Going Once, Going Twice, Sold to the Lady Among the Leaves

As I mentioned in my last post, I acquired all of my Thai Aglaonemas online, specifically though eBay auctions. Over the past eleven years, I've found these to be an excellent source of unusual houseplants that I would be unlikely to find locally, or that are hard to find through conventional mail-order retailers. So I thought I'd post some tips for buying houseplants through online auctions. I am using eBay as my example, because that is what I have experience with. This should not be construed as an official endorsement of that site. All photographs in this post, most of which I have shared before, are of eBay acquisitions.

Peperomia incana. Purchased 1999/2000 in a four-inch pot. This is probably the oldest eBay acquisition that I still have, though my Aspidistra elatior is a contender. I've purchased quite a few plants from various sellers over the years, several of which I no longer have. This has nothing to do with the source of the plants, but rather with the vicissitudes of life and plant care.

1. Check out the sellers. Look to see what else they are offering besides the plant you are interested in. I prefer to buy from those sellers who specialize in plants. These folks will generally be able to answer questions about what they are selling, and will know how to package and ship plants safely. Also check their feedback. Don't just glance at the numbers; take a look at their feedback page. Someone with a few negatives in their past may have since gotten their act together; someone who has been a good seller in the past may be letting things slip. There are a few plant sellers who do business at an extremely high volume, and have mixed feedback. Some of these have a number of negatives because, well, some people have really high expectations and are hard to please. Other large operations are a bit careless, but expect their high volume of sales to even things out.

Begonia 'Cracklin Rosie' purchased as a small plant in 2003.

Aloe linneata x greenii acquired in 2005 or 2006.

2. Speaking of those expectations: Don't get carried away with yours. Mail-order plants from most sources, auctions or not, tend to be small. The best way not to be disappointed is look for listings which show a photograph of the actual plant for sale. Even better is when there is a ruler or some other size indicator in the picture. Some people who sell a lot of a certain plant use a stock photo. That is fine, but make sure that they indicate that the plant in the photo is not the one up for sale, and that they describe the size and condition of the plant you will receive in some detail.

Aglaonema 'Cory' purchased in the past year.

3. Keep in mind what types of plants are likely to ship well, and those that won't. For example, I wouldn't buy a Sedum morganianum by mail order of any sort; the leaves have a tendency to fall off even with gentle handling, and one is likely to end up with a pot of bare stems and a box full of leaves. But remember, even a plant that ships well may look a little worse for wear after being in a box for a few days, but will bounce back.

Sansevieria kirkii var. pulchra 'Coppertone' also from 2009.

4. Do not get caught up in a bidding frenzy. Keep in mind what you would pay if you found the plant in a store, and don't go over that amount. While I do participate in auctions, I am especially fond of eBay's "Buy-it-Now" feature, where you can purchase the item at a preset price, without competing with others. Of course savvy sellers put the most sought-after items in regular auctions, hoping to get a higher price than they might have originally set.

Epipremnum 'N' Joy' yet another 2009 acquisition.

It occurred to me as I was writing that each of these tips can work for standard mail order sites as well, even the feedback part. There are sites like GardenWatchdog where one can check up on a mail-order operation's reputation.

Easier Than I Thought--Thai Aglaonema Edition

When these beauties first appeared on the houseplant market, I hesitated to try them. For one thing, they were hard to find (mail-order sources only) and expensive. For the other thing, I heard that they were far fussier than the more common green Aglaonema species. They supposedly needed lots more water, humidity and light, three things that can be kind of difficult for me to provide.

Left to right: Aglaonema 'Butterfly,' A. ‘Sethimankong,’ A. 'Siam Aurora'

I have never found a reliable way of increasing humidity for plants outside of a terrarium, short of purchasing a humidifier, which I don't really like using. I tend to fall behind on my watering on occasion, so plants that can't handle a bit of dryness don't last long here among the leaves, outside of a terrarium. Light I can usually handle, but the question is how much: Plants with such colorful leaves tend to do best in southern or western exposures, both of which seemed counter-intuitive to me. These are Aglaonema varieties after all, and they seemed a little tender for a full blast of hot sunlight.

