Weirdo Loner-Type (Leuchtenbergia principis)

Leuchtenbergia principis is a lonely guy. For one thing, it's the only species in the genus Leuchtenbergia, what botanists call a monotypic species.1 For another, in its native habitat (pretty much everything in the northern half of Mexico, except the coasts), it's typically found as single individuals, often growing next to a clump of Agaves and tall grass. (I guess they're not comfortable in

Pretty picture: Rhyncholaeliocattleya Dick Smith 'Aloha Spirit'

This photo is the first orchid picture in quite a while that I thought turned out well, so I feel like I ought to write something about it, but it kind of speaks for itself, so I'm not sure what to say. I'm not crazy about the whole ruffly frilly Cattleya thing, but those colors! So pretty!


Rhyncholaeliocattleya Dick Smith 'Aloha Spirit' = Rhyncholaeliocattleya Hisako Akatsuka x

Unfinished business: Episcia-eating caterpillars

I am pleased to report that there has been a breakthrough in the whole camera-uploading-photos-to-dumb-locations business. The overall situation is still not great, alas, but that much has been settled, and this gives us hope for the future. Except where it comes to the scale-and-caterpillar part of the future, because my optimism has limits.

I do, at least, now have pictures of one of the

Excuses, excuses

Hi again.

Whatever you might have heard, I have not run off to Ecuador with everybody's donations. (I don't even speak Ecuadorian.) What's happened instead has been sort of a perfect storm of blogular interference.

• As I've mentioned before, my computer has been essentially out of memory for a few months, so it's been difficult to get photos to post to the blog.
• But -- I've gotten a new

Pretty pictures: Odontocidium Sunlight 'Pacific Sunset'

Odontocidium Sunlight 'Pacific Sunset' = Oncidium Mexico × Odontocidium Crowborough, though the orchid registry online doesn't know of the cross, so it's not clear how official this is.

Random plant event: Codonanthe serrulata

Still working on the Leuchtenbergia profile; things keep coming up and preventing me from getting as far on it as I would like. I'm hoping to finish by the end of this week.

Meanwhile, I felt bad for going so long between posts, so there's this.

I've had Codonanthe serrulata since May 2011, when I got three cuttings from a reader.


It didn't look particularly promising. And it's still not my

Pretty pictures: Ascocenda Princess Mikasa

Yeah, okay, so clearly the Leuchtenbergia profile didn't happen yesterday, either. Whoops. I've been trying to take yearbook pictures this week, which involves lots of sweating and lifting. And then it got cold at night on Monday and Tuesday so I had to move some plants inside for the evening and then back out again in the morning, which also involved some sweating and lifting. And then we made a

Random plant events: Anthurium seedlings #59 and #282

Thanks to the generosity of four readers, I now have enough money to buy an entire used computer, and get most of a dental checkup/cleaning. So that's good. (More than just "good," really -- both of those things have been nagging small worries in the back of my mind for a long time, then in the last month or so became screaming huge worries directly in front of my face, so that's a couple fewer

This is not the special post.

In my previous post, I said would not be posting over the weekend, because I was trying to get a special post ready for today.

But I have failed.

Some of the problem is that I have almost filled up the memory of my eleven-year-old computer (37.2 GB capacity, 1.51 GB remaining), which makes photo-editing more complicated and time-consuming, for reasons I predict you will not care about. The

Pretty picture: Phragmipedium Belle Hougue Point

The International Orchid Register website and Google don't agree on the spelling here; Google says it's Belle Hogue Point, and the register says Hougue.

So of course the tag at the show said something that wasn't either of those options. ("Belle House Point") I went with the IOR version, on the theory that they're more likely to proofread. (If not, please don't tell me.)


