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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)]

 
EagerSleeper
Feb 3, 2010

by R. Guyovich
Hi there! You may be wondering what this thread is about. This thread is for photos and discussion about one of my favorite things in the world:


Plants.


o) Why plants? Aren't they just green and boring and stuff?

Not really! In addition to playing a fundamental role in the survival for all species on earth, they can be quite pretty and unique.



via the forums at GardenWeb, Dave's Garden


This picture is actually of a chimera, which is a cellular mixture of two distinct cacti into one plant.


:2bong: Holy poo poo, look at the colors and that geometry... :catdrugs:

kid sinister posted:

I saw this on my Facebook feed and I want one, a Persian Carpet Flower.




o) Taking care of plants seems like it would be boring!

For me as well as many others, it can be fun and rewarding to grow plants. Most people wouldn't really think that seeing a new pair of leaves (or single new leaf for the monocot lover among us) on a plant could be exciting, but for me, it means that the care that I provide for a plant is paying off, and that my plants are happy! And besides, the better you are at taking care of plants, the easier you realize it is. Most plants are pretty hands off. In fact, the number one cause of death for a plant is overwatering by well-meaning but concerned owners. With just a little care and some sunshine, a beautiful plant can be yours to own.

o) Isn't there already threads about plants on Something Awful? What does this one have to offer me?

That's right! There are other very good threads that have already been made and it's very much worth the effort to take a peep into each of them, but this thread is different because this thread is more of an appreciation thread for plants in general. I love studying plants, especially succulent plants, and consider it one of my biggest hobbies/passion. The threads that are currently available are great, but are too specific for when I just want to gush about how my collection of desert plants are doing so well for winter, or how fabulous some other person on the internet's garden looks.

This thread is made to capture the discussion that would otherwise fall through the gaps. However if you have a bonsai tree, or a vegetable you want to talk about, feel free and maybe post a picture or two! If some animal is just hanging out in your yard and you want to talk about it, please post! Did you come in looking for advice for your plant? Post!

If you have something that you think is vaguely on topic, :protarget:

EagerSleeper fucked around with this message at 02:07 on Jun 12, 2018

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EagerSleeper
Feb 3, 2010

by R. Guyovich
Another great thread and bitter rival in plantkind's struggle for liberation to read on Something Awful!:

- Veggie and Herb Gardening - You are what you eat

Cool websites to check out on your spare time:

- Plants Are the Strangest People A semi-humorous, semi-informative blog about one guy's efforts to take care of plants sold in stores.

Stupid Garden Plants. Gorgeous photo blog about a person trying to grow tropical and succulent plants in Canada. Lots of love and appreciation here for plants despite the title.

Anole Annals. Not really flower related, but since these guys are always right there along with me in my garden, these guys might be considered topical. Research blog done by a scientist researching anole lizards all around the world. Just pray that this person doesn't lose a limb, and use their lizard genetics research to use.

EagerSleeper fucked around with this message at 01:43 on Jun 5, 2014

Zombie Defiler
Apr 30, 2005

I don't much care for your negative attitude, mister.
You like succulent plants, I know people have found a use for aloe, know any other "productive" members of the succulent society?

What is the largest succulent plant you have grown? Prettiest?

I have a lovely amateur garden that is surrounded by aloe and is currently otherwise vacant because of Cold weather and SQUIRRELS. :argh: tree rats stop tearing up my starter pots theres no acorns in there!

EagerSleeper
Feb 3, 2010

by R. Guyovich

Zombie Defiler posted:

You like succulent plants, I know people have found a use for aloe, know any other "productive" members of the succulent society?

What is the largest succulent plant you have grown? Prettiest?

I have a lovely amateur garden that is surrounded by aloe and is currently otherwise vacant because of Cold weather and SQUIRRELS. :argh: tree rats stop tearing up my starter pots theres no acorns in there!

Succulent plants aren't really used commercially a lot, with exception to Aloe Vera and maybe Opuntia, but I did find a neat link or two for you about the historical uses of plants. In modern days however, Aloe Vera and Opuntia are the only productive succulent plants I know. Aloe Vera is way more successful than Opuntia, even though Aloe Vera isn't too useful other than providing a small amount of comfort for sunburns, or as a solvent for sheep semen. Since I wear sunblock religiously, and I don't have sheep, I don't really use my own Aloe vera plants that much. Which is a shame, because if I had a use for the 30+ Aloe veras that are threatening to overrun me one day, than I'd have a more favorable impression of them. :argh:

Opuntias however can be used the same way that Aloe vera is used and more! You can eat Opuntia pads for food (I personally had it fried with some eggs and salsa, pretty tasty!), their fruit which is known as 'Tuna' is pretty popular and grows abundantly on top of the cactus, and it was/is used in homesteads both to keep out wild animals, as well used being used as a food source for ranch animals (of course once the spines are removed).

Eh, if it means anything, I have also eaten yucca before in a restaurant. They can be used the same way as potatoes, the ones I had where cut into thick steak fries. It was alright! :v:


What's the largest succulent I have?

