Peace Lily Blooming!

This is my Spathiphyllum 'Domino' showing off. I think it was spurred into bloom by those Schlums! Competition can be a beautiful thing for the houseplant grower.:)

Wow! That is beautiful! I've never seen a variegated one before.

Me neither, I need one of those!!!

Beautiful GH!!!

GH, that is beautiful and I am VERY jealous! LOL Mine bloomed this year too and then my DH and I went to Europe for 2½ weeks. The lady I had watering things didn't water it while we were gone. It was completely brown and flattened when we got home. I tried to revive it, but it didn't work. I dug out all the roots hoping for some green and did find some, so I replanted that part. It is struggling, but I think it might make it.

Awwww, mgh that is so sad. Can you tell her for me that she is relinquished of her plant care responsibilities.....forever. She'd FIRED!!! LOL How terrible. I hope it pulls through for you. Sending "get well" vibes to your PL!

GH

GH, Is there any limit to your beautiful plants? You need to start a nursery of your own!! :)

S

Susan, thank you! That's a dream....starting my own nursery. I guess that would be all of our dream jobs, huh? LOL

Let me know when you do. I would buy from you. Seriously, I think a small business with good, healthy starts of plants would do well. But it would have to be with rarer plants. People are tired of seeing the same old houseplants in stores. I know I am.

S

Well, she is definitely relinquished of her plant care responsibilities. LOL I won't ask her to do it again. My neighbor said she would be happy to do it for me next time..........not that we're going to Europe again anytime soon. LOL

I, too, love the variegated foliage of your peace lily. I've never seen one like that before. I'll have to take a look around and see what I can find.

Susan,

I wonder how many of us there are? I am like you...tired of the same old stuff at the "box" stores but I see so many nurseries here going out of business because they can't compete. I just wonder how much of a market there would be for true collectors who want something other than the normal bedding plants and pothos? Now that HD has leased out their houseplant section there is NOTHING new. The plants are healthy though. Not dying of thirst and neglect.

These days, I have to mail order or "ebay" anything interesting that I want. There is one nursery in New Orleans where I find some treasures but even they make the majority of their profit on statuary, etc.

Wow, I feel blessed to have two good nurseries closeby. Who would think they would be in the Baltimore vicinity? I never would have! I've found some really nice plants at these nurseries. I think it's because they both(or at least used to) order from Florida nurseries. I also buy plants from Glasshouseworks, Bob Smoley, Asiatica, and Logees. I buy rare or uncommon philos from private collectors. I've never purchased from eBay, but I've looked quite a bit. LOL As far as box stores in my area- we have a really good one on Route 40 in Baltimore. I've found some really nice common plants there, such as Spider 'Bonnie'(which I've managed to kill twice!), Hoya Lacunosa and DS-70, e.t.c. You get kind of jaded buying from the box stores because you know they sell EA plants and with those plants, sometimes come bugs(mostly mealies). You have to figure there's one big old mealyfest going on in that GH down in Apopka, FL(home of Hermann Engelmann(sp?) GHs). Eeewwww- okay, I'm getting off of here now! LOL

GH

There's a greenhouse that has opened up in my county and there was an article in the newspaper telling how the owners thought there was a need for offerings of exotic plants. So I said, "Hurray, it's about time!!" So I rush to the greenhouse and was so disappointed. I actually have more rare and exotic plants than they did. I certainly hope that they will be getting new items in because it looked like same old stuff you can find anywhere. :)

S

Bummer, Susan.:( Perhaps you could send them a letter detailing the types of plants people are REALLY looking for? You could introduce yourself and tell them that you belong to this really great group of web gardeners and (blah, blah, blah....... and then specify several botantical names and maybe even give them website links so they can look up the plants online. You see where I'm going with this.:) Sometimes, folks go into business and they have not a clue what their customers really want. They don't do enough research and then wonder why they fail.

I don't know why my two nurseries are so successful. One of them has been around for 50 years and they always have the most awesome plants. I think part of the reason is that they have a young, knowledgeable greenhouse manager. He's really up on his stuff and orders really great plants. He's not the nicest person I know, BUT he brings in the loot!

That's great that he is a nice person. From experience, I have found that NOT to be so. I loved Frank's when it was open but the customer service was horrible. You would think in a plant atmosphere that everyone would be less stressed.

Same thing for the box stores. People are just not personable.

Susan

LOL! I've found a few of those nursery owners to be a bit 'stand-offish', too....especially if you seem to know just a little bit more than they do about plants.
I'll stop in and say 'just looking for something new' and usually walk out with nothing.

We literally live 'in the sticks', and have to drive close to 100 miles to find anything out of the ordinary....which is rare.

The only time I did find a lot of interesting things is when I *regularly* visited the nurseries/greenhouses/box stores when I was making semi-weekly and later daily trips to the larger town and needed something to do to pass the time.

I can't believe (no offense!) that some of you've never seen a variegated Spathiphyllum! They've been relatively common for 3 or 4 years, I'm thinking....
Our nearby WalMarts seem to have them quite often.....but maybe that, too, is a regional thing.
If I should see any in small pots in the near future...I'll have to pick them up for you folks.
(Just watch....now I'll probably never see another one for sale!)

Forgot to say...GH....glad to see your beauty is gracing you with more beauty!
I have one that I cut way back, as it wasn't doing well. I think it hated our hard water. I've been watering with distilled water and have much better results.
The one I cut back has *1* tiny little bloom about 2" from the soil!

This message was edited Nov 8, 2006 11:26 AM

GH,I certainly hope the one you sent me decides to be a Show Off with beautiful blooms like the ones you have : ) I adore the foliage alone,and the compliments I have gotten on it are amazing, but oh the blooms will be wonderful : )
Nancy

This message was edited Nov 8, 2006 12:14 PM

Nancy, I hope you get beautiful blooms on yours too! Tight pants and bright light get this honey going! LOL And, I agree, you can certainly enjoy the foliage without the blooms.:)

Is anyone at home watching the Presidential address right now?;)

GH

So that's what it takes.....I wear tight pants and get myself on stage under bright lights??? LOL!!

I'm not at home....what's Mr. Pres. 'addressing'?

LOL, Nan, are you being bad???!!! He's addressing the nation on the recent Democratic sweep of the House(and the war on Iraq). I will not even go there. I'll be good.

GH

Oh...I guess I shoulda figured that.....
Now what about those tight pants and bright lights...?!?!? LOLOLOL!!!
Only reason I ask is that I've never tried it before, and if it works to get blooms...I might consider it! (Ü)

You know, if we wear those satiny sheeny type pants and use the strobe lights, we may just have a chance at this! LOL

(sigh)....can you tell I need to get out more? (Ü)

Oh, I've seen variegated pl's but they just appeared to have slight variegation. GH's has lots variegation.

S

Susan- She spent the summer outdoors(shaded) and it helped tremendously with her variegation. She's definitely a candidate for next summer's vacation. LOL Love it when it gets the all white leaves!

GH

GrowHappy, your Peacy Lily looks gorgeous! I, too, have on of those, well, several really, because I got them at Walmart when they marked them down to 2 for $6. They have done very well! Here's a recent bloom:

Very nice, Kbaumle! I noticed that they turn green when the bloom is nearing it's end. My two blooms are still going strong. I probably won't get another flush until Springtime.

GH

Gee, the blooms last a very long time! That bloom that I posted a picture of was new when I took that. It still looks the same right now!