Phragmipedium Belle

Random plant event: Hoya carnosa

I have had at least one Hoya carnosa at all times, for the last seven years. My best guess is that I was averaging about three or four at any moment; the current count is five. In all twenty-five(-ish) of those accumulated Hoya-carnosa-years, not once has any of them ever attempted to bloom. H. lacunosa, sure, all the time. H. bella, quite a bit lately. But never H. carnosa.

Until now.


Which,

Six Plants I'm Currently Mad At

This turns out to be a pretty competitive field (wait'll you see the Dishonorable Mentions), but I've narrowed it down to six. By "I'm Currently Mad At," I mean "the idea of throwing the plant away entirely and never attempting it again has crossed my mind," though that's only a serious possibility with three of the six plants on the list.

1. Phalaenopsis NOID
I am so tired of orchids and all

Pretty picture: Cattleya Purple Cascade

This is the most severe example of my inability to get close to certain orchids at the show. I find these flowers really interesting, and I had hoped that I'd get a usable photo of them from far away, but now that I look at this, I'm not sure that I did. I suppose it serves the purpose okay, but I'm not going to be entering it in any photography competitions or anything.


Although it's tagged

Saturday morning frog pictures

So a month ago, when I posted pictures of a frog I happened to see in the Ananas comosus 'Mongo,' I said I thought the frog in question was only passing through, since it wasn't there the following day. Since then, I've seen some identical-looking frogs hanging around the yard, on a few occasions, so maybe we do have a permanent resident.

Mostly I've seen them (or him, or her) when I had to move

Unfinished business: Clivia miniata 'Aztec Gold'

I'd thought maybe, but it looks like I don't get a repeat of the Clivia flowers this year. Ah, well.

The seedlings are doing all kinds of different things. Some just sit there. Some get periodically covered with a white fungus. Some have leaves. I started the first batch in a glass jar: I put in soil and some water, microwaved it to heat and sterilize the soil (which apparently didn't work,

The Black Bees

I mentioned in June that I've been watching very intently for honeybees this year. I'm not doing it for any particular reason; I've just been curious, what with all the talk of colony collapse disorder, about whether honeybees visit the yard, and if so how many, and so forth.

For a very long time, the closest I got was the bee-mimic fly (picture at the end of the above link). At some point in

Question for the Hive Mind: Roadside Weeds / Wildflowers

The second and third of these are technically not roadside plants, but the first one is:



I don't recall ever seeing it before, but they're everywhere all of a sudden.

UPDATE: it's a Vernonia (ironweed), possibly V. baldwinii. Thanks to Claude and joeym.

The other two plants were in a heavily wooded park in Iowa City about a week ago. The first, I'm fairly sure, is some kind of Arisaema. I

Pretty picture: Dendrobium Frosty Dawn 'Yen'

I've spent the last five days moving plants in at night and out in the morning -- we had a run of temperatures below 60F/16C. A lot of the plants that are outside will handle that fine (Agave, Strelitzia, Breynia, Amorphophallus), but a few won't so well (Coffea, Aloe, Synadenium, Araucaria), so they have to go back and forth. There are also some (Ananas, Furcraea, Euphorbia, Pachypodium) that

And then

And then the scale came back. In a room where I hadn't seen them previously (husband's office; the plant was the parent Pereskia aculeata var. godseffiana). Posting may be a bit off and on for a while, as I try to determine the extent of the problem and figure out what to do about it.

I'm also setting aside some time to pound my head on my desk, curse the day I was born, and that sort of

Random plant event: Sansevieria cylindrica

Blogging in a hurry today, again, because I've realized that the post I'd planned for today is going to require me to get some more pictures; this was also the problem with the post I'd planned for Wednesday. Things do still keep happening, though, some more impressive than others. For example, my Sansevieria cylindrica. I didn't have it when it only had one leaf, though I assume that stage

Pretty picture: Hibiscus 'Heartthrob'

Not a lot to say about this one; it was at the ex-job, and I noticed it partly because hardy Hibiscus flowers are very difficult to ignore, and partly because I'd already been noticing them around in people's yards as we rode into Iowa City.