Although I don't consider it a succulent, my two Yucca gigantea plants (aka Ghost in the Graveyard plant) are about a foot and a half tall right now. I got those for free when a came across a house that had uprooted their own massive yucca trunk and left it on the curb for the trash people to claim. The trunk was huge; larger than I could wrap my arms around. It also had a bunch of stems that had sprouted from the trunk that I broke off and took with me. Once I let the wounds callous off and form roots, I put them into the soil, or I gave to my good neighbors. They're pretty low-key plants, but I'm still fond of the memories they bring up and how well they're doing. :3:

fake edit: it's actually my Kalanchoe fedtschenkoi. It's about 2 and half feet tall due to the flower spikes it sent up in December (and still blooming 5 months later!), and I propagated a bunch from a single plant. I can't find a flattering picture of it on the internet, but later I'll post my own snapshot.

What's my prettiest plant?

A lot of people think that my Echeveria 'Perle von Nurnberg' is gorgeous...

Please imagine that it didn't have some sort of liquid-based damage on it

But my favorite will always be this smaller plant:


I think it's some sort of Graptopetalum, but I got it from a very nice person on Etsy. (Also the plant in the shade with the scalloped leaves is a small Kalanchoe Fedtschkoi). This picture doesn't really show off just how blue the leaves are! In full sun, the leaves may still keep the blue/silver coloration, but the 'center' will also gain a pink color to them as well! I had a spectacular potted example that I could have shown you guys, but my overzealous plant fiend aunt wanted it really bad when she came over (but that's okay since I'm a plant fiend too).


I understand your pain about squirrels. :( Sometimes we have pecan saplings in our yard, but I never get a chance to collect them, because the next day, squirrels will eat the nut and just leave the sapling's torn apart trunk on the ground.

EagerSleeper
Feb 3, 2010

by R. Guyovich
I hope it's okay that I double post in my own thread, since the previous post was getting too big.



Here are two plant pots. The one on the left has a number of tiny succulents that I'm propagating from their leaves, and the other one on the right are three Astilbes that I'm growing from bare root.


You can see that there some large Echeveria 'Perle von Nurnberg' plantlets in the upper right corner, but I'm also really fond of the other lil guys as well. There are Echeverias, a Crassula Ovata leaf, some sort of golden Sedum, and an unknown variety of Graptopetalum.


I find that growing succulents in the cheapest material containers that you have works very for their health. The container that I have these is the top of a styrofoam leftover container from the restaurants, that has been patched together with duct tape. The ones with a blueish/green cast to them are the unknown Graptopetalum species that are one of my favorites, while the ones with a brown/red/purple cast to them are from propagating Echeveria 'Black Prince' leaves.


Although Astilbes usually are only grown in Zones 1-7 in the USA, I'm trying to grow them in Zone 9. :rock: Although they are mostly getting fried right now in the sun (:supaburn:), they are managing to eke out an existence far more south than they should be grown. The trichomes, the white hairs on the leaves, are still pretty lush so it means that they are managing to handle it so far. After this picture was taken, I separated the root balls and put one of them in it's own individual pots and the other two back in the original pot. Hopefully, they can be less thirsty this way now that they're not competing as hard for water...

EagerSleeper fucked around with this message at 04:06 on Apr 14, 2013

Zombie Defiler
Apr 30, 2005

I don't much care for your negative attitude, mister.

Those chubby little leafies are so cute! :3:

How do you propagate 'em from their leaves? Do you use any fancy store-bought elixirs or powders?

EagerSleeper
Feb 3, 2010

by R. Guyovich

Zombie Defiler posted:

Those chubby little leafies are so cute! :3:

How do you propagate 'em from their leaves? Do you use any fancy store-bought elixirs or powders?

How do you propagate succulents from their leaves? Simply!

What I do is I gently pull off some spare leaves from the stem of the plant, making sure not to tear the leaf or damage the area where the leaf was joined at. If your succulent plant is flowering,then you could even use the leaf scales along the flower stalks. :aaa: Then I place the whole leaves in an area that has nice moist soil, usually in another pot that already has a plant in it out of habit. Nothing fancy about the way they're placed, just flat to the surface of the soil. Some people will tell you to point the leaf down into the ground so the roots reach into the soil faster, but I that advice harmful and misguided. I lost a lot of failures with Echeveria and Sedum rubrotinctum due to that advice.

The reason why is that pointing the area where the succulent leaf used to be joined to the plant (I don't know a simpler word for it) into the ground without letting it callous off its wound dooms the leaf to rot, since the wound is still moist and soil pathogens will move right in to chow down. Thankfully it's easy to solve that problem by simply laying the leaf flat on the ground. :)

It will take some waiting, but eventually you should see growth from the area that was joined to the plant. At that point, crack open a bottle of wine and strip off your shirt, because now you're an expert on leaf propagating succulents!

I suppose using rooting hormones helps seal the woundthe deal when it comes to succulents, but please, don't feel obligated to use it every time.

