|
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 | ||
|
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.   Holy poo poo, look at the colors and that geometry...  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, 
EagerSleeper fucked around with this message at 02:07 on Jun 12, 2018 |
#
¿
Apr 13, 2013 05:01
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 06:31 |
|
|
Another great thread - 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 |
|
#
¿
Apr 13, 2013 05:23
|
|
|
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? 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.  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!  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.  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.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 13, 2013 20:53
|
|
|
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.  Although they are mostly getting fried right now in the sun ( ), 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 |
|
#
¿
Apr 13, 2013 21:17
|
|
|
Zombie Defiler posted:Those chubby little leafies are so cute! 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.  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 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.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 14, 2013 01:01
|
|
|
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.  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? 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!
|
|
#
¿
Apr 14, 2013 05:47
|
|
|
^^^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.  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 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.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 20, 2013 00:12
|
|
to try to turn them into giants. What would be the best way to accomplish this?
|
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...  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 |
|
#
¿
Apr 25, 2013 20:14
|
|
|
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.) 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.  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. 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:
 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 |
|
#
¿
May 1, 2013 04:26
|
|
|
Holden Rodeo posted:One day I'd love to have a carpet of succulents outside my house, rather than hedges or whatever. 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.
|
|
#
¿
May 2, 2013 14:11
|
|
|
Giant Boy Detective posted: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. Please forgive me for the confusion. When I said that Graptopetalums need almost direct sun, I meant to say that they almost ALWAYS need direct sunlight to avoid etoliation. They are hard to sunburn. Somewhere that remains bright for most of the day should do great. However since your plants were living indoors up to now, you should slowly acclimate them to the intense light difference. Hopefully wherever you live has an covered place by your doorway that you keep your plants there until they can handle direct sun. After three days, you can move them out. Good luck with your plans! Giant Boy Detective posted: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. No, it's no problem. In fact I think it's even cooler how they managed to avoid the problem woth having no drainage holes.  I've always wanted to grow a moss terrium back when they were trendy, but the guides online were never that helpful about having good drainage.
|
|
#
¿
May 2, 2013 22:45
|
|
|
Luminous posted:There was a thread last spring about lawns and lawn care, but I think the archives ate it. But, since lawns are plants, here we go: I remember that thread you're talking about, I looking for it too but the archives definitely ate it. I have never reseeded my lawn but I feel bad if your post goes ignored, so here goes! I did a little research on the internet and I only found two lukewarm responses to micro clover, which means that besides the 100% positive promotional information from the dealers not a lot of people have much to say about adding clover to the lawn. I didn't even know that clover was desirable to have in the lawn, but I have a bunch of it. I suppose if you're pretty good at fertilizing your lawn, then you may want to make the percentage of micro clover higher than 5% since it would have a harder time taking off than the grass seed, but if you don't have micro clover at all in your yard to start with than 95% grass/clover mix seems like a good way to introduce it. A concern to keep in mind is that clover and grass compete with each other. The roots of a clover naturally repel other plants around it, and only the clover itself benefits from the nitrogen fixation. Hope this info helps somehow with your decision! On the positive side, micro clover is really cute. Please keep in mind that I'm talking out of my rear end here. edit: Here's the website I found about other alternatives for an alternative lawn. Not only is there more resources about adding clover to your lawn, but there are also options to grow buffalo grass instead. Let your whole lawn look like a painting by Vincent van Gogh! EagerSleeper fucked around with this message at 21:52 on May 23, 2013 |
|
#
¿
May 23, 2013 21:47
|
|
|
There was a long post here, but Opera keeps crashing while trying to load all of the images. Dinozaur, I think your mystery succulent is an Euphorbia esculenta. The shape it has is called a medusa. Also that is a really nice looking Ajuga reptans picture! Leperflesh, your confused tour through your wife's Darwinian succulent death-match made me laugh. Also the clover that you have is really an Oxalis plant. They are similar to clovers, but they can be identified by their larger leaf size and by the way their leaves droop down, as opposed to a clover's erect leaves. However there are some clovers that are more likely to have four leaves naturally. Tremors, nice plant! I always wanted to grow a miracle fruit for myself. Since it has a very small root system, I would hold off on putting it into a full size container. I would suggest finding a smaller, but still upgraded size container (maybe a 1 gallon container) to put it in while it's root structure gets more developed. EagerSleeper fucked around with this message at 18:05 on May 25, 2013 |
|
#
¿
May 25, 2013 17:55
|
|
|
Costello Jello posted:I would also love to know what this is called, if anyone knows. That's a cool, creepy little plant. Just a couple of posts upwards, but I think it's an Euphorbia esculenta. For sure it's in the Euphorbia genus since Euphorbias are weird. Sometimes they look like a leafless, geometric, succulent cactus. Sometimes they're a woody shrub. And sometimes they're a stygian hellbeast. This is one of those times. Either that or it's an Euphorbia flanagii. http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/1157/
|
|
#
¿
May 29, 2013 15:25
|
|
|
Leperflesh, you're great. I gave you a hard time on cKnoor's stream because I recognized your name. Hope no hard feelings! 
