The Variegated Thumb

It’s been a while since I have posted updates on some of my plants that I’ve had for a year or two.  So here are some of my Aroids, which are doing quite well:

Though Aglaonema ‘Gold Dust’ has not grown a lot, it has recently put out a new offset, which I would prefer over height anyway, since I just have one stalk of it.

My Aglaonema ‘Royal Ripple’ has been putting out many offsets and is now filling the pot rather nicely.  Some of my other Aglaonemas are also doing really well: A. ‘Peacock’, A. ‘BJ Freeman’, A. ‘Abidjan’, and A. ‘Silver Bay’

The Anthurium barbacoasense which I brought back from the April meeting of the MidAmerica IAS chapter is growing really well.  I need to figure out a good system for supporting it.  I probably just need to set up a totem for it.  For now, it has been growing leaning against a taller pot for support.  This plant was collected by Dr. Tom Croat in Colombia.

My Epipremnum pinnatum v. ‘Cebu Blue’ is one of my favorites!  It has been growing very steadily and has latched on to the wood totem I made for it.  Recently this plant was knocked over in a wind storm, which caused me to lose a leaf or two and some of the plant lost its grip on the wood, but the plant was mostly undamaged.  I’m so glad this one is doing well.  You can see from one of the neighboring plants that I am a sucker for this foliage color.  I just love the blue-silver shade.

I’ve had luck off and on with my Monstera obliqua, but this set of cuttings really took off recently and I gave it a totem to climb, which is going pretty well.  It has produced some very large leaves down at the base of the plant, which I didn’t expect.

My Philodendron ’69686′ is growing very well.  It has been putting out leaves profusely, one right on top of the other.  According to Steve Lucas, this plant is likely a naturally-occurring hybrid from Brazil.  I’m glad it got out before they clamped down on exports of all plant life!

My unknown hybrid Philodendron from cuttings at my office has been growing really well and attached to the totem.  It’s already taller than the totem I made, so I’ll need to come up with something taller or start cutting it back.  It would be neat if I could make a really tall totem for this one and just let it keep growing taller.

This Philodendron was searching for something to climb, so I recently fixed up a totem for this one and have it temporarily attached with string.  I really like the texture of the stems of this plant.  This plant was a gift from Russ Hammer, who told me that it is called Philodendron florida, but I haven’t been able to find much information on that name.

My crowing glory right now is my Philodendron mayoi.  About 6 months ago I found a really nice piece of wood that was contorted and scarred and it was scheduled for destruction, along with a bunch of other tree limbs.  So I held onto it and waited for the perfect use.  One day I realized it would make a really nice climbing apparatus for one of my Aroids.  And I had just the perfect plant!  The P. mayoi latched on very quickly and has roots wrapping all around this unique branch.  It’s a work of art, in my opinion!  I really don’t think the pictures do it justice.

My Philodendron ‘Rojo’ hybrid is one of the few Meconostigma self-heading (upright, self-supported, non-climbing) Philodendrons in my collection.  This plant has been growing slow and steady since I got it sometime last year.

The other Meconostigma Philodendron in my collection has not been identified.  For a while I was calling it Philodendron selloum, but I’m not sure that is correct.  It might be Philodendron bipinnatifidum.  My plant has stayed about the same size since I got it in a trade about 3 years ago.  It puts out new leaves and loses old ones, but stays about the same size.

My Philodendron tortum is one of my newer plants.  It has been growing really well.  I will have to set up a totem for it soon.  I guess that will make it a “tortum totem.”

Syngonium wendlandii is probably the most attractive Syngonium that I have ever seen.  This plant, like my other Syngoniums, really likes water.

Guess what?  Someone occasionally stumbles upon my little seldomly-updated plant blog.  Recently I received an email from Russ Hammer, who has been growing aroids for many years.  He had stumbled upon my post on Aglaonemas and was wondering if I would like to make a trade with him.  Unfortunately my meager collection didn’t have any species or varieties that he has not already collected.  But he offered to send me a bunch of plants for just the price of postage.  You can bet I jumped on his offer.  I was counting down the days for my box to arrive.  When it did, I spent several hours potting the 28 different plants he sent me.

Rather than try to imbed pictures in my blog here (which usually means they are tiny), I have made a photo album of my pictures of the plants after I got them potted.  You can view the album, by clicking on the Aglaonema below. 

Russ also sent me a lot of information on Aroid culture and pictures of his mature plants.  I will probably post some of those pictures later.

