Indoor plants at Mid Atlantic April 2013

Agapanthus continuing to open.

that's really pretty

That is pretty!
Is is scented?

I'm going to bring 'Twister' lipstick plant to the swap at Jan's for show and tell.

Have no idea if the 'lipstick' blooms are fragrant but they are res!

Karen and Sally if you would like a cutting just let me know and I can send or bring one to you.

So far it is still alive and hasn't dropped any leaves. I'm thinking care is similar to 'holiday' cactus as it comes from those misty tropical rainforest mountains but I better do some more research.

Anyone ever raise an Australian Tree Fern as a houseplant?

No not yet but they are on my want list for sometime later.

I just found this thread, thanks to Karen and wow, you guys are so full of info and fun. As you all know, I sell on eBay, but that does not mean I will not trade or give plants to my friends on these threads. The business will survive. LOL Anyhow, I noticed someone talking about a curley spider a few posts back and I wanted to ask what is a "curley" spider. I have the variegated, the reverse variegated and the green but I do not recognize that name. I will be happy to share any of them with you all if you dmail me and pay the postage. Hate to be cheap and ask you to pay the postage, but I am in the process of replacing my central air (2 guys here working now) and I just replaced my refrigerator. Off topic so I will not elaborate. I am about to go to the poor house (if there are such places anymore).

Karen got me looking at the streps and I bought a few from Rob's Violet Barn....I also noticed some of you mentioned Bristol ???? is that a species of strep or is that where you get them?
Hate to ask stupid questions, but this is all new to me. I am little by little getting bored with my jasmine and gardenias and feel the need to find a new toy, so now that I have finally had one leaf on the AV begin to show babies, I think I am smart and want to try more. ...I am a glutten for punishment.

Gita, aren't you happy I am trying new things? I still think there is nothing better than HOUSEPLANTS.

GIta will fill you in on curly spider.
LOL
I have a baby one as my hair in my avatar.

Any indoor plants NOT going out for summer? oh my Strep will stay in. If I had AVs they'd stay in, but everything else is going out.

What to do with a Schefflera that is six feet tall, one stem, and leafed all the way up?

Plant it in your yard for the summer and worry about it in the fall. LOL
I have one like that, too.
Latest pic of the Agapanthus

JB--

Now you need to root many more AV's. NOT hard--as you well know....
Just do what works for YOU!

A CURLY SPIDER is a Spider Plant whose leaves curl downward--in a nice, rounder way.
It also makes babies--like a regular Spider--but they are all tighter together and all mixed into the
foliage. They are also rather fragile, and break off easily. Then you root them and make a new
Curly Spider plant....and so it goes....

Sounds like i should send you a couple starts.......whacha say?
Gita

haha Holly..good plan!

Oh God, yes Gita. Send me one and I will grow that little sucker. Are you serious, it is not just a sick regular variegated spider...are you pulling my leg, lady?

Its a real thing LOL JB

JB--
How long is your leg????????

HD has the curly Spider HB's now and then--but from ME--it is FREE--of course....

Will do! Is anyone really near you that could drop one off? Then i could take it to the swap.
NO biggie--but it would be quicker....I can mail it too....soon...Will let you know.....
Kind of busy this week and next--but I will try....doesn't take long to box up a small thing.
Anything else you desire while i will be mailing you stuff????

Gita

Gita, I absolutely adore the hanging shelves on your windows!
Where did you get them?

Karen

JB, "Bristol's" is the name used for Ralph "Rob" Robinson's strep hybrids. He is the owner of the Rob's Violet Barn you just ordered your streps from. If you ordered any that started with Bristol's, then he hybridized them himself.

Karen--
The shelves are quite vintage----long, long ago purchased....
Perhaps from one of those little catalogs we all used to get--like "Lilian Vernon" and such.
They had the neatest things...very kitch...

