The Variegated Thumb

I have had some success with Orchids in the past, but I have not kept any Orchids lately.  That was until I went to the Orchid Show and Sale at the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens last weekend!

The Orchid Show was nice, but the real excitement came in the sale room, which was packed with orchids of various sizes, colors and price ranges.  My wife agreed with me that the sale room was much more fun, just knowing that you could take any of them home with you, assuming you had the money.

Phalaenopsis bastianii - birthday gift for my green-thumbed granddad who has recently started growing orchids.

But you didn’t have to be a millionaire to walk away with a nice plant.  There were quite a few plants available in the $10-15 price range and very few plants more than $25.  We did see that a couple of the largest and rarest specimens had price tags around $75.

There were orchid seedlings for only $4 each!  Assuming you can keep the orchid alive for a year or two, this is a great deal.  I bought myself a miniature orchid that was in bloom, as well as 3 seedlings.

Tolumnia 'Genting Volcano'

Tolumnia 'Genting Volcano' pot with quarter for size comparison

The miniature orchid appealed to me on several different levels.  It is cool just because it is “full-grown” and still so small, housed in a 1″ diameter pot.  I didn’t even realize they made pots that small!  It also has a great inflorescence.  This particular plant is Tolumnia ‘Genting Volcano.’  The Tolumnia genus is a section of what was once considered the Oncidium genus.  Oncidium was a very large genus and some plants were removed in 1986 and placed in the new genus Tolumnia.  Oncidium is one of the most recognizable genera of the Orchid family, containing the plants which are commonly called “Dancing Ladies” and “Sherry Baby,” which is known for its fragrance of vanilla chocolate.  I had heard about this smell before, but not witnessed it until the sale.  It is amazing how much it smells like chocolate.

Three orchid seedlings: Vandopsis parishii v. Mariottiana, Phalaenopsis stuartiana, Dendrobium alexanderae

When I realized you could buy seedlings for $4, I started reading all of the tags, which were labeled with the genus and species, as well as the color of blooms.  I picked out one seedling from the common genus Phaelenopsis which had variegated foliage.  I also chose a Dendrobium and a Vandopsis.

My simple 8 gallon Orchidarium, including a variegated Maranta in the lower left.

I have set up an “Orchidarium” in a 10 gallon aquarium that I had on hand.  By putting these plants inside the aquarium, there is an increased local humidity that suits these plants well.  A small amount of water is kept in the bottom of the aquarium, at or below the gravel level.  A lid is not necessary and would inhibit air circulation, which can instigate problems with pests and fungi.

Eventually I will add some things to the orchidarium to make it look more natural and hide the pots – some driftwood, pieces of bark and sphagnum moss, probably.

Right now I have a couple of Marantas living in there with the orchids, which help to hide the pots.  They also enjoy the elevated humidity.  I pulled the red-veined Maranta out for the picture so that you could see the setup a little better.

What do you think of my new orchids?

I lured my wife into yet another plant-inspired weekend road trip.  It’s really not that hard to lure my wife into road trips.  This weekend we took a drive a little over an hour north to Stillwater, Oklahoma, to visit a plant nursery that I had heard about from another plant blogger that lives in Oklahoma.  Martha from All the Dirt on Gardening suggested I visit Bustani Plant Farm for a little variety.

The Bustani Plant Farm has a great selection of plants that tolerate the heat and humidity of an Oklahoma summer and they have the appropriate motto “Grow something different.”  Many of their plants I had not seen available anywhere else.

I bought about 10 different plants, including some perennials for the corner garden and some tropicals that I will have to overwinter indoors or in a greenhouse.  The two coolest plants I walked away with are Spanish Flag (Ipomoea lobata) and a Hybrid Passionflower (Passiflora x alatocaerulea ‘Pfordtii’).  These plants are both tropical climbing plants that like full sun.  I hadn’t really planned where I would put the plants when I got home.  I just knew that I had to have both of them. 

I found some nice-looking, inexpensive wooden trellises and mounted them to the back fence for these two plants to climb this summer.  I mounted the trellises in such a manner that I can remove them easily this Fall and leave the brackets in place.  My wife can help me carry the trellis (with plant attached) while I carry the pot and we can keep each plant alive indoors over the winter and then bring them back outdoors again next Summer.  I imagine the Passionflower will be pretty hard to remove from the fence, due to the clingy tendrils it forms.  I had quite a difficult time just separating my little plant from the other plants next to it at the nursery.  I might have to monitor it throughout the summer, making sure that it is clinging tightly to the trellis but discouraging it from clinging to the fence.

