Hello. My name is Isabeau and I'm a Plantaholic.

[Jolene Benoir]

I miss legacy plants and trees like wealthy apples. When I grew up and partially into my adulthood those were the only apple that I would use for a pie. They're long gone, for the most part.

 

[Rose Karuna]

I miss legacy plants and trees like wealthy apples. When I grew up and partially into my adulthood those were the only apple that I would use for a pie. They're long gone, for the most part.

There is a movement among gardeners and nurseries to restore many heirloom plants and trees.

An apple revival near Four Corners is restoring hundreds of historic fruits — and the local ag economy

MCELMO CANYON — The apple orchard on Jude and Addie Schuenemeyer’s farm in a squiggle of a canyon in far southwest Colorado is a wild place. Turkeys gobble around on the hunt for bugs in native grasses that grow nearly as high as the gnarly limbs of the apple trees. Those trees are set hither […]

coloradosun.com

In Florida, I look for native, heirloom plants as I can find and then keep re-seeding them. Unfortunately, COVID has put a crimp in my ability to get clippings from other gardeners but when things get better I plan on visiting other gardens to see what I can get and share.

 

[Isabeau]

My small ficus plant that I got in winter (and which caught a draft so I had to chop off most of it AND had a gnat problem) has been growing super fast this summer and has grown blossoms which is apparently very rare in houseplants. Of course they won't turn into figs as there aren't any of the needed type of wasps here, but I am tickled.

Well, I’m not sure how good with plants I am because I completely got this wrong. That’s not a ficus, it’s an Ardisia/Christmas berry. Nothing rare about it flowering... groan, I’m an idiot. Wish they would label plants correctly.

 

[Isabeau]

My lithops. Just changed their pot. I don’t have much experience with these but they look like they’re doing okay.

 

[Rose Karuna]

My lithops. Just changed their pot. I don’t have much experience with these but they look like they’re doing okay.

Wow! I've never seen those before and they are the coolest things I've seen in a long time! Do they bloom? Now you've got me checking into them for my "moon garden".

edited to say I just ordered one on Amazon!

 

[Isabeau]

Yay! We’ll be learning together how not to kill them, ha.

 

[Isabeau]

This is an actual picture of me (notice the zombie eyes.)

 

[Isabeau]

 

[Isabeau]

I have to admit I’m just not cut out for orchid growing. They just never complete their blooming for me.

Anyway,

‘Ugliest orchid in the world’ among 2020's new plant discoveries

Kew Gardens botanists also named a new toadstool found at Heathrow airport and a bizarre scaly shrub from Namibia

www.theguardian.com

 

[Free]

‘Ugliest orchid in the world’ among 2020's new plant discoveries

Kew Gardens botanists also named a new toadstool found at Heathrow airport and a bizarre scaly shrub from Namibia

www.theguardian.com

Looks a bit familiar...

 

[Free]

I could watch this play for quite a while.



Maglink

 

[Rose Karuna]

Pictures of my Orchids today


Sadly though, my lithop died last week.

Edited to say that the yellow one is a Vanda and loves being tied to trees. The others are various colors of Demdrobiums, both of which actually used to grow wild in Florida. We have been getting some cold weather (low 40's) and I think it's scared them into blooming. I just have them tied to a piece of drift wood behind some palms.

 

[Isabeau]

 

[Isabeau]

“I once had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: no good in a bed, but fine up against a wall.”

Eleanor Roosevelt

 

[Isabeau]

So pretty. Seems to make a nice houseplant, too. I’m going to try this.

 

[Rose Karuna]

I do this all the time. The really cool thing is that each segment that grows can be cut off the potato, dipped in root grow and then planted in the ground and a whole new sweet potato will grow. This is how I propagated mine. This is one growing on the table in my Lanai.

 

[Clara D.]

Pothos from earlier in the thread is still alive.

Not so much luck with a small palm.

And, as usual, aloe vera* being "the one thing that I can't kill" has tons of new growth.

*Aloe vera specifically, I kill other succulents/cacti, but aloe apparently thrives on neglect.

 

[Clara D.]

We have goat heads here. They are the spawn of Satan himself, and are hell on bicycle tires and tubes!

Phoenix area abounds with the damn things.

Years ago when i rode a bicycle, I finally defeated them. With tire self-seal, kevlar tire liners, and heavy duty tubes.

I also used to wear flip-flops that got left outside the door because I didn't want to track the little caltrops inside.

This is what the plant looks like:

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

We had those in our lawn in Sydney. Horrible horrible things.

 

[Clara D.]

Terrible cellphone pic of the aforementioned aloe. I just repotted a root-bound clump into the rear pot.

SO MANY BABBY