I needn't have worried. Now that I've had my plants for several months, I am happy to report that they do just fine without added humidity, they seem to like drying out a bit, just like their greener relatives, and they are happy in my east window, producing new leaves just as colorful as the older ones. I did lose two plants, but both of those were quite small, with immature root systems. The larger, well-rooted plants are doing great.

Of course, they are still hard to find: Mine are all eBay purchases. And they are still rather expensive. I have kept costs down by only purchasing from sellers located in the U.S., since the added costs of shipping from Thailand, plus the phytosanitary certificate required, can add a big chunk to the price.

Aglaonema 'Butterfly' with bright pink new growth.

Of course now I have my fingers so crossed that they are cramped, since I have found that whenever I brag about a particular plant, trouble strikes. My Monstera deliciosa is recovering from a scale attack, and I've lost several Hedera helix varieties to spider mites.

Yes, Mamm

I'm not a huge cactus fan, but I do have a few. When looking at other people's collections, what generally catches my eye are the large, showy flowers. "I need to get some of those," I tell myself. But then, whenever I am tempted to actually purchase a cactus, what genus do I gravitate toward? Mammillaria. It took me a while to realize this, since I suffer from partial cactus blindness--I have trouble telling one genus from another. While Mammillaria flowers are pretty, they do tend to be on the small side. But there is something about the shape of the plants and the patterns of the spines kept attracting me, so I bought plant after plant without realizing what they were.

And so the other day, while wandering through K-Mart, a display of fresh cacti and succulents caught my eye. In addition to purchasing a couple of small Crassulas and Sedums, I was enchanted by this little cactus:

My new purchase. A look through the Mammillaria pages at CactiGuide.com makes me think that it might be Mammillaria spinosissima 'Un Fico'

By now, my cactus vision has improved somewhat: I can usually recognize Mammillarias when I see them. But I thought this plant was charming, and I bought it anyway. If it does turn out to be Mammillaria spinosissima "Un Fico," then it will have fairly large flowers for the genus.

Here are some of my other plants:

Mammillaria elongata

A cute little NoId that I've posted about previously

Another NoId Mammillaria. M. karwinskiana ssp. nejapensis was once suggested to me as a possible ID.

I believe this is Mammillaria bombycina

I would like to talk about my very first Mammillaria, which was also my very first cactus ever. About ten years ago, my mother took a trip to Las Vegas. As a side excursion, she and her friends also visited the Grand Canyon. At a gift shop nearby, she spotted a tiny plant in a tiny pot with "Grand Canyon" handpainted on the side and decided to pick it up for her plant-loving daughter. She flew home to New York with it in her purse. (Can you imagine what airport security would say if you tried to put a cactus in your carry-on these days?) She told me "I thought you'd like this to go with your other cactuses." The thing is, I didn't have any other cactuses, and the only succulents I owned were some Sansevierias. My apartment had obstructed west windows, and wasn't sunny enough for succulents. But I was determined to keep my gift alive and well. I balanced the little pot directly on the top of a window sash, right near the lock, so it would get the most sunlight possible. Three years later, when I moved to Illinois, it was still alive and moved with me. In its first summer outdoors, it bloomed. It had kind of nondescript, straw-colored flowers, but I loved them anyway. It is in a bigger pot now, but it still spends winters on top of a window sash, for optimum light, and it blooms every year. I couldn't find a decent picture of it in bloom, but here it is now:

My mother's gift. It is a bit shrunken at the moment, since it doesn't get watered in the winter, but it will look larger and a bit less densely spined once its seasonal rest is over.

I've never been able to identify it, despite asking in a couple of different forums and poring over picture after picture. It is small, solitary and plain. But I will always treasure it. My mom died suddenly last year, so it is now something special to remember her by. It gave me great pleasure to be able to show it to her in bloom in 2005 when she visited me here in Illinois. And I'll always smile when I think about her with a cactus in her purse.

Odds and Ends and Updates

Well, now I know which of my unidentified Hibscus rosa-sinensis plants received the hard pruning described in my post of January 8. It was the yellow-flowered one. I know this because the red flowered one bloomed today!

NoId Hibiscus rosa-sinensis

Now, if I'm smart, I'll put a label in the plants so I'll know what's what from now on.