I'd be willing to post a picture step-by-step post if anyone wants one, but later since I'm posting from my mobile at this moment.

dwoloz
Oct 20, 2004

Uh uh fool, step back

EagerSleeper posted:

Succulent plants aren't really used commercially a lot, with exception to Aloe Vera and maybe Opuntia

Don't forget pitaya (dragon fruit) and agave (sugar source) as well as others that are used by indigenous people for fiber

Zombie Defiler
Apr 30, 2005

I don't much care for your negative attitude, mister.

EagerSleeper posted:

I'd be willing to post a picture step-by-step post if anyone wants one, but later since I'm posting from my mobile at this moment.

Go for it, I'm still curious. Do you have to mess with them at all after they start to grow from the callous? Or do they grow roots down into the ground on their own?

D'ya keep it moist while it heals or would that make bitey bitey bacteria have a field day?

Eeyo
Aug 29, 2004

I've been slowly accumulating plants over the past year or so. It started innocently enough but now I've pretty much run out of room on my window, I'm going to need some more space. Here's my current horde:


Clockwise from top left: Some type of Aloe (?) Mother of Thousands (Kalanchoe daigremontiana), Pineapple sage (this is going to get potted outside soon, I just bought it today), more mother of thousands, Creeping Fig (going to be repotted soon), Variegated Basil (It lost its variegation), Christmas Cactus, and some succulent my mother gave me. In addition I've got 2 plants in my office and a wandering jew that's creeping on my floor.

That mother of thousands is my favorite plant so far. It's literally unkillable and has survived for forever and keeps on putting out new leaflets which I can grow into new plants. I saw one in florida and thought it was cool since there were like a billion of them. I took some home with me to plant and they've grown ever since. That was like 6-8 years ago or something. If you're looking for a house plant I'd recommend one, since it can tolerate sporadic watering, less than optimal light conditions, and seems to just keep on going forever. Edit: But don't plant these outside if you live somewhere that doesn't reliably frost every year because it'll take over your garden.

I've got a question with my plants: Does anyone have experience with Christmas Cactus? I took a couple leaves from one of my mother's plants which was flowering around christmas time. I took a healthy looking 3 segment piece and planted the thickest segment under some soil. It's not really done much at all, do they take a while to get established? I was hoping for some new growth by now. At least it's not dead yet. Here's a closeup of the christmas cactus:

Eeyo fucked around with this message at 04:46 on Apr 14, 2013

EagerSleeper
Feb 3, 2010

by R. Guyovich

dwoloz posted:

Don't forget pitaya (dragon fruit) and agave (sugar source) as well as others that are used by indigenous people for fiber

Thank you! I knew I was forgetting something, haha. I genuinely didn't know about agaves being used for sugar. However I do know that yuccas and agaves are used by some for their fibers, but I don't really know if it was common or not. Also, opuntias play a much bigger role than what I said before. If you have eaten anything food or candy that was red color, then it is likely that you have eaten Cochineal which is a red pigment extracted from a insect that parasitizes opuntia cacti exclusively. M&Ms, shampoos, lipsticks... If it was red, than you can thank the dozens of cochineal insects that went into making it, and further back, the opuntias that were to host them. :thumbsup:


Zombie Defiler posted:

Go for it, I'm still curious. Do you have to mess with them at all after they start to grow from the callous? Or do they grow roots down into the ground on their own?

D'ya keep it moist while it heals or would that make bitey bitey bacteria have a field day?

I'll get to this in more detail once I do a step-by-step post, but...


Do you see the succulent leaf next to the dried up twig in the middle of the picture? The leaf's pink roots are probably a centimeter long, and the leaf is still fat as ever despite the energy expenditure. Yeah, the roots from a leaf plantlet can reach usually reach the soil on their own. However if you want, you can put some soil on top so that way they can be done and settled in.


Eeyo posted:

I've got a question with my plants: Does anyone have experience with Christmas Cactus? I took a couple leaves from one of my mother's plants which was flowering around christmas time. I took a healthy looking 3 segment piece and planted the thickest segment under some soil. It's not really done much at all, do they take a while to get established? I was hoping for some new growth by now. At least it's not dead yet. Here's a closeup of the christmas cactus:


Nice plant hoard there, Eeyo! I never grew a Christmas Cactus before, so I looked up what the roots looked like and found this neat blog post. Please take a look at this image because on the bright side, I think you already have roots on your cutting. Give a slight tug to the whole Christmas Cactus cutting to see if it has roots on the bottom end that's in the soil. If not, then those roots that are in the middle should do just nicely.

If it has roots on the bottom, then you can ignore the roots that have formed in mid-air, and your plant should be good to go (provided it's getting enough light). Hopefully things go well!

Atticus_1354
Dec 10, 2006

barkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbark
Cacti are the coolest of plants. I have a very tiny eagle claw in a pot, but my herbs take up all the good window space so I haven't bothered to pot any other cacti. Thankfully I live in the desert so I can see all the cacti I want outside.