There's also not a lot to say because I've been heavily preoccupied by dental matters since Saturday. Saw somebody yesterday, and apparently the pain I've

Microphotography: Portulaca grandiflora

I'm unclear on the specifics of where and how, but the husband, knowing that I've been looking for a microscope for some time, somehow obtained a used one for me. Which is one example of how he's the best husband ever.


The catches -- and of course there are catches -- are:

1) Okay, I don't know the proper names for anything here, but I'm going to call that thing in the middle, with the four

Pretty picture: Paphiopedilum Mr. Wonderful

I'm not sure Paphiopedilums can ever be less than okay, in my book. That said, "Wonderful" sort of sounds like it's trying too hard.

This particular hybrid dates back to 1916, though; maybe the word had different connotations then.


Paphiopedilum Mr. Wonderful = P. Knock Knock x P. Gloriosum

Saturday morning Sheba picture

I should maybe start giving Sheba treats after taking her picture. It's hard to get her attention.

Unfinished business: Amorphophallus konjac

Back in February, I asked the hive mind whether my bulb was coming out of dormancy; I haven't had it that long (since April 2012), and am still getting used to what it does, and when. The response from readers was somewhere between "not necessarily" and "probably not."

I went ahead and potted it up anyway, about six weeks after that, but it took forever to do anything visible. I started to get

Book review: The Pocket Guide to Wild Mushrooms

DISCLAIMER AND STUFF: I received a review copy of this book from the publisher. There was no agreement that I would necessarily write a review, and no agreement that if I did write a review, it would necessarily be a positive one.
The Pocket Guide to Wild Mushrooms. Holmberg, Pelle, and Hans Marklund.
Skyhorse Publishing, New York, NY, 2013.
128 pp., about 6.5" x 5"
ISBN: 978-1-62087-731-9

Random plant event: Euphorbia leuconeura

I posted about three months ago about having received some Euphorbia leuconeura plants.



They weren't seedlings or anything, but they were small enough, considering how big I knew they can get, that I wasn't expecting anything much to happen with them for quite a while.


Now, a mere three months later, I'm seeing the first flowers, which for some reason surprised me, even though I've seen

Unfinished business: Coffea arabica

So I'm thinking it's time for an update on the Coffea arabica seedlings. The last time we checked in with them, in April, most of them had germinated, but there were no leaves to speak of.

My mid-May, the seed leaves (cotyledons) had pushed their way out of the seed coat, and there were the beginnings of some true leaves:

(18 May)
By early June, most of the seeds had produced some true leaves.

Pretty picture: Bulbophyllum lobbii 'Kathy's Gold' AM/AOS

The leaves are more interesting than the flower, n'est-ce pas?

Saturday morning frog pictures

Ha ha! This picture isn't of Sheba either! Will there ever be a Saturday Sheba picture again? WILL THERE?

Yes, actually. Most likely. But there are other animals around now. You know how it is.

The frog here is in the Ananas comosus 'Mongo.' The plant is now large enough to be sort of menacing, but I suppose that makes it a better home: harder for other animals to get in.


I'm not 100% on

Random nonplant event: bird's-nest fungus

Yet another yard fungus. (Previously.) Most of what we get here are pretty normal, little beige mushrooms, but something about the unusually cool, wet summer must be encouraging the weirder ones. Or maybe something about the unusually cool, wet summer means that I spend more time outdoors, and am therefore in a better position to observe weird fungi. Whichever.

That on the left is a Portulaca,

Pretty picture: Anthurium 'Florida'

On 27 July 2013.
I've had my Anthurium 'Florida' since March 2008, and it's bloomed plenty during that time, but this particular bloom is a big deal because it's the first one I've gotten since the original plant was accidentally decapitated. I don't remember when that happened (last summer?), but I've been growing the severed part in water like a cutting since whenever it was.

