The WOW factor

Do you ever have an intense plant moment when you see a plant that is so special for the very first time that your heart beats faster and you feel a thrill go right thru you? And forever more you will be able to recall it all?

I had such a moment in 2007 when visiting Lotusland. I turned a corner and saw a plant that just WOWED me! Agave attenuata 'Variegata'. More than any other plant, this plant was one I had to have. I have searched for it since then but have only found poor replicas on eBay on very rare occasions. Since, I have bought 3 of them on eBay over time for way too much money and all have been so small and the variegation so so.

At Lotusland.

Well today be still my variegated heart!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I went to HD to buy some soil and fertilizer. I went thru the check out and loaded up the dirtmobile. I was about to get back into my car when I noticed the nursery pens they sometimes have outside in the parking lot and decided to walk over to look at their pots. I walk thru and went down the aisle that has the succulents. And at the end, on the ground are 4 Agave attenuata 'Variegatas, all large ones in 3 or maybe 5 gallon cans. I gasped! AT HOME DEPOT!

What a find! So how much were they, and how many did you buy?

The outer leaves are a bit tattered but the inner ones are perfect.

That's OK - they'll be losing those leaves soon anyway. What's that pink thing at the front of your cart?

LOL Marilyn. I only bought 2. I may go back first thing and buy the other 2. BUT........ today was supposed to be my first day of plant restraint. And I so suck. If God wanted me to be good why does he put such things in front of me?

Are you familiar with this plant, Marilyn?

$45 each. So much less than I paid for pittily ones on eBay.

Look at the variegation!

I have such needs. LOL Are you in love too?

They are both gorgeous, and not bad prices either. Good for you! You don't really need the other 2, do you? LOL

I have wanted this one for so long and on high intensity! What a silly question, did I need any at all? LOL Marilyn! I need them all.

The pink one is Kalanchoe Pink Butterflies. I have not seen this one before. They had big full pots of them. So pretty. My pot had fewer plants in it but did have 3. 1 with green leaves, pink plantlets, 1 variegated with white/green leaves with the pink plantlets and also a small one all green. All the other pots had the green leaves with pink plantlets. The description calls it variegated so it is odd only 1 pot out of many had a variegated plant in it.

I was reading about it at the Huntington, 2007. ISI 2003-32. Kalanchoe ‘Hybrida’ variegated. Last year we published a new name for this plant that Steve Jankalski pointed out was a variegated form of K. ‘Houghton’s Hybrid’ (K. daigremontiana × K. delagoensis). Gordon Rowley brought to my attention Harry Mak’s Photo Album of Succulents, Vol. 3 (2003) in which I noticed that Mak had already named this cultivar K. ‘Pink Butterflies’, a fitting allusion to the appearance of the plantlets that line the leaf margins. See photo. This name has priority over Jankalski’s K. ‘Pink Sparkler’.

http://www.huntington.org/BotanicalDiv/ISI2007/catalogindex3.html

HEHEHEHEHE!!

That Kalanchoe is really pretty! And I know you paid a LOT less than you would have if you'd bought it through the ISI offering. It would be worth it to have THESE little plantlets come up in everything, but if I remember correctly most of them die because they don't have any chlorophyll. I really like the one that's all green with the pink plantlets.

Yes, supposedly they do not root. So sad. It would be cool to have PINK all over! These were gallon cans for $4.49 I think!

I forgot the other picture.

Great price! I'd like the above picture if I didn't have to crane my neck to see it. LOL!!

I am sitting here going nuts trying to ID Aloes. I have name tags bu t not sure which goes with which. When I was taking the photos out of order I said to myself, oh I will remember which each is. NOT!

They are absolutely beautiful Kell!!
You folks in California are so lucky to find such cool stuff at your HD!!! Ours carries the generic and a few Altmans that by this time of year are etiolated and/or dead. I visited my sis in so. CA in May-- I haunted Green Arrow anf found lots of cool Agaves like Cream Spike and Sharkskin for $4.99 each. I paid way more than that on eBay for the same at half the size, not counting the shipping. Of course I bought them anyway... I also saw the Kalanchoe you bought-- but it didn't look special at the time-- kicking myself now! You know you can check a BIG suitcase on the plane for $25 ^_^
Clothes were in a carry on-- would have left them behind tho

That's right Hillbilly you got to get your priorities right. Plants before clothes. lol. beautiful varigation on the agave Kell. Colleen

*LOL* garden nekked

LOL! You guys are sooooo funny!

Kell, post the Aloe pictures, tell us the choices we have for names, and see if we can help you ID them.

Wooo HOOO--definately livin' on the edge---especially when you are dealing with things that have spines and glochids--ouch

In retrospect, I have been finding a few great things at HDs lately. I found a 3 blue cactus pot each about 3 feet for $45 or $60 and also a 2 in the pot of a so blue cactus another time. Much more exciting than what I find in other nurseries. Blue cactus are another one of my obsessions since I saw PalmBobs!

I need to look at the pot of the agave to see if it is an Altman special. Though I stuck my hand in the soil and it was not their usual cement. Last night I dreamed of a wholesale nursery that had rows and rows of Agave attenuata Variegatas and I got to dance down the aisles picking out the best variegated patterns ones for me. LOL Just so happy to realize how many variegated ones exist for a wholesale place to sell them to Home Depot.

My Mom could never understand why I preferred buying plants to buying shoes. LOL.

Thank you Marilyn! This morning I am trying to figure out Mammillaria tlayecac. Is that one familiar to you? I am wondering if it is in PF under another name. I did find it as
Mammillaria sp. R0831 Tlayecac
http://www.shoalcreeksucculents.com/Webasyst/shop/index.php?productID=954&ukey=product&did=34

What do you think the R0831 is about?

