A PLANT POST! WHOO HOO!!!!

So... here's the story on this plant...

About 5 weeks ago... this plant appeared at the flea market.  It was a cutting that was sitting on the shelf behind the register one Saturday when I showed up for work.  It wasn't anything that I worried too much about,  such things happen... people share little plant cuttings.  It looks a bit like one of the Moses-in-a-cradle things.  It was still there, sitting on the shelf, wrapped in a dry paper towel when I left.

It was still there the next week, and the next... finally, on the third week I finally yelled out, "DOES THIS BELONG SOMEWHERE?"

I mean really.  There comes a point.

Finally, it became established that someone had brought up a cutting for another dealer who didn't want it, and kept 'accidentally' forgetting to take it home.  Finally, I took the thing home and stuck it in a jar of water.  Poor thing. 

But, I can't say I particularly wanted it either. 

But even after setting in the flea market for 3 weeks... it looked only slightly wilted, so I stuck it in an old jelly jar I had sitting around with some water.  It perked up after a couple of days.  Then it grew roots. 

Then, I had a little bag of decorative spagnum moss.  One of the bargain stores locally had these little bags of the stuff they were selling for halloween decor, and after the holiday they put them on 80% clearance... I got about a dozen of the small bags for 20 cents each.  I soaked it in rain water, wrapped it around the roots and jammed the whole mess in this vintage McCoy violet pot that was sitting here.  It's doing just fine. 

Now, here's the rub.  Anybody out there know the species?  I mean, I know what it is... it's one of the plants that I saw on front porches all over when I was growing up.  It's kinda attractive... but not pretty.  I guess you'd call it semi-stoloniferous.  It makes clumps of leaves, and occasionally sends out long stalks from 6 to 8 inches long with a rosette of leaves at the end, which may or may not send out stalks of their own.  In extremely stong light, it will develop little half moons of reddish purple towards the base of the leaves. 

Leaves are thick... shorter than most of the plants called Moses-in-the-cradle and more succulent... and they don't develop red undersides like those other Moses plants either.  And from all reports, the blasted thing is near impossible to kill. 

I'm not really THAT worried about it... I just like to know what I'm growing for some reason. 

Now, before you start... yeah... it would probably do better with real dirt.  Most of them I remember growing up were in an old coffee can filled with dirt from the yard and they just kept plugging along, although I know of a couple which grew in old vases filled with water and nothing else.

anyway... any ideas are appreciated.

UPDATE:  Thanks to Mr. S at Plants are the Strangest People... this plant has been accurately ID'd as Callisia fragrans... not only is it a classic Pass-a-long plant, native to Mexico, it's also a very powerful medicinal that's been studied and used in Russia for years.  Common names vary, but the most popular seems to be Basket Plant. 



Plant updates...

Spent part of my afternoon out in the yard...

first a quick shot of the gloriosa lilies sent to me by Julie over at A Succulent Life... 2 of the 3 stems have made it, and they're starting to climb... and even putting out some buds! I can hardly wait!

And now we have to check in with Claudes Home for Wayward Plants... I have been planning on extending the border on my front yard for a couple of years now... and I started digging today... with bermuda grass lawns, it has to be done very thoroughly... you have to get down in the dirt and break up each clod with your hands, and make sure you get all the grass stolons out. Which can be tricky... Bermuda stolons have hard pointed growing tips... they can pierce right through a cactus!
Anyway... I got the larger of the rescued Sago's in the ground...

It'll look better after I get more dug up, and mulch, and other plants around it... hope he's happy...

The other sago still needs some love... he put out exactly 1 small and stunted leaf... but today I noticed that there's some more coming out... maybe these will be more normal sized...

Foundlings... again....

Hmmm, two posts in one day... I'm getting quite chatty aren't I?

well, first I have to show you this... and then beg a little...

This showed up at my house.

An orchid. I think I've mentioned before how I feel about orchids. In case you don't remember, I like them well enough, but I never actually wanted to grow one. There's always somebody saying, "Oh, they're not any trouble at all..." then they break into a list of requirements that I don't have and really have no intention of ever having. And while they look pretty good when they're blooming, when they're not... ehhh...

anyway... I remember seeing some orchid plant that vaugely looked like this in a nursery a while back, can't say exactly when, and if I remember right, I have a vauge impression of pink blooms, but seeing as it was an orchid I really didn't take that much notice of it. So, I have no idea whatsoever of what genus, much less species, this thing is.