And here is a small sample of pictures I have from an ongoing plant identification project I am doing.

cow tongue prickly pear by atticus_1354, on Flickr


ECEN2spinestopERS2012 by atticus_1354, on Flickr

Even grasses are cool

BOTR2inflorescenceERS2012 by atticus_1354, on Flickr

And finally Ocotillo which is my favorite plant.

Ocotilla by atticus_1354, on Flickr

Venetir
May 19, 2009

Eeyo posted:

I've got a question with my plants: Does anyone have experience with Christmas Cactus?

I've been growing Christmas cacti for years and have learned one thing above all: mine love neglect. If your plant is anything like mine, if you want it to thrive, wait a few days after the soil completely dries before you water it each time. I wait about three days; it'll start wilting shortly thereafter since my climate is really dry. If you want it to flower (wait until yours is a lot bigger), throw it into a cool (50-60 degrees F), very dim area for a week or so. I've even just used a closet with good results. Take it out, water it, let it hang out like normal for awhile, and it'll start flowering.

When propagating from stem segments like you have, I've found using a small ceramic pot is best. I've generally just broken off a segment with pre-existing roots, let it hang out on top of the soil until the broken end scars over, and planted half of the length, rooted side down, into the soil. I'll soak the soil every few days, re-watering as soon as the soil completely dries. The small, relatively breathable pot helps the soil dry out quickly and avoid any fungal/bacterial problems. Eventually you'll see new growth in the form of tiny, reddish leaf nubs: once that happens, it has assuredly taken root and you can water it like normal. My propagations have usually taken a month or two to get going.

They don't grow amazingly quickly. It took about two years for mine to go from this:



to this:

Venetir fucked around with this message at 19:21 on Apr 14, 2013

Tremors
Aug 16, 2006

What happened to the legendary Chris Redfield, huh? What happened to you?!
Today was exciting because I noticed the Mimosa pudica seeds I planted a couple days ago have sprouted! I grew one last year in regular dirt and it did ok, but this year I want to use :science: to try to turn them into giants. What would be the best way to accomplish this?

the fart question
Mar 21, 2007

College Slice
Check out this flower that popped out of one of my cacti last summer. The thing grew a really long stalk over a week or so, bloomed the most amazing fluorescent white/pink triffid like flower for a couple of days then wilted back to nothing.

Prathm
Nov 24, 2005

Cactus-flowers are the best flowers.

the fart question
Mar 21, 2007

College Slice

Prathm posted:

Cactus-flowers are the best flowers.

They really blew me away. The buds were just sitting there for months doing nothing, I was expecting them to drop off, then *BOOM* huge (about a foot) phallic stalk growing over a week or two then *POP* flower for a couple of days at most; in the end I think it produced four or 5. I have no idea why it decided to put on this display either; we had a very lovely summer.

unprofessional
Apr 26, 2007
All business.

gender illusionist posted:

Check out this flower that popped out of one of my cacti last summer. The thing grew a really long stalk over a week or so, bloomed the most amazing fluorescent white/pink triffid like flower for a couple of days then wilted back to nothing.


This is an Echinopsis, of which there is a fantastic collection of hybrids that the Huntington garden sells for only $7 a plant, if you're looking to start collecting.

I love botany. Sometime in the future I'd like to pursue a Master's in horticulture. I've shared a bit of what I grow in some other threads, but can add it here to give a bit of plant diversity to the thread.

Water lilies:













https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1zQYMruFq8

I am also into rare conifers and grafting. Here are some from this year:

Pinus densiflora 'Oculus-draconis'



Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Nana Aurea'



Picea orientalis 'Skylands'



Here is a mature 'Skylands'






Conifers can be extremely interesting plants, outside of all the dwarf alberta spruce and arborvitaes you see. Here are some I have or are getting (pictures taken at public gardens):

Picea glauca 'Pendula':



Cupressus nootketensis 'Green Arrow':



Picea abies 'Fort Ann':

Bees on Wheat
Jul 18, 2007

I've never been happy



QUAIL DIVISION
Buglord

gender illusionist posted:

They really blew me away. The buds were just sitting there for months doing nothing, I was expecting them to drop off, then *BOOM* huge (about a foot) phallic stalk growing over a week or two then *POP* flower for a couple of days at most; in the end I think it produced four or 5. I have no idea why it decided to put on this display either; we had a very lovely summer.

Some plants don't flower unless they're stressed out, so lovely conditions could be a trigger for that plant. :)

EagerSleeper
Feb 3, 2010

by R. Guyovich
^^^Yeah, I have a small Mamillaria cactus I have in a soil that is too peaty and organic for it. When I first bought it, it was neglected and had a small ring of pink tinted needles on top that I think were going to develop into a ring of flowers, but when after this spring rained generously, the cactus seems plumper, but it stopped working on making flowers...

The cactus that I put in the OP is from a guy that has to never water his cactus at all, letting it deflate, until spring comes up if he wants flowers. And then the flowers stayed for only a single night. Cactus flowers are such an ephemeral beauty...