The roots that

Random plant events: Huernia schneideriana (?), Huernia zebrina, and Stapelia variegata

Originally, this post was just supposed to be about the Huernia schneideriana, because I saw that it had produced some buds on 18 July.


And they opened on 23 July, the first time I'd seen the flowers in-person, which was neat.

(This photo is actually from 27 July, but it's the same flower that opened on the 23rd. Should also note that the flower is actually very small: maybe 3/4 inch, or 2 cm,

Random plant event: Agave americana

This doesn't, I think, mean much of anything, but I hadn't seen it before. One of my variegated Agave americanas grew a couple leaves that got fused together halfway down.


The new leaves on the Big Damn Screw Pine occasionally fail to separate from the leaves that precede or follow them, I think because the midrib spines get caught on the other leaves. If it were growing outdoors, where the

Pretty pictures: Caulaelia Snowflake Northland

The pictures could have turned out better (it does help somewhat to view them at full size), but I approve of the flowers.



This was tagged as "Dilaelia (Cll) Snowflake Northlan," but Dilaelia is Caulaelia now, so.

Caulaelia Snowflake Northland = Caularthron bicornutum x Laelia albida

Random plant event: Aechmea fasciata

I bought an Aechmea fasciata in November 2006, after it had bloomed, and it produced two offsets, which I separated and potted up. It's a good species. I've never had any pest problems with it, it grows new leaves regularly, and it accepts a spot that a lot of my other plants won't grow in (near the floor in the living room -- there's light, but it's also near a window and a heat/AC vent, which

Saturday morning buffalo picture

I know, I know, you were expecting Sheba. This is sort of (barely) Sheba-relevant, though.

I really enjoy riding around on side roads and gravel roads. I like the lack of traffic, and having the option to jump out of the car and take a bunch of pictures of a weed on the side of the road when the spirit moves me, but also it's just more interesting. There are more things to look at, you're a lot

Random nonplant event: stinkhorn

Fungi aren't plants, and aren't even particularly related to plants,1 but people tend to think of them as plants, and this fits the scope of the blog insofar as it's something that grew in the yard, so I'm making an exception.

A few weeks ago (3 Jul), I encountered this in the yard.


I recognized it as a stinkhorn, a type of fungus, and eliminated a few species from the possibilities, but I

New plant: Mangave 'Macho Mocha'

I've been wanting a Mangave for a looooong time. Basically since I found out they existed, in fact. (If memory serves, that was via Digging, though it's been so long ago that I can't be certain.) And now, thanks to a reader, I finally have one. Or, rather, two: one big one, one small one.

The bigger plant. The pot diameter is ~5" / 13 cm.
Both traveled fine, and I potted them both up with

Pretty picture: Phalaenopsis NOID

The tag was inaccessible (all I could see was the word "Sweet'), so we don't have an ID for this one.


It's nice? I guess? I have a tough time finding any strong feelings about any Phalaenopsisesises, because they're so ubiquitous, though I plan to make an exception whenever my personal phal finally blooms. Everything's going okay so far.

Very Large Numbers

If Google's count can be trusted -- and why wouldn't it be; it's Google -- this is PATSP's 2000th post. It is not at all clear to me how I should be feeling about this, but I think we can all agree that it's a pretty big number, blogularly speaking. Consequently, there should be some Gazania photos ('New Day' mix, if you're keeping track), as Gazania is the Official Celebratory Flower of PATSP.

Saturday morning Sheba picture

Random plant event: Leuchtenbergia principis

The seedlings are still around, mostly -- I started 56, of which approximately 42 (75%) germinated, and 39 of which (70%) are still around, though some of those aren't looking real promising. I should probably try to figure out a way to move them outside for a couple months; I'm just not sure where I could put them.

But that's not what this post is about (ha! Tricked you!); what the post is

Questions for the Hive Mind: outdoor IDs

Neither of these is an emergency sort of ID situation or anything, but I'm curious.