Hybrid Passionflower (Passiflora x alatocaerulea ‘Pfordtii’) growing on trellis along back fence.  See all of the swollen buds, ready to open?

I had pored over the pictures on the Bustani Plant Farm website before my visit and was really happy to see that the plants were of great quality when we arrived.  My Passionflower is already blooming and looks every bit as cool as the picture on the website.  Passionflowers, in general, just look like made-up, imagined plants to me.  It doesn’t seem like they could be real.  Every time I see one I think, “Surely, that’s fake!”

Hybrid Passionflower (Passiflora x alatocaerulea ‘Pfordtii’) bloom - simply amazing! Notice the alternating sepal colors - green to purple.

The sepals of the bloom alternate from purple to pale green/white.  This is an interspecific hybrid, which means that it was bred from two different species (P. alata and P. caerulea).  It does not produce any seed, but supposedly blooms more because it does not have to put energy into the production of fruit.  Bustani also had a Passionflower that is a hardy perennial in my zone, but I really wanted to try this hybrid with the different coloring.  I brought one of the hardy blue Passionflowers back for my mom, so we’ll get to enjoy that variety as well.

Spanish Flag (Ipomoea lobata) growing on trellis along back fence.

The other climber I mounted along the back fence is the Spanish Flag (Ipomoea lobata, sometimes also called Mina lobata).  This plant is the in the Morning Glory family, along with the ornamental Sweet Potato Vines (Ipomoea batatas), the edible Sweet Potatoes, and the Cypress Vine (Ipomoea quamoclit).  It is a fast grower and attracts hummingbirds with its colorful display of red to orange to yellow to white flowers (see picture below).  The blooms are very different from other members of the Ipomoea genus, which otherwise seem to resemble each other.  My plant is not yet blooming, but is pretty healthy.  With all of the rain we have been receiving, I can already see some new growth.

Ipomoea lobata - Spanish Flag - photo from Bustani Plant Farm

What do you think of my new acquisitions?

The last two weekends my wife and I have been on the road across Oklahoma.  April 18-19 we drove south into Texas, April 25-26 we drove east into Arkansas, and on May 2 we drove north to Stillwater, Oklahoma.  We have seen lots of color along the road.  On our trip down to Fort Worth, Texas, we saw Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja sp.), Texas Bluebonnet (Lupinus texensis), Indian Blanket (Gaillardia pulchella) and some light pink cup-shaped blooms called Light Poppy-mallow (Callirhoe alcaeoides).  On our drive to Siloam Springs, Arkansas, we saw more Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja sp.), Crimson Clover (Trifolium incarnatum), purple Texas Toadflax (Nuttallanthus texanus), purple Verbena (Verbena canadensis), purple Blue-Eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium sp.), and some tiny flowering Daffodils (Narcissus sp.).

Verbena canadensis with Blue-Eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium sp.) in the foreground lower left.

Tall plant with purple blooms is Nuttallanthus texanus. Crimson Clover (Trifolium incarnatum) is in the foreground lower left.

Field of Crimson Clover (Trifolium incarnatum) in eastern Oklahoma.  This was our favorite wildflower seen on our roadtrips.

The Indian Blanket (Gaillardia pulchella) that we saw in the southern part of the state is Oklahoma’s state wildflower.  In some states, one flower would be enough official representation, but not here.  Oklahoma is represented by three different flowers.  Mistletoe (Phoradendron serotinum) is the state “floral emblem,” adopted 14 years before Oklahoma became a state.  The state wildflower was adopted in 1910, three years after Oklahoma became a state.  And the official state flower is the hybrid Tea Rose named “Oklahoma.”  It was not added until 2004!  While the rose is crimson in color (one of the University of Oklahoma’s two school colors), the hybrid was bred at a rival school, Oklahoma State University.

Texas Bluebonnets - state flower of Texas

I think the rose was adopted as the state flower due to all of the jokes going around about Oklahoma’s flower actually being a parasite.  Even with the high standing of mistletoe around the Christmas season, the parasitic label wasn’t something the state wanted perpetuated.  So the mistletoe got demoted to “floral emblem.”  I think that’s kind of funny.  I would almost prefer the rose to be our “floral emblem,” considering it has an attractive flower.  No one really pays attention to the flowers of Mistletoe.  Maybe it should be our “berry emblem.”