I've been sitting on the pictures for the propagation guide (uploading to imgur from my phone is a pain), so hopefully an update tonight now that I can breath after college work. I'm so glad to see that other people have came in here who are also interested in plants. :holy:


Tremors posted:

Today was exciting because I noticed the Mimosa pudica seeds I planted a couple days ago have sprouted! I grew one last year in regular dirt and it did ok, but this year I want to use :science: to try to turn them into giants. What would be the best way to accomplish this?



How big do you want them? Whenever I saw them outdoors, they were always less than 2 cm in height and the whole plant occupied maybe the same space as an apple along the ground. I can only give the vague advice of "Full sun? Don't water too much? Maybe?" Good luck on your plant, they seem like they'd be awesome houseplants to have!



unprofessional posted:

Cupressus nootketensis 'Green Arrow':



This tree is so moe.

Tremors
Aug 16, 2006

What happened to the legendary Chris Redfield, huh? What happened to you?!

EagerSleeper posted:

How big do you want them? Whenever I saw them outdoors, they were always less than 2 cm in height and the whole plant occupied maybe the same space as an apple along the ground. I can only give the vague advice of "Full sun? Don't water too much? Maybe?" Good luck on your plant, they seem like they'd be awesome houseplants to have!

Hmm, I'm not sure about the ones you saw outdoors. The one I grew last year got to be about 1-1.5ft tall. I was hoping for advice on fertilizer or something since I've never really used it before. Is there some general kind I could try or does that vary by plant?

Zombie Defiler
Apr 30, 2005

I don't much care for your negative attitude, mister.
I saw some beautiful cactus flowers the other day when I was driving past a cow pasture where a few cacti have cropped up. Brilliant bright yellow on top of a smallish cactus that looked like it had paddle shaped segments.

Now I kind of want to grow some cacti, but the place I want to grow them in is kind of covered in shade a lot of the day.
How do cacti do in shade? Do they all need a ton of light to survive? I wanted to put them under a window to make it a bit less, eh, inviting looking for unscrupulous types.

I'm curious, if I plucked one of those cactus paddles off one of those cacti next to the road, would it seal up and sprout roots eventually, like the succulents do? I don't want to go maiming some poor lil' plant if it'll result in zero gain.

EagerSleeper
Feb 3, 2010

by R. Guyovich

Tremors posted:

Hmm, I'm not sure about the ones you saw outdoors. The one I grew last year got to be about 1-1.5ft tall. I was hoping for advice on fertilizer or something since I've never really used it before. Is there some general kind I could try or does that vary by plant?

How do something awful's post drafts work? Accidentally clicked on a report button instead of quote, and now all the time I spent writing was for nothing... :qq:

I'm going to out myself as probably being gardening ignorant, since I don't necessarily believe that the amount of fertilizers given to a plant will speed up it's growth rate. The biggest factors for growing plants, in my opinion, sun, light, luck, and evenly moist soil (so that way the plant won't be limited by water needs once it decides what time of the season to begin growing).

However, according to advice for growing tomatoes, a person shouldn't give tomatoes too much nitrogen or else they'll grow big and lush, but won't produce very many fruit. Perhaps, if you make sure that you're plant has a good amount of nitrogen, you may get the results you're looking for... :sci101:

EagerSleeper fucked around with this message at 23:12 on Apr 25, 2013

razz
Dec 26, 2005

Queen of Maceration

EagerSleeper posted:

But my favorite will always be this smaller plant:


I think it's some sort of Graptopetalum, but I got it from a very nice person on Etsy.

Aw yeah, a Ghost Plant! I opened this thread specifically to see if anyone else had a ghost plant. They're so freaking cool! I don't know why I like them so much. I Googled them one time and some lady made a VERY long post about her ghost plant and ended the post with "I couldn't imagine living without it!". I thought it was hilarious and kinda weird but... I love the ghost plant. I love having it in my life :unsmith:

So, I have 3 ghost plants that are quite small (less than 6 inches) that I grew from a leaf. I have seen pictures online (and your picture) where they are real low to the ground and spread out. Mine are tall and "leggy". I wonder why that is? How can I get them to grow outward instead of upward?

I had a ghost plant maybe 6 months ago that I lovingly nurtured from a single leaf (as was mentioned earlier, if you just take a leaf off and put it on top of moist soil it'll make a new plant). Anyway my fiance went to water it and knocked the pot over and all the leaves fell off and it died. I was so sad. None of the leaves that fell off would propagate either, they were too damaged. So I had to start completely over.

EDIT: I believe it's Graptopetalum paraguayense. Yours looks pretty much identical to mine, the leaf color/shape in particular. They're almost pearly irridescent and some have a tinge of pink.

Zombie Defiler posted:

I saw some beautiful cactus flowers the other day when I was driving past a cow pasture where a few cacti have cropped up. Brilliant bright yellow on top of a smallish cactus that looked like it had paddle shaped segments.