The first plant was growing in the dark underneath our front deck. The husband has torn the deck apart (for complicated reasons I probably don't fully understand), so suddenly the plant is completely exposed, enabling photography. I'm thinking a juniper of some kind? I don't really know the various needley

Pretty picture: Paphiopedilum lowii

Yep, some of the people at the Illowa orchid show still don't want photographers to be able to see their plants. This background is the worst, though it helps slightly if one can photograph so the background is at an angle, as on the right side of this photo. I don't know why the presenter thinks this is a good idea.

The flowers are pretty cool, though. You would no doubt agree, if you could

Apology to a Potter Wasp

11 July 2013
Eumenes fraternus
Family Vespidae
Northeast corner of the garage

(The letter's recipient.)
Dear Ms. Eumenes,

I wish to apologize to you for my actions on 10 July 2013, when I thoughtlessly destroyed the two nests you had constructed on my Pachypodium lamerei and then smeared the caterpillars that were inside across the concrete. I should not have done either of those things.

The

Saturday morning Sheba and/or Nina picture

It is with a little sadness that I announce the passing of Nina, everybody's favorite brown anole.

Nina. 2009? - 2013. (Photo from 8 Dec 2010.)
I say "a little" sadness, as opposed to great sadness, or unbearable sadness, because it's not like I have a ton of happy memories of running through flower-filled meadows with her or anything. (Though we did have that one moment in the bathtub.) You

Random plant event: Schlumbergera seedling #49

I have just over 100 Schlumbergera seedlings growing right now, and for the most part, they look just like their parents, except smaller. Also, most of those are seedlings from 'Caribbean Dancer,' which isn't really surprising, since 'Caribbean Dancer' is the most prolific bloomer.

There is also a set of 16 seedlings from a NOID with salmon/peach blooms. A few of those are also normal-looking,

Pretty pictures: Tolumnia Passionata Red

If this looks like an Oncidium, that's because it used to be: the genus Tolumnia was apparently separated from Oncidium about 25 years ago. They're native to the Caribbean.


Tolumnia hybrids are a relatively new thing (last 50 years or so), according to the American Orchid Society, which also has lots of advice about how to grow them.


Tolumnia Passionata Red is Tolumnia Florence Little x

Materials and Techniques: Propagating Cyperus alternifolius

I mentioned a while ago that I'd been seeing Cyperus for sale here and there, and had been tempted to get one. A number of commenters encouraged me to do so, and then a reader offered me cuttings of hers. I hadn't even known that growing them from cuttings was possible.

Also, fortunately, it turned out that the reader who offered the cuttings had already written a blog post about how to proceed

Saturday morning Sheba and/or Nina picture

This picture is from last Sunday (30 June). We were coming back from a trip to Fairfield, and stopped just north of Brighton, in a public area for people to launch their boats into the Skunk River. There's a former bar (now apparently a house) along the road to the launch site, and a dog who lives there saw Sheba go by in the car and followed so she could introduce herself.

Pretty picture: Jackfowlieara Lindiwe

Jackfowlieara Lindiwe is Cattleya Sierra Doll x Jackfowlieara Appleblossom.

Pretty picture: Echinacea NOID

Things have been really busy for the last few days, Sunday in particular, so there isn't much to blog about, and what there is isn't anywhere close to being ready to post.


I'm not thrilled about the situation, but things are what they are. Meanwhile, the Echinaceas are blooming. Not our Echinaceas: we don't have any. But everybody else's. You know what I mean.

Flies in (and out of) Drag

Because of the recent and ongoing ruckus about honeybees and colony collapse disorder, I've been watching carefully for honeybees on the various flowering plants we've got outside this year. So far, not a one, though that might just mean we're not growing anything they find appealing.

There are plenty of other insects to look at, though. A few are even bees. They're just not honeybees.