R0831 probably the collection #

Kell, there is no such plant as Mammillaria tlayecac. The reference in Shoal Creek Succulents to "Mammillaria sp. R0831 Tlayecac" is interpreted as follows:

Mammillaria [genus - which you know]
sp. [specific epithet - which you know]
R0831 [collection number - as HB Gran stated]
Tlayecac [location where the plant was collected in Mexico]

Hope this helps!

Well shoot! So I have a figment of my imagination?

Where did you purchase the plant as Mammillaria tlayecac? If that's the name on the plant I suspect that the person who put it on has no idea how plants are named. He/she probably took Shoal Creek's info and interpreted it the way he/she wanted to. Does it look like the Shoal Creek picture?

Kell, I loooove your new HD buys! I have had that feeling. I saw Agave weberi at our Opera offices, 5 in a row, like ulta-suede and I went on my hunt. I have two that I adore. Your attenuatas are gorgeous, and here in tx that would be a good price, I'm an agave addict. My new treats are 3 agave gemniflora/twin flowering agave..with slender almost tubular pointy leaves.
Excuuuuse me, where is it written that you can't buy yummy plants AND shoes? Just give up underwear and go commando or give up some groceries and you'll be a skinny, happy gardener. :o

My downfall is good food and good plants! LOL. I just waddled home from a great Italian restaurant in San Francisco. I may give up underware however.

I will have to go look up agave gemniflora! Have pics? Yes, Agave weberi is so pretty. I saw pics from Xuling and had to get that one too! 5 in a row would be hard on my heart.

I was thinking before how I need a life then I thought shoot how many people would just love to have a pssion like I have. It truly is a blessing.

Well I kind of lied in implying that, Miss Marilyn. I really do not have that cactus. I saw it at Half Moon Bay Nursery. It is identical to the pic from that website. It is the one I posted here-

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=7947461

Which Home Depot???? You are definitely having very good karma to find those treasures!

Speaking of HD, I went to 3 today and will go to 4 tomorrow. I am one sick pup! My plant austerity plan is not working out too well. I did buy new pots for my new agaves. I have them in full sun and it is making me so nervous. Though they were in sun at the HD. If I burn them, I will have to kill myself in protest.


I had to keep going look at my new agaves all day to make it all real that I really do have them. I can't believe I have 2 with such variegation! Tomorrow I am going to repot them into ceramic pots. From reading I see they like a richer soil than other agaves so I am going to add regular potting soil to my cactus mix. I hope that is a clever idea.

Here are 2 aloes I am trying to ID.

I'm tempted to call Half Moon Bay Nursery and ask them where they got it, tell them that the name is incorrect, and where they can find the correct name. This is one of the reasons why people don't like learning the botanical names of plants - people who know better just tack on any old name. Just makes me so frustrated.

If you really want it, Kell, I think we have Agave gemniflora for sale at the Garden. Want me to check?

Kell, anyone who has found their passion has a GREAT life!

Illig, you asked the question I was trying NOT to ask! LOL I don't want to go there and get tempted. My Home Depot never has any good plants - Kell always seems to find the treasures.

It was the one off 880 in Hayward. I so agree Illig. What pure luck! Though I saw in PF that someone here from found one in their HD in San Diego. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/278788/ So they must be all over California.

I am trying to Id these aloes also.

I think 1 and 4 are both Aloe speciosa.

Sorry, Kell, I'm not good at IDing tree Aloes. Maybe palmbob will come along and help.

The maiin thing I worry about in dying is that I will miss all the brand new annual hyrids. That would kill me. LOL. Tonight we had dinner with our boy wonder. I told him which gardens and under which trees to bring a small hand trowel and my ashes. No way I am spending eternity with a lot of dead people!

Where can HMB Nursery find the right name Marilyn? I was hoping Xeno would stop by and he might know.


Here is a close up of # 5.

LOL Marilyn. It was your idea to post them for IDs.

Here is a close up of #4.

I think the right name is as you stated above, i.e., it doesn't have a name. It's just Mammillaria sp. Depending on who the collector is/was, and if anyone's interested, it needs to be properly described and published in order to have a name. Sometimes that never happens. Having the collection number and location is helpful if/when someone ever names it.

I know I said to post the Aloe photos, but I didn't say I'd be able to ID any of them. LOL!!

Here is 3 with 5 behind it.

#3 Aloe marlothii?

So true! LOL

I look at these and my eyes cross after about an hour!

Oh.... I just went to look up Agave gemniflora. I have seen that one at the garden! Very nice in a garden but not so great for a pot but thanks for offering Marilyn. I so wish I had room for a succulent garden!

However I did see a new tree aloe to me - Aloe bainesii hybrid "NEANDERTHALOE!"
http://www.daylilyhill.com/subsublevel.php?id=214&lid=13

Oh I LIKE! I wonder if they sell them here.

Tonight at dinner, the restaurant had 2 succulent boxes. I thought this agave was so pretty. I think it is Agave potatorum 'Kichiokan'

What a neat Aloe! It sounds like it'd do very well here. But $150 for a 20" plant? I don't think so! In a few years it'll be down to a decent price - I'll wait.

I think I need to know where that restaurant is so I can go on a midnight supply run. LOL!! They have a few other plants I'd like to get more of.

Have you decided not to cook anymore? I thought you guys only went out on Fridays. LOL

They also had a great crested Graptoveria Fred Ives. This one seems to crest so easily.

Oh gee, I did not see that price! What year did it come out? Did you see that info?

I go out every chance I get. LOL. I hate to cook but love to eat.

The restaurant was Da Flora. It was on Check Please last night and everyone raved about it. So Tom wanted to try it. I started with balsamic roasted black mission fig with speck. It was so good! They had 3 succulent boxes. Go for it!