft high). Going to thin out the narrower stems this winter to hopefully get some thicker culms next spring. As far as I can tell p. Nigra is indestructible, slow to spread, and spreads only a short distance from the plating point. I don't think any of my clumps have spread more than 12-18 inches over 3 years.

Lovely black colour on older culms, but they come up green and turn black in their 2nd winter.

On the topic of things that grow in the UK climate, how about my brand new arid bed?



Most of these thing are considered "house plants" in the UK - it's too cold for them and it's too WET for them, but I'm gonna give them a shot. They're in a raised brick bed filled with gravel and sand, and they have some nice black(ish) rocks for sun-heat absorption.

Jamski fucked around with this message at 21:45 on Sep 2, 2013

Pweller
Jan 25, 2006

Whatever whateva.
Can anyone identify this cactus from IKEA?



(I don't have a green thumb at all, and want to google how to best take care of it)

unprofessional
Apr 26, 2007
All business.
Euphobia milii - not a cactus, but a popular succulent with very pretty blossoms. Known as Crown of Thorns.

Same as any succulent - give it a potting medium with lots of inorganics (more than 50%) and lots of sun.

SqueakovaPeep
May 6, 2007

I am the night.
Hey! Trying to identify a plant I saw at a nursery. I asked the workers there and they had no idea as it was something a customer had brought in for a larger project. Sorry for the blurries. At first I assumed it was some sort of fern, but now I wonder if it isn't a vine or something.




Hopefully if I can find out what they are I want to use them in my wedding as some rad decoration.

EagerSleeper
Feb 3, 2010

by R. Guyovich

Jamski posted:

I have 4 stands of p. Nigra in my garden here in the UK, and they've got through 3 winters and put up some HUGE culms this summer (12-15ft high). Going to thin out the narrower stems this winter to hopefully get some thicker culms next spring. As far as I can tell p. Nigra is indestructible, slow to spread, and spreads only a short distance from the plating point. I don't think any of my clumps have spread more than 12-18 inches over 3 years.

Lovely black colour on older culms, but they come up green and turn black in their 2nd winter.

On the topic of things that grow in the UK climate, how about my brand new arid bed?



Most of these thing are considered "house plants" in the UK - it's too cold for them and it's too WET for them, but I'm gonna give them a shot. They're in a raised brick bed filled with gravel and sand, and they have some nice black(ish) rocks for sun-heat absorption.

Thank you very much for the info on how they do in the UK! It's pretty interesting to hear a report of someone who has a well-behaved p. Nigra, instead of spreading like a hellbeast. I guess in warmer climates like mine (I live in Texas by the Gulf of Mexico) is where they can really grow wildly.

Looking at that photo you posted, that bed looks pretty sweet to me. I love those rocks! Hope the Agave does well.


SqueakovaPeep posted:

Hopefully if I can find out what they are I want to use them in my wedding as some rad decoration.

To me, it looks like a Pilea glauca 'red stem.' They seem like they'd be easy to propagate, so maybe the guests to the wedding would be able take them home and be able to grow them themselves after the event is over. :)

Also, I didn't really know that people can take their plants to a nursery to get touched up.

SqueakovaPeep
May 6, 2007

I am the night.
Yay! I think you're right. Now to find a place that has them as pretty and flowy as pictured. I think them being there was part of a potting service, a lot of places in my area offer I guess pot-scaping? I think doctoring up plants would be an awesome service though.

unprofessional
Apr 26, 2007
All business.
I've seen many Pilea glauca, and never seen one look quite as good as that one.

Another option might be the purple version of wandering jew, which also looks very good in a hanging basket and can be had cheaply.

upsciLLion
Feb 9, 2006

Bees?

dinozaur posted:

This was one of my favorite succulents from many years ago until it was destroyed in a move. Anyone have a clue what it may be?


This kind of looks like a red dragon flower (Huernia schneideriana) to me. Can anyone else confirm or deny?

dinozaur
Aug 26, 2003
STUPID
DICK

upsciLLion posted:

This kind of looks like a red dragon flower (Huernia schneideriana) to me. Can anyone else confirm or deny?

That's the closest guess I've heard from anyone so far. Doesn't quite look like it(as I remember the plant), but its very doggone close. When I finally figure this out I am immediately buying one on eBay just because of the pain it has been.
Here are some more recent potted plants that are so happy right now that they're trying to reproduce.

This is an Echeveria Carunculata "Manua Loa." The flower stalk rises about three feet out of the main plant and culminates with the strange looking bud in the second picture. As I recall from last time this little guy flowered, they were hot pink when it finally opened.



My mandevilla is the greenest and most floriferous it has ever been. You can also see the twin bean-like seed pods to the left of the flower in the foreground of the second picture. I'm fairly sure it was either a hummingbird or a hawk moth that was finally able to pollinate this one.

dinozaur fucked around with this message at 02:26 on Sep 26, 2013

the fart question
Mar 21, 2007

College Slice
Floriferous is a fantastic word.

Look what my cactus did:

the fart question fucked around with this message at 17:52 on Sep 27, 2013

Costello Jello
Oct 24, 2003

It had to start somewhere

gender illusionist posted:

Floriferous is a fantastic word.

Look what my cactus did:



Beautiful. That cactus must be very proud.

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Smugworth
Apr 18, 2003

Costello Jello posted:

Beautiful. That cactus must be very proud.

Ditto what he said. Wanna meet the cactus.

Only two (well, one, since the other succumbed to scale bugs before I knew what was going on) of my cacti bloom, just once a year.

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