Foxy, my rather brutally pruned Asparagus meyersii, has put out another new "frond." I think I'll declare this experiment a success.

This new branch has a fairly loose growth habit, due to the fairly weak winter sunlight. I think that it is pretty, anyway.

I wrote on January 27 that I would post a picture of my Sansevieria gracilis/ballyii/whatever flowers when the buds opened. Well, some of them opened and closed and fell off before I remembered to take a picture, but here is the bloom stalk with at least some open flowers.

Sansevieria flowers

From that same post, I noted that my Sinningia speciosa was re-sprouting , and posted pictures of its tiny new leaves. Here they are today:

Sinningia speciosa (Florist Gloxinia) leaves, considerable larger than in the original post

Finally, yesterday, I said that I had decided not to post pictures of heart-shaped leaves for Valentine's Day. But I like these pictures of Peperomia incana, so I decided not to let them go to waste.

Heart-shaped Peperomia incana leaf, silhouetted against the snowy outdoors...

...and here, showing the fuzzy texture of the leaves.

Life in the Trees

I had considered a photo montage of some of my plants with heart-shaped leaves as a Valentine's Day post, but since the topic was covered so well yesterday by Mr.Subjunctive at PATSP, doing so seemed a trifle redundant.

So, because I haven't done a pet post for a while, and I'm also jonesing for spring in the worst way, I thought I'd share some pictures of my cats playing in the trees during the warmer months. Keeping things on topic, there are some houseplants in two of the pictures.

The fearless and intrepid Peppermint in the Norway Maple (Acer platanoides) in our front yard.

The considerably more cautious Luke in the same tree. I had hung an Asparagus sprengeri and Chlorophytum on the branches so they could summer in the partial shade.

Your considerably less intrepid, but equally fun-loving blogger, behind the same tree. This one looks better in its larger version, when clicked. In addition to the plants in the trees, my Strelitzia reginae and Tradescantia pallida were enjoying their summer outdoors on the ground.

Spring cannot get here soon enough for me, and several of my plants as well.

In Praise of Succulents: Echeveria Edition 2; The Easygoing Ones

As I've said before, it took me a while before I learned to overwinter most Echeverias without having them look unhealthy and unhappy for the duration. In part 1 of this series, I mentioned that I have had better success by growing under fluorescent lights in my cool basement. Well, there are some exceptions to that, and I'd like to show off a few of them. These are the plants that grow more or less contentedly in my south-facing kitchen window during the winter, in normal house temperatures.

Echeveria purpusorum. When I first saw one of these, I thought it resembled a Haworthia.

Same plant, in a shot that shows the purple coloration better.

Side view

I think this Noid Echeveria resembles E. purpusorum somewhat, in the shape and thickness of the leaves, as well as the dark outlines on the sides and undersides. While E. purpusorum has never bloomed for me, this plant has bloomed three years in a row. I'd love to know its name.

The Noid Echeveria's yellow flowers

Echeveria pulidonis. It hasn't produced a stalk yet, but this Echeveria also has yellow flowers, but without even the hint of orange seen in the NoId. I have posted this plant before. The red edges do fade somewhat during winter, but the plant doesn't get leggy.

Echeveria ramillette, at least according to the label that came with it. I'll try to post another picture when the flowers open.

I haven't pictured it here, but I have an Echeveria agavoides variety which also does well in winter without fluorescent lights or cooler temperatures.

East Windows

If I could only have one exposure in which to grow plants, it would be eastern. Right now I have two sets of east windows available for plants in my house, in the kitchen and the master bedroom. There is a third set in my stepson's bedroom, but since it is his room, and he prefers to keep his curtains drawn much of the time, the "Crazy Plant Lady" doesn't impose any plants upon him.

Kitchen windows. Right now, I have three types of Epipremnum aureum hanging there, ('Jade,' 'Marble Queen' and 'Golden') as well as my Platycerium (Staghorn fern.) The large Sansevieria trifasciata is in the corner between the east window and my home's sole south window.

My bedroom window shelves last year. The arrangement has changed since then. For one thing, the Epipremnum aureum 'Neon' seen on the top center shelf is the same plant that is now hanging in the kitchen window.