I don't know anything about propagating cacti but I do know that you can eat those flower petals, they're delicious and taste like candy. I eat them whenever I find them!

razz fucked around with this message at 00:11 on Apr 27, 2013

unprofessional
Apr 26, 2007
All business.

razz posted:

Mine are tall and "leggy". I wonder why that is? How can I get them to grow outward instead of upward?
Succulents that are leggy are etiolated, which means they need more light. Graptopetalums are very similar in growing habits to echervias, which are very easy to grow (though of less cold hardiness than the similar looking sempervivums). Easy way to grow them in a pot: 25% bagged cacti mix, 75% perlite. Don't use sand - it compacts in pots and leads to root rot, the main killer of cacti/succulents. Water when it starts to look stressed, and give it as much sun as possible. Good outdoor summer sun will lead to a plant with excellent color and you will probably get blooms mid-winter.

razz
Dec 26, 2005

Queen of Maceration
Oh okay, awesome! It probably didn't help that I started growing the plant indoors in the middle of winter. My house has NO good indoor places for plants so I have them all next to a window under a full spectrum grow light. It's really not ideal but... it's the best I can do for now.

Good thing is, I'm moving in a couple weeks so we'll be able to put the plants outdoors in a nice sunny spot so hopefully they'll get a little fuller! Thanks! I just want it to get all huge and awesome looking.

We also have a pretty cool Patchouli plant that my fiance rescued from near-death. Yes the hippie/incense Patchouli. When you crush the leaves a little bit it gives off a really strong smell. It's really nothing to look at, it's just ordinary green leaves on an ordinary brown stem. But I think its cool!

unprofessional
Apr 26, 2007
All business.
Found two Picea abies witches brooms today. Will get scoins to graft from them this winter.









If anybody finds a witches broom, I'd be happy to graft it for them.

kedo
Nov 27, 2007

Cross post from A/T coz I always forget this subforum exists!

Can someone tell me what this plant is and (apparently it's a rhododendron) how my sister can stop killing it? She inherited it from the last people to live in her apartment, but they apparently stopped taking care of it and it's not doing so well. It has buds, but every day more and more leaves curl up and start turning brown or yellow. Overwatering?



\/\/ Thanks much! I'll bet you're right... it's an awfully big plant for such a small pot.

kedo fucked around with this message at 20:17 on Apr 30, 2013

unprofessional
Apr 26, 2007
All business.
Best thing you could do for it is to plant it. It looks like it's probably rootbound, and possibly rotting in the soil. It needs to be repotted into something bigger, or (in the least) if going into the same pot, given new growing material (if you buy a bagged potting soil, cut it in half with an inorganic such as perlite). When you repot it, I'd saw the bottom inch or so of roots off, especially if they're circling the pot, and put a bit of osmocote (slow release fertilizer) in it.

Squats
Nov 4, 2009


Thanks for making a general plants thread! I had been lurking the gardening and veggies threads for a while, even though I mainly want to know about houseplants. (Apartment.)

EagerSleeper posted:

But my favorite will always be this smaller plant:

I think it's some sort of Graptopetalum

razz posted:

So, I have 3 ghost plants that are quite small (less than 6 inches) that I grew from a leaf. I have seen pictures online (and your picture) where they are real low to the ground and spread out. Mine are tall and "leggy". I wonder why that is? How can I get them to grow outward instead of upward?

We have a couple of plants that looked like EagerSleeper's adorable pale succulent, that we got from the local arboretum society sale. We didn't know exactly what they were because the place is stocked with donation plants and run by volunteers. We've had them for about two months now and they've uh, I think they've grown in a way they weren't supposed to? razz's description of her's sounds about right. This is them now:

They got all tall and stringy and some of the bottom leaves fell off and the weird pink strings starting coming out of their lower stalks. Based on another of EagerSleeper's photos in the thread, I guess the pink strings are roots?

unprofessional posted:

Succulents that are leggy are etiolated, which means they need more light.
Oh, that explains it. :( We had them too far away from the window-side of the apartment likely. If I leave them by the window for a month, will more leaves fill in the sparse stem areas, or should I try to propagate new plants from their leaves if I ever want a cute rosette shape again? As a chronic black thumb, I too would greatly appreciate an illustrated step-by-step of how to do that by the way.

Sagebrush
Feb 26, 2012

A guy at my work gave me a venus fly trap. Said "my girlfriend doesn't like it any more, so I thought I'd bring it in and see if anyone here wanted it." It's quite small and looked a little sick at work, but after taking it home and putting it in the window and dutifully keeping it wet, it seems to have perked up and is uncoiling some new leaves with baby traps on the end of them.

How do I take care of this thing and keep it going well? I can't really leave it outside because it gets cold at night still...will the plant get enough light through the window glass? Or should I buy a little grow-lamp for it? Also, my house is very clean and I don't have any bugs easily accessible other than the wood lice under the bricks in the front, which seem kind of hard and crunchy for a plant to eat, so while it apparently only needs to eat a few times a month I don't really know what to feed it.