|
|
#
¿
May 30, 2013 20:44
|
|
|
Tremors posted:
Yeah I'd say that being in the mail for 10 days is stressful enough for plants, so adding the stress of transplanting to that is enough to make a couple of leaves drop. However that stress is unavoidable since you needed to get the plant out of the bag at some point anyway. I looked at the picture you posted and it seems like the soil is pretty moist. Not much you can do for the plant right now. The plant is dealing with stress, and poking around the plant would add more. It just wants to relax and get it's roots growing. It would appreciate some tough love and loneliness. Hopefully it's happy with the amount of sun it's getting!  If you're really worried about the plant, you can look at the stem and see if it's plump and round, or wrinkled and crispy. Good luck on taking care of your plant! Ask me any more questions if you want! I hope I can help you out!
|
|
#
¿
Jun 2, 2013 20:09
|
|
|
Leperflesh posted:For those of you not watching LP streams on twitch TV, EagerSleeper has a friend whose computer crashes when they try to load this thread. That friend was me... Voodoo lilies look beautiful and mysterious, but after dealing with one rotting sempervivum in my yard, I can scarcely imagine how bad a plant that wants to smell bad on purpose would be. The foliage does look pretty though.  Is anyone interested in free* plants? I have a poo poo ton of Aloe vera and Kalanchoe fedtschenkoi that I'm willing to send over to a good home. There may even be Crassula ovata cuttings involved if you'd like them. I probably have 50+ Aloes and just as much Kalanchoe plants. Free as much as you send me a self-addressed envelope or pay for some money for shipping.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 13, 2013 19:31
|
|
|
Leperflesh posted:My wife's mom gave us three aloe plants in pots. They now seem to be dying. They're in maybe 70% sun and I water them every other day. Am I watering them too much, or do they need more sun, or both? Yeah, that's way overwatering. My aloe plants get watered once every two/four months and they're okay with my neglect. On the bright side, aloes can make some amazing recoveries. If the aloes are dying because of the soil's wetness killing them, you might be able to just pull them out of there. They should be able to become healthy again after a couple days without water in a lightly shaded environment. Then, you can put them into soil again and let them take off! Are some parts of the plant mushy? That's would require some minor plant surgery, but then you would treat them the same as in the previous paragraph. Nopales are pretty easy to propagate once you get the hang of it. They can propagate vegatatively by themselves in the wild too, with a single plant becoming two whole family's worth in a decade. Hummingbirds already said it well, but you take a nopal pad that has already calloused over the cut wound (which may take more or a less a week), and shallowly plant the side that has the callous into the ground into the ground. No watering necessary unless the nopal pad already has baby roots. Good luck and happy growing!
|
|
#
¿
Jun 14, 2013 14:09
|
|
|
FlamingLiberal posted:Anyone grow orchids on this board? I have a whole bunch of different plants from different species that I grow down here in FL. I killed an orchid before, how about that?  Feel free to talk about orchids, I've always thought they were pretty but I can't wrap my head around getting them the proper humidity and all that jazz. One of these days I might buy myself a terrestrial orchid, but who knows.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 20, 2013 17:20
|
|
|
Toriori posted:I picked some lupines off the side of the road today, I noticed a few flowers near the bottom drying and about to die off. is the seed pod in the centre of them? Do I just plant those? I don't grow a lot of flowers, so I'm not sure how to identify a seed pod. Thankfully the seed pods on lupines are easy to identify, since they look just like green beans but smaller and brown. After the flowers fade, a big green seed pod should make itself known after a while. Just gotta wait for the seed pod to turn brown and dry for the beans inside to be ripe. The only problem with lupines is that they don't handle transplanting very well from the wild. Best of luck to you!