Is

Random plant event: Clivia 'Aztec Gold'

You may or may not remember last summer's Clivia blooms. I apparently never bothered to say, officially, that the blooms had turned into fruits (or at least some of them did; I wound up with about a dozen), but that happened too.


In mid-May, I noticed that one of the fruits had begun to change color, which was exciting, because it signified that they were about to be ripe enough to plant up. I

Pretty picture: Paphiopedilum Golden Crest

Not much to say. Paphiopedilum Golden Crest is Paphiopedilum fairrieanum x Paphiopedilum Wallcrest.


I'd be chattier, but I was up at about 4:30 AM yesterday, because a storm was rolling through and it was loud. I could have tried to sleep through it regardless, but I was worried about the plants outside -- the forecast had said there might be hail -- so I stayed up worrying about them until

Random plant event: Phalaenopsis NOID

In March 2009, the husband and I went to Cedar Rapids and bought a NOID Phalaenopsis at Frontier Garden Center. I didn't want to, because I was pretty sick of Phalaenopsis by this point, but he paid for it, so okay, fine.

Then, five or six hundred years passed.

And now we have this:


How did this happen? I do not know. It just did.

Am I happy about it? I do not know. I think I'm confused?

Saturday morning Sheba and/or Nina picture

For a while yesterday, Google/Blogger wasn't letting me upload this photo (I tried three or four times), so you almost didn't get to see this. But I tried again after a few hours, because I care, so you do.

You're welcome.

Not really any Sheba news to speak of; she's been getting some hot spots over the last month or so, probably because it's been a terrible year for biting insects (I didn't

Pretty picture: Dendrobium Mini Snowflake

Gosh, you know, I thought after I got back from the orchid show and I was going through the photos I'd taken that this year's batch was pretty decent, but the last couple are making me rethink that.

In fairness, part of the reason why this picture isn't great is that I couldn't get close to the plant.


Not sure how I feel about Dendrobiums in general these days, but this one is impressively

Random plant event: Tagetes patula 'Durango Bee'

This is one of those things that I expect will be minor -- possibly even trivial -- to most of you, but it's new (more like "new") and exciting to me, so I'm blogging about it anyway.

When we first moved in here, I bought some 'Durango Bee' marigolds to plant, because . . . well, it's one of those cases where although I can see perfectly well why people might not like them, and sort of feel

Music: "The Hymn of Acxiom (1st Draft Demo)" (Vienna Teng)

I ran into this last week sometime, through MetaFilter, and it's been on my mind a lot since then (not to mention getting stuck in my head: it's really quite catchy). Not only is it timely, given the recent revelations about the PRISM program and what the U.S. government's been doing with our phone records and on-line information, but for me, anyway, it's also perfectly balanced on that edge

File under "better late than never:"

It's been some time since PATSP's "Rumble Among the Jungle," in which PATSP readers voted in a single-elimination tournament to determine the Best Houseplant of All Time. The winner, Schlumbergera cvv., was declared a year and a half ago, in November 2011. (The results of all matches are collected here, if anyone cares.)

At the time, I made the comment: The husband suggested photoshopping a belt

Pretty picture: Rhyncholaeliocattleya Memoria Irene Feil 'Ruby Red'

The tag said Potinara, but apparently that's now Rhyncholaeliocattleya. Really we should know not to pay much attention to what the tags say anyway.

And it's not the best picture either, but you should probably also not be paying all that much attention to the pictures. Highly saturated reds and pinks always make my camera completely lose its mind: sometimes I can adjust it into a reasonable

The Strawberries Finally Pay Off

Those of you who have been reading PATSP for a while will be familiar with the story, but just to make sure everybody is crystal clear about what this means:

We moved to the current house in 2009. I had a lot of ideas in the gardening department, and more enthusiasm than sense, so I'd bought all kinds of plants (where "all kinds" means "mostly annuals") in preparation for the move. One of the

Giveaway results -- updated

I announced the book giveaway winner on Sunday, but it's been a few days and they haven't e-mailed to claim it, so I'm drawing again. The new winner is comment #2, Paul.