Here is the list of the plants he sent me.  All of them are pictured in the photo album, with the exception of one of the monsteras, which I had not yet potted whenever the pictures were taken.  I’ll get it added soon enough.

Philodendrons
P. ilsemanii
P. ‘mini belle’
P. ‘Painted lady’
P. microstictum
P. ‘Florida’
P. mexicanum
P. red duchess
P. royal queen
P. ‘King of Spades’ or P. ‘Ace of Spades’

Aglaonemas
A. maria christina
A. jubilee
A. Abidjan
A. white lance
A. black lance
A. modestum variegate
A. royal ripple
A. alumina v. armandii
A. green lady
A. new unidentified variety

Monsteras
M. standleyana
M. adansonii
M. deliciosa v. Borsigiana

Epipremnums
E. pinnatum v. ‘Cebu Blue’
E. aureus ‘neon’

Syngoniums
S. pink
S. ‘Byrd’

Other Aroids
Dieffenbachia unidentified variety
Zamioculcas zamiifolia (‘zz plant’)

I’ll start from the basics. The word propagation can mean several different things.  In the context of meteorology, we use the word “propagate” to describe the movement of certain weather properties of interest. In the context of plants, the word “propagation” refers to producing new plants from one of a number of different sources (i.e., seed or clipping).

I think my interest in propagation is three-fold:

1. I would like to have more plants without buying them,

2. it’s a fun challenge and

3. the science is intriguing to me.

There are a number of methods for propagating plants.  The most simple is probably division. Many plants will reproduce underneath the soil, sending off runners and developing new plants. In this case, you can divide these plants by pulling the roots apart and separating the individual plants. Many times a plant can even be successfully divided by cutting a large root ball apart. This works well for: mature asparagus ferns, aglaonemas, wandering jew, moneywort, etc.

Another simple method of propagation is to root soft cuttings in a vase of water. Some plants that this works well for are: again wandering jew, pothos ivy, many philodendrons, lipstick plant, and pineapples.

The technique of layering deals with forcing roots to form along the stem of a plant and then removing that section of plant when the roots are mature enough to support the section without the mother plant. Did that make sense? One way of doing a layer propagation is called air-layering. It’s a neat concept that I have tried many times, with no success. First, a set of leaves is removed from a softwood stem of a plant, bush or tree. [By the way, softwood is often defined as an area of new growth that would make a “snapping” sound if you were to break it]. Next, an incision is made in the stem at this location. It is best to apply rooting hormone to the wound. (Of course, I have never had a successful rooting, so what do I know about what’s best!?!) A toothpick (or a piece of one) can be inserted in the cut to hold it open, and other toothpicks may be used as a splint, to hold the stem together (as if it were a broken bone). Lastly, the area should be wrapped in plastic with moist peat moss inside. This dressing allows the entire plant to support the section of plant which has been wounded, while encouraging roots to form in the peat moss. Here is a good website with instructions and visualizations.

There are other forms of layering, as well. Regular layering (sometimes called mound layering) is accomplished by building up the dirt around the base of a plant or bush and running several branches of the bush through the mound. Some plants will freely begin to produce roots at nodes along the buried branch or stem. Other plants require the extra encouragement of a wound and some rooting hormone.

Some of the more simple forms of propagation include starting plants from seed or corm/rhizome/bulb separation. This separation technique is much like division except that rhizome separation often requires cutting a rhizome into pieces, which is a scary step for someone who has a plant they want to multiply, not kill. Irises can be propagated by simply cutting the creeping rhizome into pieces. Conversely, tulip bulbs can simply be separated when new bulbs are formed each year.

There are some more advanced techniques that I may try eventually, but first I need to master (or at least have some limited success) with the more primitive forms of propagation. Some advanced techniques are tissue culture (micro propagation) and grafting. Tissue culture is used extensively in the nursery business, so I am told. It sounds a little complicated, but it turns out that it is not much of a mystery at all. Grafting is a common technique used for rose gardening and for fruit trees. It can be accomplished by removing a single bud from the desired rose/fruit parent plant. Then a special inverted-T shape incision is made in the host plant to hold the bud. The bud is secured in place and the plant is watered as normal. A successful grafted bud will begin to grow in about a week. An unsuccessfully grafted bud will turn black pretty quickly.

I’ll be posting again soon, chronicling “My Attempts at Propagation.”  Stay tuned!