All the other plants I've tried to keep I did a poor job of, so I want this guy to survive if I can help it. :3:

kedo
Nov 27, 2007

Sagebrush posted:

A guy at my work gave me a venus fly trap. Said "my girlfriend doesn't like it any more, so I thought I'd bring it in and see if anyone here wanted it." It's quite small and looked a little sick at work, but after taking it home and putting it in the window and dutifully keeping it wet, it seems to have perked up and is uncoiling some new leaves with baby traps on the end of them.

How do I take care of this thing and keep it going well? I can't really leave it outside because it gets cold at night still...will the plant get enough light through the window glass? Or should I buy a little grow-lamp for it? Also, my house is very clean and I don't have any bugs easily accessible other than the wood lice under the bricks in the front, which seem kind of hard and crunchy for a plant to eat, so while it apparently only needs to eat a few times a month I don't really know what to feed it.

All the other plants I've tried to keep I did a poor job of, so I want this guy to survive if I can help it. :3:

I'm pretty sure you can buy dead flies at pet/some plant stores. Other that I'm not sure, good luck!

e: Actually, it's dried crickets. Here, you can buy dead insects to feed your flesh eating plant through the power of the internet. :black101:

kedo fucked around with this message at 01:33 on May 1, 2013

unprofessional
Apr 26, 2007
All business.
You never need feed your fly trap. Surprisingly, it's a fairly stressful process for the plant. Don't let morons keep triggering the traps, either.

Sounds like you're doing pretty well with it. They're native to the US, so unless it's freezing, it'll be fine outdoors (assuming it's not in a black pot that will overheat or a terrarium). They live in environments with extremely low ph, so don't just go repotting it. If it ever gets to a size where you would like to change pots, I can advise on soil.

EagerSleeper
Feb 3, 2010

by R. Guyovich
College has been kicking my rear end, but seeing all the people posting here makes me feel better! I'm glad that people enjoyed my pictures of my graptopetalum, and shared their stories as well. The reason my plants are so low-growing is because they're etoliated from me keeping them in a place that receives only strong morning/afternoon light.



Giant Boy Detective posted:

Thanks for making a general plants thread! I had been lurking the gardening and veggies threads for a while, even though I mainly want to know about houseplants. (Apartment.)



We have a couple of plants that looked like EagerSleeper's adorable pale succulent, that we got from the local arboretum society sale. We didn't know exactly what they were because the place is stocked with donation plants and run by volunteers. We've had them for about two months now and they've uh, I think they've grown in a way they weren't supposed to? razz's description of her's sounds about right. This is them now:

They got all tall and stringy and some of the bottom leaves fell off and the weird pink strings starting coming out of their lower stalks. Based on another of EagerSleeper's photos in the thread, I guess the pink strings are roots?

Oh, that explains it. :( We had them too far away from the window-side of the apartment likely. If I leave them by the window for a month, will more leaves fill in the sparse stem areas, or should I try to propagate new plants from their leaves if I ever want a cute rosette shape again? As a chronic black thumb, I too would greatly appreciate an illustrated step-by-step of how to do that by the way.

Although your plants may be etoliated, one look at them stems show that they are growing very robustly. Unfortunately, succulents need almost direct sunlight to be able to maintain a rosette shape, and the sparse stems won't fill themselves up with leaves. If you want, you could cut off the top of Graptopetalums and use the top to make a new plant, while the original will have rosettes sprouting off from the sides of the stem. But yeah, outdoors only for a rosette shape. :( And yeah, those pink things are aerial roots.

I've been meaning to ask someone this for a while, but how did you drill a drainage hole into coffee cup? That seems like a badass thing to do. :swoon:

Zombie Defiler posted:

I saw some beautiful cactus flowers the other day when I was driving past a cow pasture where a few cacti have cropped up. Brilliant bright yellow on top of a smallish cactus that looked like it had paddle shaped segments.

Now I kind of want to grow some cacti, but the place I want to grow them in is kind of covered in shade a lot of the day.
How do cacti do in shade? Do they all need a ton of light to survive? I wanted to put them under a window to make it a bit less, eh, inviting looking for unscrupulous types.

I'm curious, if I plucked one of those cactus paddles off one of those cacti next to the road, would it seal up and sprout roots eventually, like the succulents do? I don't want to go maiming some poor lil' plant if it'll result in zero gain.

Yeah, if you take an opuntia pad (careful as some opuntia species have easily detachable glochids) you should be able to easily get one to root. If it kept in bright light and given only a spare watering or placed on dry ground, I think it should be able grow roots after a while. I've never grown one my self I don't know a good spot to have one, but starting a new plant from a pad seems like it should be easy enough! My dad had nailed an opuntia pad that he had found after a large hurricane onto the side of our house since it was 'for emergencies,' and even up until he removed it, it was still very green and vibrant, looked very tasty to eat.