|
|
#
¿
Jul 7, 2013 16:49
|
|
|
woah double post
EagerSleeper fucked around with this message at 19:14 on Jul 16, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Jul 7, 2013 16:49
|
|
|
^^^Just curious, but what did you say to them in order to get so many milk crates? "Hey can I have some of those boxes from the back?" and they said "sure?"Haifisch posted:I'm relatively new to plants, and I have a question about a Norfolk Island Pine I have: My best guess on what's wrong is pests, specifically spidermites. I'm thinks so since if it was overwatering/underwatering problem or not enough sun light, there should be yellow needles coming up from the lateral branches with the stem section still OK, instead of gray damage that ignores the lateral branches. If it is spidermites after all, check for small silk threads/webbings. My lucky bamboo managed to get spidermites, and the leaves are speckled with very tiny dots that looks similar to dust or nutrient deficiency. Hopefully you can rinse them off or use a pesticide on them. Off topic, but Timor Black Bamboo (Bambusa lako) is my new obsession right now. That blackness is just so sexy.  Shame that my local nursery wants to charge me $150-$300 for a 7 gallon plant, while also seeds for them are very rare. I can certainly dream though... EagerSleeper fucked around with this message at 05:52 on Aug 4, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Aug 4, 2013 05:41
|
|
|
TheMightyHandful posted:I put an ad on gumtree asking for free milk crates. They replied. I reckon they probably had over 100. Thank you, this is good to know! I've been using a single concrete cinder block to hold my cacti above the grass for a while, but they've been getting a bit etiolated since I've been using for cinder block for arts and crafts lately. A milk crate would work just as great! unprofessional posted:A 3-gallon for $45: http://www.tropicalbamboo.com/bamboo_shopping.asp?bid=1&bamboo=Bambusa%20lako%20-%20Timor%20Black%20Bamboo Thank you for the link! My local nursery usually overcharges for plants, but the price difference is spectacular. Combine it with a coupon from http://www.retailmenot.com/view/tropicalbamboo.com, and my dreams are suddenly looking a bit closer now. http://www.bamboowholesale.com.au/html/black_bamboo.html 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. Double edit: I've edited the OP a bit, so I hope it looks more neat and easy on the eyes. I also added a section where I offer some of the excess seeds that I have so you can enjoy, or ask me for a seed swap! quote:
Lastly, I'd like to thank the goon who was interested in the Aloe veras I have. I hope you enjoy them! EagerSleeper fucked around with this message at 04:43 on Aug 5, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Aug 4, 2013 18:38
|
|
|
Fog Tripper posted:Hey now. Are you asking if that bamboo is the "running" type of bamboo that grows everywhere and into your neighbor's neighbor's lawn? Luckily, Timor black bamboo is one of the few black bamboos that grow in clumps instead of running wildly. However, it seems that if you live in zones with harsh winters, the gangbuster bamboos are decent options. I just remembered that I have some Pink Muhly Grass if anyone's interested. They're native in Texas, and are used to the heat and cold. Make lovely pink flowers in fall. I haven't figured out how to sow the seeds, but I love how they look at my local businesses. Also, good luck, Mizufusion if you're going to be growing native grasses! It really makes a difference for native fauna to be able to visit those once-plentiful plants.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 6, 2013 22:36
|
|
|
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 |
|
#
¿
Aug 16, 2013 17:17
|
|
|
I love coming back into this thread and being amazed by everyone's garden projects each time. 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 |
|
#
¿
Aug 22, 2013 00:33
|
|
|
^^^^^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. (  ) 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 |
|
#
¿
Aug 23, 2013 19:11
|
|
|
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.  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 |
|
#
¿
Aug 30, 2013 03:48
|
|
|
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. 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.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 19, 2013 15:13
|
|
|
I'm going to second wishing good luck to you. Though it seems like things are going well if you already have roots growing. I personally have not had much success with tissue culture, so I'd be interested in your setup. Like one of the questions I have is are you using grow lights for the cultures? Here's an old picture of my failed attempt. Can you guys spot all the things I did wrong here?  upsciLLion posted:This kind of looks like a red dragon flower (Huernia schneideriana) to me. Can anyone else confirm or deny? This is from a long time ago but I'm still going to go with euphorbia esculenta. Although huernia looks almost exactly like that, it also grows in single stems most of the time. Since in that picture there seems to be a green bulb-like body that that the arms connect to, I think its a euphorbia instead. EagerSleeper fucked around with this message at 18:36 on Oct 2, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Oct 2, 2013 18:25
|
|
|
IdeoPhanthus posted:I have a Tillandsia Ionantha that I bought a week ago. It's this (just no flowers, I assume due to it being winter): I just looked online for to make sure, but I don't think the type of water really matters for Tillandsias. On this one website I found this: http://plants.web-indexes.com/airplants/airplants-care.html posted:Generally speaking water quality is not important to Tillandsias, they do not tend to show water spots and are basically only susceptible to pH8 or higher, or too much salt. Artificially softened water has too much sodium (salt) for Tillandsias and should not be used as it will slowly cause die back. Distilled water is too pure and will actually pull nutrients out of the plant tissue causing death, NEVER use distilled water. Tillandsia like moving air not closed stuffy conditions. The well water might be okay, so long as it isn't too salty nor basic. Sorry to hear about the death of one your plants. If you suspect the problem is a fungus or something like that, may I suggest taking apart the rest of the Tillandsia ball? With them being separate from each other, it would make it much harder for any fungus to take hold of them. Another thing I might suggest to get rid of any fungus is a simple combination of rubbing alcohol with cinnamon that has been allowed to steep for at least a day in a spray bottle. It has never harmed any of the plants that I own, and there's not a lot of pests that can deal with it.