The shelves fold flat and are hung from the mid-sash from a screw in the wood.
They are about from the same "Era" as the floor-to-ceiling spring-loaded pole that 3-arm
lamps came on. Also--the same get-up that was a 3-arm thing for hanging baskets.
Very ingenious device how the brackets were put on to hold the wight of a HB.

I have both--and I am sure they are from the 60's....

Good luck finding them! Here is a better view--from February of this year....

Yes... I remember now that I had asked you before and as I recall I did a search for them with no luck. Even though I was born in the 60s, I too remember some of those very cool shelves and stand that were around then. I shall try another search of vintage plant shelves......

I have seen some very nice glass shelves look for a glass shop and ask about having them custom made.

OK--I tried Googling....not sure what the results will be.
Here's one: Similar to what Becky had at her kitchen window...

http://www.prettyhandygirl.com/2010/09/diy-glass-window-shelves.html

Mine could also be from the early 70's...do NOT remember where I got it...sorry....

When I unload all the AV's from it--i will take a better picture of them. maybe that will help your search....

Gita

I spent a day looking for those shelves Karen and I found nothing I could afford or wanted.





This message was edited May 4, 2013 12:38 PM

Gita, here are my spiders.
#1 Variegated Spider
#2 Reverse Variegated Spider

I have no pictures of the green at this time. They are too small..just got them from a friend and they need a few weeks to get growing.

These are all up for sale on the internet and unless someone wants a specific one, I do not have enough to send to the swap meet. I will be happy to share but I will have to ship. I will be having more eventually.

JB--
I could populate half the world with all the spider plants I have.....lots and lots!
Some will be given away at the Swap. NOT the curly ones....

G.

JB, I heard someone once comment they thought "one of the variegations" was tougher than the other. Do you feel one is more hardy than the other?

I took a vase of cutting in to the shelf above my new job desk couple weeks ago. Haven't thought about it since! Horros! I don't get to sit at my desk and think about it.

sally

From my experience--the toughest Spider is a rather upright one. it had wider leaves
and just a hint of a white line down the center of each. It does nor "baby" a lot...

If you go above where I posted 2 pictures of the Curly Spider--on the first picture--
look at the Spider on the left of the curly one.

I have it in a 6" pot as well--one of the ones spilling over with babies. Maybe that one is a bit
different, though. It has more white on the leaves....
The thin leafed ones tend to look "junky" after a few years....They make a lot of offshoots too.

One Spider I hate is the all green one. It looks OK when young--but as it gets older,
it kind of separates in chunks and then looks like there is nothing in the middle--
if you can envision what i am talking about.

1--Here is the one that is a bit more upright. see the barely white stripes in the leaves?

I can't find the other picture of the other one I like...too late to spend time searching...
Later.....Gita

thats a nice one

Sally, I tried to reach you by phone today (didn't leave a message) I was at an annual church yard sale in my neighborhood and they always have plants from various members.

Today they had two huge night blooming ceres, two huge ric rac epiphiliums ?, and a number of orchids! A big pot of cattalea, various pots of oncidium and two pots of another I can't remember now.
They all were way larger than ones I've seen 'for sale' and these were all for a donation of what ever you feel is good. At the end no one had claimed a number of them so I brought home a pot of oncidium. I'm planing to take it to Jill's tomorrow for those much more in the know about orchids can look iit over and divide or adopt it! Now I can say I've had an orchid for a day!

Always interesting to dip one's toe in the wide waters of 'house plants'

Judy- what a great find. I would have been intrigued, but my phone was in the drawer in my desk while I worked. Homeless orchids! Say it ain't so, what a cruel world we live in.....Some of them are fussy but some are easy. I forget where any fall on the spectrum except Phalaenopsis is easy. Have fun with the show and tell!

I'll just say...if it ends up getting ripped into pieces..and one piece ends up at my house...by some highly unusual circumstance...I would do my best to care for it.

The white "easter cactus' is opening blooms now, Gita's red in full bloom.

My Calathea insignia had some dead leaves and sort of woody center, so I took it out, ripped it into three, put two back in the pot, and have an extra one to give away. It can sit outside all summer.