The reason I am so fond of this is exposure is that I have found that most foliage plants will thrive in morning light. It is bright enough in all seasons for plants that prefer medium light levels. It is generally not too bright for plants that prefer low light levels, except perhaps in late spring to midsummer, when moving them back a bit so they are not directly on the windowsill can be good. And I have found that many plants that supposedly need high light do fine there. My Hoya carnosa has bloomed there two years in row. Last year, my Hibiscus rosa-sinensis plants overwintered well in the bedroom shelves (plants in the large red pots in the center section above) and started blooming in late February.

In fact, I think that one of the reasons that I got into plants in the first place was because of the unobstructed east window in my bedroom as a teenager. Even though I was fairly ignorant of good plant care back then, especially the importance of good lighting, most of the plants I tried did well for me. I think that was because of the excellent, but not harsh, qualities of morning sun. Success breeds confidence, and made me all the more eager to try new plants.

I will note that all my growing experience has been in the Northeastern states and in Illinois. It may well be that farther north, and farther south, eastern exposures might pose challenges for houseplant enthusiasts that I haven't encountered.

Bitten by the Bromeliad Bug, Again

Apparently, February is Bromeliad month in these parts. After not seeing any in the stores for a long time, suddenly they are everywhere I look. As I posted recently, I found a Vriesea splendens at the supermarket. Then, just this past Monday I acquired a Neoregelia 'Zoe' at a nursery houseplant sale. Now today at Home Depot, they had Aechmea fasciata, as well as Vriesea, Tillandsia, and Guzmania varieties. I left the Aechmeas alone (I don't have a spot for a plant that size right now--besides, they scare me a bit.) But I did buy myself a Guzmania, which I have failed with before, and my first ever Tillandsia cyanea.

Guzmania 'Tempo'

Tillandsia cyanea

So now I'm wondering what they have at the other nurseries and box stores around here. I think I need help.

In Praise of Succulents: Echeveria Edition 1; Pinks and Blues

I love Echeverias, but for a long time they were the bane of my existence, succulent-wise. They would do nicely outdoors in the summer, then etiolate horribly during the winter, turning into pale, stretched, misshapen messes.

Then I discovered that they will do pretty well under fluorescent lights, especially if kept as close as possible to the tubes, and in a cool room. These three beauties have been going along happily in my basement all winter. If anything, their cool shades of pink-blue-lavender seem enhanced by the slight chill.

Three Echeveria varieties. Unfortunately, I don't have IDs for any of them. The one at the top might be Echeveria 'Afterglow,' but I am far from certain.

Close-up of the possible Echeveria 'Afterglow'

I can't seem to get a close-up that does this one justice. The edges of the leaves are pinker in person. I love this plant--it is like a bouquet in a bowl.

I've posted a photograph of this plant before--

--it is far less purple in the summer.

I have other Echeveria species, including a couple that are getting ready to bloom, and a few that I actually know the names of. (Imagine that!) I will be writing about them in the near future.

New Month, New Plant

As is typical for this time of year, one of the local nurseries has its houseplants on sale at 40% off. So naturally, I went to take a look. While this particular nursery always has nice, well kept plants, they don't often have anything particularly unusual or different.

But today, they had a table labeled "Bromeliads". And among the fairly common Guzmanias, they had these:

My new Neoregelia

I don't believe I've ever seen any Neoregelia varieties for sale anywhere before, either here in Illinois or back home in New York. Despite my poor track record with Broms, I decided I had to have one. I have no idea what species this is. I found one picture of this plant online, and it was labeled Neoregelia 'Fireball,' which I'm pretty sure it isn't. (Edited to add: Thanks to input from Mr_Subjunctive, [see comments for this post] I'm pretty sure that my plant is Neoregelia 'Zoe.')

Close-up of stolons, with pups

The other side, with two more pups. This plant has five in total.

Anyway, I'm happy with my new purchase. It has less of a pinkish "blush" than some of the others on the table, but it had five pups on stolons around the center rosette, while the others had between two and four. Between this, and my recently acquired Vriesea splendens, it looks like I'm going to find out if I can handle Bromeliads after all.