EagerSleeper fucked around with this message at 07:01 on Dec 8, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Dec 8, 2013 03:00
|
|
|
Molten Llama posted:On a whim, I bought a bunch of tulip bulbs for the first time. Some early-season, some mid-season, all really cool looking. This being central Arizona, the overwhelming recommendation was to do an abbreviated force on them as our winters aren't cold enough long enough for many varieties. I dutifully chilled them and planted them (in the ground) around Thanksgiving, as was the recommendation for a spring bloom. Things sound tough, but so long as they're protected from the wind, I have no problem imagining that they'll be fine. Cold, searing winds are usually what winds up killing plants, but cold temperatures by themselves should be fine for tulip sprouts. Best of luck to you though and please keep us updated! I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday season this year. I'm pretty happy right now, because aside from surviving a possible nightmare Christmas party in the best way possible, I also found what was wrong with my variegated African violet. Turns out the room that I've been keeping my other non-variegated African violets was to shady for it, so it was slowly dying and having its leaves melt. I've put it back on to my really sunny kitchen window, and it's been improving a lot.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 26, 2013 18:04
|
|
|
You can try clipping parts of the brown leaves off with scissors. If it doesn't fall off readily, then it's not a good idea to try yanking. Ask me and my poor plants how I know.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 27, 2013 18:07
|
|
|
 Here's a picture of a plant that's blooming in winter. Its the beautiful red-yellow Kalanchoe luciae with a frost blue flower stem. Actually, it's been holding off on actually opening those blooms ever since October because once it does so, it will die. I don't blame you at all for trying to stave off the inevitable, Kalanchoe luciae, I'll miss you.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 28, 2013 17:36
|
|
|
Kenning posted:I'm going to the Bay Area Carnivorous Plant Society meeting tomorrow at the SF Conservatory of Flowers. My roommate is gonna get super high and come with me. I'm excited! I hope I can pick up some cool sundews and get advice on helping along my seedlings. Anybody here gonna be there? I remember someone mentioning BACPS earlier in the thread. At first I got excited, but then I found out that it was the wrong bay area instead of the one I live by. Also, that it was three days too late though. Oh well. Being able to see beautiful carnivorous plants that I could never take care of myself up close seems like it would fantastic though.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTB87DEa2qE&feature=youtube_gdata_player
|
|
#
¿
Jan 28, 2014 02:19
|
|
|
Everytime I read this thread, I come so much closer to setting up a growlight in my closet.... As for content, here's the state of my garden in 20°F ice-rain Texas: Milkweed (Asclepias curassavica): Hey, guys! Is it darker than usual around here? I know that I already live in a perpetual shade quagmire already, but I can't help but feel that something's a little different. Lol oh well, just going to keep putting out flowers everywhere despite the fact that there hasn't been a single butterfly around at all for months. Maybe the winter has something to do with it? Oh, guys! Did you know that I'm native to Mexico, and hence Texas, in pretty much this exact geographical location? It's almost like I'm perfectly adapted for this sort of bipolar weathe-- The succulent plant collection: Shut the gently caress up. EagerSleeper fucked around with this message at 03:04 on Mar 4, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Mar 4, 2014 03:00
|
|
|
raej posted:Any tips on how to keep this 5 gal hydrangea from dying in Texas? I'm assuming that it's still in the pot from the store? If so, I know that the generic thin, black plastic nursery pots offer little heat protection to plant's root balls, so it's broiling. If that's your situation, I suggest keeping it somewhere where the roots can stay nice, cool, and away from the effects of the Texas sun. The major recommendation after that would be to get it into a pot that has some insulating properties to it. If you want, you can double up plastic pots on each other, or perhaps use the plastic nursery pot within a clay pot. The plastic pot keeps moisture, while the clay pot wicks away heat after a watering. I'm barely improving my situation on growing zone 4 plants (astilbes in case anyone's curious) in zone 9, so I feel your pain with plants melting in the sun. I hope I could help out a bit!Anoulie posted:So I saved this plant from the trash a few weeks ago. I guess its previous owners just didn't want to get a new pot for it -- the one it