I should really start paying more attention to things I suppose. I mean, all the decorators are throwing orchids all over model homes and all the big box stores are hocking them by the thousands, and it's gonna be inevitable that Claudes Home for Wayward Plants is gonna have to deal with the danged things eventually. But until I can muster up enough energy to actually look into them...

Is there some kind soul out there who can tell me what the hell this thing is? I mean, I know it's not blooming, and I know that there's probably several hundred orchids that have upright leaves like this, but a general area to start?

It's got sunburn on a bunch of the stems... and it seems that the clumps, (or psuedobulbs? Is that what they're called?) that produced blooms died after doing so... but I don't know if that's typical for the genus or if that's just what happened... and there's 2 new clumps(?) growing out... feel free to ask questions if that helps....

The next plant is not a foundling. I actually deigned to spend good money on this guy...

A Silver European Fan Palm, Chamaerops humilis.

I was at a big box store, with the general idea of trying to find something to plant with the foundling Sago Palms aka Cycas revoluta, thinking of producing a little semi-tropical area in the yard when I ran across this... hardy to zone 7, and nice glacous leaves that I think will look very good against the deep green Sago fronds...

And best of all....

so yeah, I spent good money, but not much.

Oh well...

have a great day all...

just stuff...

Just some shots around the yard... this pic is a little overexposed, it doesn't really show the firecracker red of the bloom... but you get the idea... Cleistocactus winteri, aka golden rat tail or my preferred common name, golden cat tail... click the label if you want to see past pics of the whole plant...

And of course, the Prickly pears are in bloom... I was worried that I was going to lose a lot of blooms and therefore fruits... which are very important to me for making jelly, but it turned out not so much.

Now this is a foundling from the side of the road, and I'm gonna see if I can do something with it... an Areca palm... Chrysalindocarpus lutescens. They make decent parlor palms... and if I was a little bit further south, decent yard palms to 10' tall... but this guy has been neglected.

Step 1: cut off anything that is obviously dead and leave anything that is green...

I realize that the couple of leaves left are in pretty bad shape, but there's enough green on them to still be doing SOME photosynthesis... and since they're the only leaves left, I'm leaving them for now...

SAGO UPDATE

The second Sago did eventually put up new fronds... kinda... it seems to be putting up 1 - count them ONE, new leaves. One of it's four remaining leaves has died off. The other three... beat up as they are, are staying on there for photosynthesising purposes. I just don't feel like further weakening an already obviously weak plant... of course, this is way too much bother for most people, but I seem to find a perverse pleasure in reviving the near deceased...

The other plant however is doing just fine! Remarkably fine, actually, and he's about ready to find a permanent home in the yard.

Hoping everyone is having a great Memorial day, complete with Bar-B-Que and lots of family and friends.

Later!

Look what I found scrounging around...

I was driving to the grocery store on trash day about a month ago... when I happened to see these by the road.

two badly treated cycas revoluta... more commonly known as sago palm. (of course a real sago palm is another plant entirely, but that's what these are called) It would appear that our rather hellacious winter had killed all of last years more tender growth, and had prompted a home-owner to just give up hope, so out they went to the curb.

Where I picked them up. That's because I'm pretty sure that if there's any green left on a plant, there is a chance that it can be recovered.

Well, as I said above, this was a month ago. And they've been sitting there looking like... well like that up there. Nothing. I suppose some gardeners would be discouraged. I however grow cactus. I'm used to plants sitting around doing nothing but looking like an unfriendly thorny lump for long stretches of time.

But then today... I saw this...

See that in the middle there? It's new growth! Specifically, it's new growth on the plant in the top right hand side of the first pic.

The other plant... well not so much yet...

But I'm not giving up hope yet. It still has those green leaves after all. And even if it's main growing tip never stirs to life, the plant can produce new growing tips off from the roots...

And why go through all this trouble? Lots of reasons.

1) I'm an experimental type of gardener. I like to do things just to see what happens

2) This plant is considered pretty drought tolerant, and if I get it in the ground it is reasonably hardy in my area.

3) Cycads are some of the oldest species of plants on the planet

4) While they're technically not a cactus or a succulent, they are however prickly enough to fit into my Prickly Plant theme and finally...

