The Variegated Thumb

I’m going to interrupt my spree of Florida trip posts (yes, there are more coming) with a quickie of one of my orchids in bloom.

Oeceoclades maculata in bloom

This is Oeceoclades maculata, which was given to me by my friend Jude after he traveled to Florida for the IAS show last year.  He said that he found them growing all over the place.  They are not native to Florida, but grow very well in the south Florida climate.

Oeceoclades leaf - looking an awful lot like a Sansevieria.

The plant itself looks much like a Sansevieria – dark green leaves with some lighter green mottling.  The leaves also have thick sturdiness of a Sansevieria.  I know the blooms are small, on top of a tall spike, but I think they are really quite cool looking and have some neat colors to them.

Oeceoclades maculata bloom close-up

The Salvia genus, commonly called Sage, consists of somewhere between 700 and 900 species, including perennials, as well as tropicals which are grown as annuals.  Many Salvias are attractive to butterflies and hummingbirds.  Lately I’ve been adding several Salvias to our gardens.  They are great for our climate because they tolerate the heat and bloom throughout the summer.  For me, the tropicals aren’t quite worth growing, although there are some really neat colors available in these varieties.  I might try some of the more tempting tropicals in the future and overwinter them in the greenhouse.

New dark pink Salvia, photographed earlier this year, when it was still pink.

We planted Salvia greggii ‘Pink Preference’ in the corner garden and it came back and bloomed again this year.  It is kind of a magenta pink color.  We got a couple new dark pink Salvias this year (above), but I don’t know their name.  We planted one in the new brick garden and one in the corner garden.  It’s weird but those same plants now look like they have solid red blooms… I would say it was just my flawed memory, but I have pictures (above and 2 pics below) of the same plants with different color blooms.

We also planted a new, light pink Salvia, whose name I don’t recall (but it could be Salvia coccinea ‘Coral Nymph’).

Light pink Salvia. This has grown really fast this summer, even in our extreme heat.

This light pink Salvia has grown incredibly fast this summer, all the while everything else we have outside has been struggling to survive.  We had more than 60 days this summer with a temperature of 100 degrees or more.  The previous record was 50 days in 1 year.  So we blew it out of the water this year.  I’m guessing these Salvias are more than just heat and drought tolerant.  They must enjoy it.  But wait, you might not believe this.  Shortly after we planted this light pink Salvia I noticed some little plants coming up from seed in the corner garden nearby.  I started to yank them and then I realized the leaves matched the big Salvia, so I let them be.  I haven’t seen anything seed and germinate this fast, but now those little seedlings that I let be have grown into mammoth plants just like the parent!

Three Salvias in the corner garden. The Salvia in the back is the original light pink plant and the one on the right is the one that came up FROM SEED earlier this summer.

Light pink Salvia blooms

We also got a Salvia guaranitica ‘Black and Blue’ (also called Brazilian Sage) which is my favorite.  The blooming bracts are truly black and the blooms are very blue.  These are striking colors that you don’t see very often.   It has been growing on the front porch in a decorative pot all summer.  I was afraid it was not hardy, so I didn’t want to plant it in one of our flowerbeds.  Also, since it’s my favorite, I get to enjoy it a lot more sitting on the front porch.  But I learned that it is actually hardy, so now I am looking for another plant or two so that I can plant it in the corner garden and also overwinter one in the greenhouse for security.  Unfortunately, the heat really took a toll on this plant.  Just when I realized it was dead, I was given hope by a seedling coming up in the pot.  Just like the light pink Salvia from the corner garden, this plant has quickly matured and now has blooms on it!  Unfortunately, I don’t have a good picture of our plant, so here’s a link to see a really good bloom picture.

One of the more common Salvias for the perennial garden, is also a blue/purple shade.  This one is Salvia farinacea.  It has distinctive bloom stalks with white buds that are nice enough even before the flowers open.  See the picture below.

Salvia farinacea

Finally, I’m going to throw in two non-Salvia.  One of these plants is similar in growth habit and form and neither of the two is significant enough right now to get their own post.  The first plant is the Saliva wannabe, Plectranthus.  We had one of these a couple of years ago and I really liked it for the dark green foliage, bloom color and heat tolerance.  It’s a neat plant and is staying on the hot front porch for now.  It did really well for a long time and then started giving in to the heat recently.  If it is still alive here in a couple of weeks, I’ll bring it in to the greenhouse to keep it over the winter since it is not hardy here.  Since ours has not done well with the extreme heat this year, I have to use a link to pictures here.  This might not be the exact variety that we have, but it is very close.

The other non-Salvia is the common Texas Bluebonnet.  Sadly, this little plant did not like our hot and dry summer.  We have a neighbor that has a bunch of this growing in their front yard along the curb.  I might get some seed from them and try to grow them that way next year.  The color of the Bluebonnets are really impressive, not to mention the neat foliage.