There was a small amount of protest when the bill was introduced to adopt the rose as the state flower, since it is not native to Oklahoma.  Ultimately, there were many more people who were happy to borrow a non-native as our flower and lay the mistletoe aside.  Many gardening groups and nurseries across the state were strong supporters of the hybrid rose. [Here's the story.]

Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja indivisa). This is another of our favorites and the most plentiful wildflower in Oklahoma.

Personally, I would have been in favor of promoting the Indian Blanket to the state flower.  Either that, or adopting the Indian Paintbrush (pictured above) as the state flower.  According to the USDA Plants Profiles webpage, there are four species of Indian Paintbrush that grow natively in Oklahoma (scarlet Indian Paintbrush C. coccinea, downy Indian Paintbrush C. purpurea, downy painted cup C. sessiliflora, entireleaf Indian Paintbrush C. indivisa).  The Indian Paintbrush species C. linariaefolia is designated as the state flower of Wyoming.  The flowers that I see on the side of the road in Oklahoma are salmon colored, most likely C. indivisa.

Coincidentally, the Indian Paintbrush is also a parasite!  I must admit that I am not very knowledgeable about parasites, but I think the Indian Paintbrush is sort of an unusual parasite.  The parasites I am familiar with are those like the Mistletoe, which are obviously living off of a host plant.  The Indian Paintbrush, on the other hand, secretly feeds off of nearby plants by tapping into the roots.  Various grasses usually serve this purpose, but the Oklahoma Gardening Guide suggests planting Indian Paintbrush with Bluebonnets.  I’m not sure if Steve Dobbs made the suggestion tongue-in-cheek, delighted by the idea that a symbol of Oklahoma would be sucking life out of a symbol of Texas, or if I was just reading too much into it.

Today is my mom’s birthday!  I attribute most of my admiration for plants to my mom.  I grew up surrounded by plants and started helping her with watering and plant maintenance at an early age.  I am celebrating her birthday on my blog by profiling one of her favorite plants – the Asparagus Fern.  This is a very common house plant/outdoor summer plant in our area of the country.

You might wonder why this plant is given the common name “Asparagus Fern.”  These plants (which are actually not ferns) belong to the Asparagus genus.  The genus also includes Asparagus officinalis, the plant which produces the edible aspargus spears that we all know and love (or tolerate, in my case).  So if you have an Asparagus Fern, believe it or not, your plant is very closely related to the edible asparagus!  You might be able to tell a resemblance in the new fronds of foliage that emerge.  They look very similar to the edible aspargus.

New frond from an Asparagus fern (Asparagus setaceus) - photo courtesy flickr user yauda

There are over 300 distinct species in the Asparagus genus, two of which are commonly kept as ornamental plants: A. densiflorus (synonym A. sprengeri) and A. plumosus (synonym A. setaceus).  Both of these species use the common name “Asparagus Fern.”  A. plumosus is sometimes also labelled “Plumosa Fern” or “Florist’s Fern.”  The fronds of this plant are airy and soft.  They are sometimes used in floral arrangements.

Plumosa fern (Asparagus setaceus) - photo courtesy flickr user vanillalotus

The other species (A. densiflorus) has two common varieties that can be found as an ornamental plant.  This is the species that my mom grows so well.  To make the naming conventions even a little more complicated, the Asparagus densiflorus plant is sometimes given the common name “Sprenger’s Asparagus.”  According to wikipedia, Carl Ludwig Sprenger made these ferns popular in Europe.  So to reward him, his name has been applied as the botanical species name of the “Plumosa Fern” as as one of the common names for a different species A. densiflorus.

Aspargus densiflorus - photo courtesy flickr user Mrs Ramsay

As I said, there are two common varieties of A. densiflorus.  One of these is sometimes labelled A. densiflorus ‘Meyersii’ and sometimes given the common name “Foxtail Asparagus Fern.”  This plant has a much more manicured look, with foliage densely confined around each branch, almost forming perfect cones.  If you didn’t know any better, you might think this plant had been pruned with some intricate little hedge trimmer.   The other variety is the true species, and is more of a free spirit, with branches that contain less form.  Even though the name Asparagus sprengeri was in honor of a person, this plant seems deserving of the name “sprengeri,” because it looks “springy” as opposed to the ‘Meyersii’ variety.

