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