Texas bluebonnet - photographed earlier in the season, before the heat wave!

What is your favorite variety of Salvia?  Is it tolerant of heat and drought?  How about the cold hardiness?

I purchased an octopus orchid (labeled Encyclia cochleata, but actually Anacheilium cochleata) on eBay back in January.  At the time, the plant had a bloom spike.  However, the travel was too taxing on the plant and the spike quickly withered, so I didn’t get to see the weird little blooms.

Anacheilium cochleata shortly after I noticed the bloom spike for the first time.

However, the seller did mention that this orchid blooms on each new growth (pseudobulb).  What I didn’t notice was that the largest growth on my plant was actually the “new” growth that hadn’t yet bloomed.  When a newer growth started recently I got excited, thinking that a couple months from now, it might start to bloom.  But then shortly thereafter I noticed there was a bloom spike growing out of that larger pseudobulb!

Anacheilium cochleata flower almost open

Doesn’t this orchid have the coolest flowers?

First Anacheilium cochleata flower

I was operating under the assumption that the genus name Encyclia was correct for this plant, but I was surprised that the bloom shape looks so different from the other Encyclias. Then I found out that this and a couple of other plants have been tossed around among a couple of different genera over the years – including Prosthechea, Encyclia, and Anacheilium. For now, the taxonomists seem to have settled on the last one. Many people in the orchid world just refer to this plant by it’s species name (cochleata), since that is the only part of the name that has stayed consistent.

Anacheilium cochleata buds and back side of bloom

There are a total of 5 buds on my orchid right now, so hopefully I will have a little “school” of octupi soon. I don’t know if “school” is really the right word. There might not be a correct word for a group of octopus, since I don’t think they are social creatures, by nature.

One reason the blooms of this orchid look different from many Encyclias is that they are resupinate, which means they are upside down from the normal orientation. Regardless of whether this is an Encyclia or not, or has the same orientation of normal Encyclias, I seem to be drawn to plants which have had the name Encyclia attached at some point or another.  I think one thing that attracts me to many Encyclias is the color combinations in the blooms.  Many of them are kind of a brown/mauve background, sometimes with a splash of color, sometimes not.  Some of them almost look like dirt.  Sounds pretty cool, huh?  A flower that is the color of dirt.  Anyway, I like them.  Check out these Encyclias!

I have one true Encyclia in my collection – Encyclia polybulbon.  It is a mounted specimen that has neat, yellow brown blooms.  One really nice thing about Encyclias for me is that they are mostly small, so I can have quite a few of them without taking up too much space.  Some people would consider their small blooms to be a downside, but I like their size – and their dirt brown blooms.

I have gotten several Amaryllis bulbs over the years and have kept them alive, with leaves nearly all of the time, but rarely get blooms from them.  About a month ago, my friend, fellow IAS member and plant blogger, Jason was at my house, standing in the greeenhouse, talking plants.  He’s a big Amaryllis nut and I mentioned that I had three growing on the bottom shelf there in the greenhouse.  I mentioned that I just let them grow year round and don’t bother forcing dormancy or anything.  He said that is really the best way to grow them.  But, I told him, mine never bloom…  That’s when he said, “But, you’ve got one about to bloom right now!”

My recent Amaryllis (Hippeastrum) bloom

I looked down to see that one of the Amaryllis had, sure enough, put up a stem, which was growing through the next shelf level.  I carefully removed the plant from the shelves and brought it in the house to a sunny window, where it opened a couple of days later.  None of my plants were labeled – probably from the beginning – since they were grocery store bought bulbs.  But this one has really nice vibrant red and white blooms.  Up close the flower is even more attractive.

Closeup of Amaryllis (Hippeastrum)

I looked back in my blog history and could only find the one other picture of one of my Amaryllis bulbs in bloom.  Thankfully it was a picture of both of the other two plants, so now I know what I have – a solid red, a solid pink and a red and white striped.  I don’t know the names, but maybe Jason will help me out with that over time.

My wife’s family owns a wedding chapel just outside of town.  For the past couple of years Christie and I have helped maintain the flowerbeds and do other projects.  This year we’ve handed the job over to some other relatives who wanted a side job, but when we were there recently I got to see some of the fruits of our labor.

Hemerocallis 'Always Afternoon'

The Daylilies we planted a couple of years ago are all in bloom.  It is nice to see some splashes of color on an otherwise green palette of grasses and other drought-hardy plants.

Peach daylilies

There are several of these peach-colored daylilies and they are also the most prolific bloomers of the bunch.

Hemerocallis 'Irving Hepner'

I don’t recall all the varieties that we ordered, but they are all doing really well, spreading and blooming more each year.  I’m wondering if any of these will naturally cross-pollinate.  Does anyone know?