I'm can never stop being cautious of Opuntias ever since I touched one of the 'fuzzy' varieties that they sell at stores. So cute, and yet so diabolical. If you ever need help removing a hundred tiny invisible needles from your skin, use tape. My hand was full of glochids, but the Opuntia microdasys had only more to give...

unprofessional posted:


Found two Picea abies witches brooms today. Will get scoins to graft from them this winter.




:stare: Are you going to climb?

unprofessional posted:

If anybody finds a witches broom, I'd be happy to graft it for them.

I think I saw a couple of trees that have witches broom, but it could also just be mistletoe. I didn't mention this before, but I think the photos you posted of tree grafting is amazing. I tried to propagate a juniper branch once, and it never worked out. From what I hear, trees like the one that you're grafting are hard to do, so it amazes me to see the progress that you're doing!

EagerSleeper fucked around with this message at 04:32 on May 1, 2013

unprofessional
Apr 26, 2007
All business.
Will climb and use a pole pruner so I don't have to go all the way up. Worst comes to worst, I can use a shotgun to get some pieces off.

Check out those possible witches brooms and get pictures! They're out there more than people realize, and you could name your own cultivar! As much as I hate to admit it, the two I found are on Picea abies, which throws brooms like crazy, so there's no commercial value, but it's pretty neat to be able to say you discovered a new plant.

If you're in to prickly pears (Optunia), or you've always wanted to grow cacti/succulents outside but thought you couldn't, check out Cold Hardy Cactus. The guy that runs it has been collecting and growing them in Colorado forever. I want some of his tree yuccas bad.

Do you know which juniper species you tried to take cuttings of? Chinensis, virginiana, and scopulorum are all generally grafted, but the rest you can do cuttings of. Michael Dirr's The Reference Manual of Woody Plant Propogation is a must-have if you're interested in serious propagation, but just let me know which species you're interested in, and I can post the info here.

unprofessional fucked around with this message at 15:42 on May 1, 2013

Holden Rodeo
Apr 2, 2008
One day I'd love to have a carpet of succulents outside my house, rather than hedges or whatever.



However, recently I just picked up this guy from a recycling center, and would like to know what the hell kind of succulent this is. I like its stems, it looks cool indoors.

EagerSleeper
Feb 3, 2010

by R. Guyovich

Holden Rodeo posted:

One day I'd love to have a carpet of succulents outside my house, rather than hedges or whatever.



However, recently I just picked up this guy from a recycling center, and would like to know what the hell kind of succulent this is. I like its stems, it looks cool indoors.



Too me it's either some sort of Sedum or a Crassula tetragona with very orderly leaf formation. I'm leaning towards a Crassula since the leaves aren't in a rosette like Sedum does. You picked up a pretty nice specimen there. :)

unprofessional
Apr 26, 2007
All business.
Definitely Crassula tetragona. I would trim the three reaching branches way back, to get more branching. Also, get it in a lot of direct sun! It'll color up really nicely and you'll get blooms near christmas.

Squats
Nov 4, 2009


EagerSleeper posted:

College has been kicking my rear end, but seeing all the people posting here makes me feel better! I'm glad that people enjoyed my pictures of my graptopetalum, and shared their stories as well. The reason my plants are so low-growing is because they're etoliated from me keeping them in a place that receives only strong morning/afternoon light.

Although your plants may be etoliated, one look at them stems show that they are growing very robustly. Unfortunately, succulents need almost direct sunlight to be able to maintain a rosette shape, and the sparse stems won't fill themselves up with leaves. If you want, you could cut off the top of Graptopetalums and use the top to make a new plant, while the original will have rosettes sprouting off from the sides of the stem. But yeah, outdoors only for a rosette shape. :( And yeah, those pink things are aerial roots.

Well, our windows are southwest-facing (northern hemisphere), so we get really strong direct sunlight around them around 1pm-6pm at the moment. Would putting the graptopetalums in that light sunburn them, or can they stand the harsh afternoon light? I think I'll take your advice and try to start new plants with the tops or leaves, and put those in the teacups, while re-potting the current etoliated ones into something bigger.

EagerSleeper posted:

I've been meaning to ask someone this for a while, but how did you drill a drainage hole into coffee cup? That seems like a badass thing to do. :swoon:

There aren't actually any drainage holes in the teacups. The volunteer working the arboretum store that day said they had put charcoal at the bottom of the cups to make sure the soil wasn't sitting in water, and told us to check that the soil an inch or two down was dry before each watering. And that we'd eventually have to re-pot them when they got too big anyway. She explained that they couldn't just drill holes into these teacups because the drill would crack the ceramic, so I've no idea how anyone else has managed to do so. Sorry about that. :(

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the fart question
Mar 21, 2007

College Slice
All this talk of etiolated plants reminds me of what happened to one of my favorites while it was kept in a dark spot for a few months:



yes, that's a flower stalk on there (that's a big deal in the UK!)



The rosette is even more impressive now but unfortunately it's pretty much fallen over so it's time to chop the top off and repot soon.

Also last year I had a sundew that was doing really well and flowered but it got an horrendous mildew and aphid problem (the insects strike back) so it's dead now. Here it was, in it's full glory:

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