Foxtail Asparagus Fern - Asparagus densiflorus 'Meyersii' - photo courtesy flickr user pandorea

I have an Asparagus densiflorus and A. densiflorus ‘Meyersii’ potted together.  Sadly, my Asparagus plumosus is no longer with us.  I would have shared photos of my ferns, but they become rather dormant over the winter and are just now being to “leaf out” again.  Of course, they are more like needles than leaves.  Botanically speaking, they are flattened stems that are capable of photosynthesis and they are called phylloclades.

Asparagus densiflorus in bloom - photo courtesy flickr user Distraction Limited

Asparagus densiflorus berries - photo courtesy flickr user Mr. Greenjeans

These plants have small white flowers, followed by green berries which become red with time.  I have a couple of Asparagus ferns on my front porch, and occasionally new plants will come up from seed that was spread to neighboring pots.  Underground, a small bulb-like feature grows.  It reminds me a bit of the bulbs of Pregnant Onion.

Asparagus densiflorus seedling - photo courtesy flickr user joeysplanting

Happy Birthday, Mom!  May all your fern fronds be green!

You might think I’ve fallen off my rocker with that title, but it’s true!  There is an exotic rainforest in Siloam Springs, Arkansas.

Large Alocasia growing in the Exotic Rainforest. Notice the multiple inflorescences in the lower half of the picture.

White Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia nicolai) reaching the upper limits of the atrium.

The “rainforest” is contained in a 24′ by 24′ atrium that is built onto the back of the private home of Aroid collector Steve Lucas.  Steve lived in Florida for a number of years, amassing a large collection of tropical plants which covered the grounds around his house.  When he decided to move to Arkansas, he was determined to continue his hobby of growing tropical plants and take what he could with him.  Others thought he was crazy, but he built a large greenhouse and turned it into a tropical paradise.  It contains somewhere on the order of 300 species of Aroids, a lot of orchids, a blue and gold Macaw, tree frogs, a waterfall and a pond stocked with fish!

Wizard, the blue and gold Macaw

Pond in the rainforest atrium

Tree frog perched on a leaf of the Bird of Paradise.

Our trip to Steve’s house was something I have been looking forward to for about 6 months now.  Steve is an amateur botanist, though only “amateur” in that his professional training is in another subject.  Steve collaborates on a regular basis with many of the leading researchers focused on the Aroid (Araceae) family, and has a working knowledge of Aroids greater than anyone I know.  It was great to finally meet him after seeing lots of his pictures on his website and reading his passionate descriptions and discussions of Aroids.  Steve took me through his collection, telling me about each plant – the botanical name, commonly mistaken identities, key features, locations where it is found in nature and the story of his particular plant.

Steve showing me his Philodendron mexicanum (of which he gave me a cutting)

Steve has some plants in his collection with particularly interesting stories.  The plant pictured below was one of two plants used by Julius Boos and Drs. Tom Croat and Simon Mayo to write the scientific description of Philodendron xanadu.  Julius Boos gave the plant to Steve as a gift.  That’s a pretty special plant!

Philodendron xanadu plant used for formal description

Steve also has a Philodendron that is currently unnamed.  He is carefully documenting all new growth and changes that he sees and communicating that information to one of the world’s leading Aroid experts, Dr. Tom Croat of the Missouri Botanical Gardens.  His hope is to have the plant produce an inflorescence this year and soon the plant will be determined to be a distinct species that had not yet been discovered.

Steve's prize plant, an unidentified (and potentially undocumented) Philodendron species.

I have grown some Aroids for 3 or 4 years, but my collecting of Aroids really just began last Fall.  Steve had loads of information to share with me and was kind enough to give me cuttings of several of his plants.  Any plant that had enough stem to cut away he was willing to share.

Cercestis mirabilis. The big red knife is what Steve used to make cuttings of several of his plants for me.

Because of his generosity, I have added six new Philodendrons, one Alocasia and one Tillandsia (from the Bromeliad family) to my collection: P. atabapoense, P. billietiae, P. erubescens, P. mayoi, P. mexicanum, P. 69686, A. gageana and T. albida.

Steve has installed an artificial log wrapped in growing medium and mounted with epiphytic plants – ferns, Bromeliads, Orchids and Aroids.  As Steve says, in the rainforest, there are more plants growing on the trees than on the ground.

Artificial log mounted with various epiphytic plants - ferns, Orchids, Bromeliads and Aroids.

There is a wealth of information on his website concerning Aroids, orchids and tropical greenhouses.  He also has some wonderful pictures.  Check it out!  www.exoticrainforest.com