was in was basically all roots. So I put it in a bigger pot (9 inches across), stuck two fertilizer sticks in between the stems (not sure if the smaller one will ever do anything interesting, but I'll just leave it in there). I cut off the dead leaves and put it in the shower to get rid of the dust and it's looking much better now! a) That's a Dracaena deremensis "Janet Craig Compacta," a.k.a. pineapple dracaena. I have one of those! They need a good source of light close to a window, but they are as easy as lucky bamboo to take care of, because they are cousins of them.b) The only tough thing about all dracaenas is avoiding the use of tap water straight from the faucet. The chlorine and fluorine in tap water results in burnt leaf tips, eventually leading to the whole leaf drying up. Dracaenas can live like this for a long time though, so it's not immediately fatal. I hear that tap water that is left out in an open container for a day allows the fluorine and chlorine to evaporate out safely for dracaenas, but bottled water is always a safe bet for a happy looking plant. Right in front of the window is perfect! c) Pineapple dracaena doesn't grow much taller than five feet, so at least the posture problems are mitigated. :P A garden pole will definitely help keep it upright. Unfortunately, the only options dracaenas have to be more sturdy is to add more dirt around it and pack it up. It can then eventually grow more supporting roots like that. Also, I've seen a lot of discussion about this plant photo, and I'm so glad that you guys liked it! I hope the people who have bought their own Begonia rex 'escargot' find much joy in their plants! 
EagerSleeper fucked around with this message at 03:40 on May 21, 2014 |
|
#
¿
May 21, 2014 02:59
|
|
|
^^^^ Almost like a horror movie/medical drama set in Renaissance Europe, sometimes you wind up killing your patients/plants in the process of learning about them. Lucky bamboo and air plants are pretty easy to kill by accident anyway without knowledge that tap water harms lucky bamboo or how much wateer air plants are comfortable with. By the way, thanks for alerting me about the 404s on those links in the first posts. I've been a poo poo OP and had been neglecting my thread for a long time. I've deleted those links. That70sHeidi posted:I have a general question about plants now. I'm looking at both a type of stonecrop and a spiralis corkscrew, but I've got the option of three different size plants in both. Sometimes bigger plants are better, in the case of having more sheer material to work with, but on the other leaf, some plants have worse times transplanting to different locations than others. It really depends on what you have unfortunately. For sure (provided that you have acclimated the plants to raised levels of sun exposure and climate first), stonecrops have little problem transplanting. I'm not too sure about Spiralis though since it's a moisture lover. It might not be appropriate for the sunbaked rocks area, and even right next to and under a cherry tree can be difficult for any plant to grow, but still it might be worth the shot to try growing. But, yeah stonecrop should be able to sutvive the sunbaked rocks area. Hope things turn out well! Also, yes you'd have to lift the dahlia tubers every winter to prevent them from turning into mush. They could get acclimated to normally cold temperatures, but all it takes is one cold snap, one night where it's -15°F instead of -1°F, to kill them. EagerSleeper fucked around with this message at 08:44 on May 31, 2014 |
|
#
¿
May 31, 2014 08:29
|
|
|
Tremors posted:My Synsepalum dulcificum is fruiting! Your hour of eating various spicy, sour, bitter, etc., foods to try the different effects approaches. Edit: there used to be many other gardening threads here on SA, but they fell into the archives by now. The only other gardening thread that remains is the Veggie and Herb gardening thread (http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3085672), if that answers any questions. EagerSleeper fucked around with this message at 01:33 on Jun 1, 2014 |
|
#
¿
May 31, 2014 23:36
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 06:31 |
|
|
tuyop posted:We just bought a few tiny berry bushes. We live in Edmonton (zone 3b I've never grown blueberries before, but I'm guessing that it's to promote energy being spent towards the roots and leaves at the time of its life when it's still not much more than a stick in dirt. Pinching berries and flowers off should help the plant become more lush, hence more likely to survive. This minor form of pruning is what I do with my basil and small chile plant in order to keep their vigor instead of becoming leggy. Unfortunately I suck at identifying young woody plants. The last photo that Tuyop has though looks a little bit like poison sumac though.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 2, 2014 14:55
|
|