I feel the old fashion plain variegated spider is the stronger and produces more. I have one that must be 15 years old and it still produces. The Reverse variegated is a bit more fragile.

Gita, if I send you postage (I mean it...I do not want you spending your money) could you please send me one of those green with little white and a curley starter? I love them both and would like to see if I can grow them. I am anxious to see if the plain green is like you said.
Have a great day gang...must get busy.

JB---

IF you could wait a bit longer--I will send you some of the Curly Spiders.
Do you want any of the others? The slightly upright one that is also green and white on the leaves??

I am running ragged right now--trying to catch up with all the Plant swap stuff--digging and potting up---
have to tag everything for people's requests---cleaning up the house for my daughter and her So visit later this week--
etc...etc....

Give me a couple more weeks--and i will be breathing a bit easier...OK?????

Anything else I can send you while i am at it???? And NO!!!!! Do not send me postage....
You have already spent more on sending ME stuff the I have for you.,,
Who's keeping tabs anyway???????????????? We all do it out of love...

Ciao! Gita

Sure Gita, send me any different variety you have. I can always use something different. No hurry, you know that. As long as it is a houseplant. LOL

Your little gnomes are on the front of my new refrigerator and everyone loves them. Again, thanks so much. They are so precious. Love this one and have no idea how you work on such a small scale with them. I can not see of course so that makes a difference with me.

Anyone have any of the Brazil hybrid schlumbergeras? If you do, please contact me. I have started a collection of them and would love to start a trade with someone as they get older.

Streps blooming recently....

7041 (no name given by the hybridizer yet)
Liberty Belle

Non-strep blooms... other gesneriads

Kohleria Dark Velvet
Kohleria Beltane
Seemannia purpurascens

Wild Rose----

They look absolutely "WILD"-----like something from Outer Space!!
Amazing color combinations.....

Are they some sort of a Gloxinia? Gita

My order from Rob arrived. Plants are really tiny for the money. I was surprised. One especially. The bigger one had two leaves broken off and I planted them.
That was Bristol's Love Potion it was in the catagory called 'sinningia' - not sure what that is????? I planted the leaves according to the instructions so hopefully they will grow.

I got Ma's Ching Dynasty which is called a "standard violet"; Rob's Sticky Wicket is a " trailing violet" ; and, Pixie Runaround Sport another "trailing violet" . It is pretty sad when you get a package and you have NO clue what the heck you bought. I thought I bought all streps. Obviously I did not. Not sure I even bought one out of the four. Oh well, I will learn someday.With you all helping me. LOL I think what happened is that I got to a page of streps and on the right it said "most popular" or something like that, and I picked out those I thought were pretty and bought them. Never thinking they may not be streps. Dumb old lady I am. LOL

They will be fine and I am sure I will have fun playing with them no matter what the heck they are. Have a great Mother's Day. JB

Gita, Gloxinia is an old family genus used in the Gesneria (sp ?) group. What used to be known as gloxinia (florist gloxinia) is now Sinningia speciosa. There are still some classified as gloxinia and gloxinella I think, but I am not familiar with them. No, mine are labelled correctly as Kohleria and Seemannia. The Kohlerias are both hybrids, but the Seemannia pictured is a species.

JB... Rob does sometimes ship smallish plants, but they usually grow out pretty fast. I have ordered from him numerous times.

Happy Mother's Day to all!

Karen

VAWR, Those are spectacular. I have been wanting to post a fetw pics. One of the plants I got from the Bingo is blooming a very pretty yellow but I just haven't gotten a good picture of it yet. Donner gave me 3 new beautiful plants and they all have buds coming on.
Don't feel bad JB, I mix them up all the time.

Here is one of my strep shelves...
all blooming today!

Some new plants in bloom....

DS-Horus
DS-Tenderness
Helter Skelter
Neil's Shazam
L'epatage d'Alchemie

Another look at Kohleria Beltane
This thing has amazing blooms!

VWR: Those are gorgeous!