Paul: send an e-mail with your mailing address (I think I know which Paul you are anyway, but just to be sure), and I'll forward it to the relevant people so you can get your book.

Random plant event: Eucharis grandiflora

Finally it's gotten warm enough that this year's outdoor plants can all stay outside for a few consecutive days, which makes my life a bit easier. (It's also been very rough on me mentally -- it's just too weird to be hoping for the weather to be warmer.)

I'd put the younger Eucharis bulbs (the ones I bought two years ago) outside a while back, but then it got cold for several days, and I put

Giveaway results

The randomly-chosen commenter for the book giveaway was #8, Dave.

Dave, please contact me by e-mail (address in the sidebar; please note the instructions) to let me know where to have it sent, as your links do not include an e-mail address.

A Cautionary Tale

I knew it was bound to happen sooner or later. I've tried, of course, to be conscientious about hand-washing and so forth, but as many Euphorbias as I have, and as long as I've had them, I was going to get Euphorbia sap in the eye eventually. So here's my report about that.

What happened: On Wednesday night, our weather forecast predicted a low of 58F/14C, which was probably warm enough that I

Pretty picture: Paphiopedilum Pinocchio

Paphiopedilum Pinocchio is a primary hybrid (hybrid between two species, as opposed to a hybrid of a hybrid) between Paphiopedilum glaucophyllum × Paphiopedilum primulinum. I can't say I see anything particularly Pinocchioish about the flower here, but I gave up a long time ago on expecting orchid names to make sense.


The flower looks more or less exactly like most of the primulinum pictures on

Random plant event: Canna NOID

Last year, I saved as many seeds from the Cannas as I could collect, with the intention of starting all of them as new plants. Because everybody -- I in particular -- always needs more Cannas. It wound up being about 150 seeds, which I sanded down and soaked in water for a couple days, as you do, and then I made a bunch of little holes in a bed in the yard and dropped a seed in each hole. Flooded

Book Giveaway: America's Romance With the English Garden (Thomas J. Mickey)

Book Give-away Rules: To be eligible to participate in this Book Give-away for a copy of Thomas Mickey’s book America’s Romance With the English Garden, you must comment on this guest blog entry between 8:00 a.m. (EDT) Monday, June 3, and 5:00 p.m. (EDT) Friday, June 7. LIMIT one entry per person. The name of the winner will be drawn from the list of those who comment. The winner will be

Question for the Hive Mind: Iris cvv.

Three or four weeks ago, I was talking to my Dad on the phone, and he mentioned that the Irises where he and Mom live (fairly close, south of us) had buds on them already, and that they were sufficiently developed that you could tell what color the flowers were going to be.

We didn't have any Iris buds at that point, but about a week after that conversation, I saw a couple stalks were forming.

Pretty picture: Phalaenopsis OX Little Moon

This was tagged as a Doritaenopsis, but science appears to have more or less settled the question of whether Phalaenopsis and Doritis are the same thing with an exuberant "YES!," so I've changed the name. (The hobby and retail communities' collective response appears to be more along the lines of "We would prefer to continue making the distinction!")


Not the world's best phal or anything, but I

Random plant event: Hoya bella

Well, Ivynettle kind of beat me to this post, by posting a larger, better-looking Hoya bella with more flowers on it, but I don't have a lot else going on at the moment, so it's what I'm going to post. I don't think these pictures require a lot by way of context, but I'll note that:

• Hoya bella flowers have been the subject of PATSP posts before (last year; three years ago),


• this is the

Maybe not entirely missing from retail. . . .

I've been on the lookout this spring for the plants from last fall/winter's Missing From retail series, just to see how absent they really are. For the most part, the plants I said were missing around here still are, but there have been a few sightings.

I guess Cyperus spp. have been around every year and I just wasn't paying attention until this one, because I've seen them in two stores so far