5) These are damned expensive plants!

That price tag was from last year, they've gone up a little last time I checked.

I see from my tiny bit of research that they like sandy, quick draining soils with some organic matter mixed in. Quite frankly, that describes the topsoil that you buy from the nurseries locally...

Anyway... my experience is more in the cacti realm... any wisdom from anybody out there?

Well, you caught me... I'm playing hookey from work. After a couple of 12 hour days, then having to do a bunch of stuff at home, I just decided that today was the day... Most of the chores were done by noon, so I get to rest up until I mow the lawn after the sun starts to go down... The cleistocactus is blooming again...

and this Mammillaria, which I never did decide on a name for, decided to put out some blooms.

and the banana is almost ready to take into the flea market. Probably will go in this weekend.

The neighbor still hasn't mowed that grass... I'd really hate to have to have a word with him... but it's looking more and more like I might have to...

Well, the neighbors have evidently learned...

It seems that all my neighbors have learned that if they set a plant out by the side of the road on trash day, that I'm going to pick it up. So they might as well just give them too me... Speaking of which, the rescued banana plant has started to grow and has put out it's first rather impressive leaf...


BTW - disregard the overgrown grass in the photo... that's the neighbors problem.

So, a lady down the street is downsizing into an apartment, and evidently will not have room for her plants... at least they're succulent...

First off, some sort of aloe. I have aloe vera here and that's it. Not a genus I've paid a whole lot of attention to for some reason. Anybody out there wanna give me a clue? And the pot, cute as it is, is a little too cute for me... not to mention that I'm just not sure that an aloe looks entirely comfortable in a pot that has daffodils on the side of it.

Next, a rather nice sized, though possibly etoliated, Chamaelobivia 'Rose Quartz' Now, I already have one of these, sent to me by Aiyana at Water When Dry, (see her blog to the right) and I'm going to have to find something besides that danged nursery pot to put it in... but it's a nice enough plant.

And this is some sort of Euphorbia, which is really in excellent shape. Again, I'm going to need a clue folks...

And I must say, I like this plants spiraled stems... but I don't know how big it's gonna get. For some reason just looking at it makes me think it could turn into a monster...

And finally, and probably in the worst shape... This Echeveria gibbiflora hybrid. Well, that's what it says on the faded sticker on the side of the pot...

He's definitely seen better days. I'm tempted to lop off the top and reroot it, and then let the leftover stalk resprout new plants. That's usually what I do with overgrown and etoliated Echeverias. I'm going to have to do some research on the plant though... a lot of this genus survives our winters outside, but I'm under the general impression that this one won't. Not sure though, I can't be expected to remember every detail of every succulent out there, can I?

So, these are my new additions... what do you think?

stuck at home...

Well, the AC stopped working on the truck again yesterday. I finished the day at work, but by the end of it, I was a puddle, so back in the shop it goes. It should be done today, and the mechanic knows that I am not happy.

So today, I was sitting here feeling a little depressed, so I went outside to work in the yard... it's a little too hot to be working too hard, so I was actually just goofing off, but I did manage to take some pics...

True to form, the hotter it gets the more the Pavonia blooms...

And today was trash day, and one of my neighbors was throwing this out...

It's a banana tree! Most probably Musa basjoo... the winter hardy variety. To be more accurate, they're winter hardy if you wrap the stems in newspaper or burlap or bubble wrap for the winter, but nobody seems to want to go to the trouble. Otherwise they come up from the root and get about 3 or 4 feet tall before the next winter hits. The ones in my yard get 8 feet tall and bloom, but only because I wrap the trunks every winter...

This plant was still in it's original nursery pot, complete with $9.99 price tag, and while I'll admit that it had definitely seen better days, it's very far from dead. Bananas are oportunistic growers, given a good drink and put in the ground this one would be fine. So I nabbed it, planted it in a pot that somebody else had put out for the garbage a couple of weeks ago... (I'm such a scrounge...)

Trimmed off the broken thrashed leaves,

and in a couple of weeks I'll have a really nice plant to sell at the flea market. Or, if I put some smaller plants in the base of the pot, wait a month, then I can double what I was gonna charge.

And all the while, Phennig was sitting on the carport finding this all rather amusing...

So, I guess something productive happened, and today wasn't totally a bust...

later...