Tag: syngoniums

syngoniums:

All the asclepiads are spending New Year’s Eve in the bedroom. Many of them are actually decently cold tolerant, and have been outside in worse cold with just a plant blanket over them, but at this house I have no practical way to protect them from precipitation, which would likely cause rot at these temperatures. A few of them already suffered cold damage from being snowed on earlier this month, so there’s that to consider as well. At least none of them have open flowers at the moment 😛

syngoniums:

Hibiscus acetosella is largely cultivated for its attractive, red, Japanese maple-like foliage, to the extent that some cultivars don’t even bloom. I was subsquently expecting the flowers on this variety, ‘Mahogany Splendor’, to be nothing special. Instead, it produced a gorgeous black-red bloom with a velvet sheen, about four inches across. It’s darker in real life. The buds and spent flowers look even blacker, and it’s full of buds. Definitely worth it if you like dark flowers and foliage.

syngoniums:

Echeveria cante is by far the most blindingly white plant I own, even more so that Dudleya brittoni. That may be down to the fact that its farina seems to stick tighter to it, especially in the rain. The dudleyas are very dusty. The second echeveria is so far unidentified (maybe ‘Etna’)? I’ll have to see what it looks like after some more time in full sun.

syngoniums:

Roses from a local nursery. Top two are ‘Beverly’ (big flowers on this cultivar!); middle left, ‘Star of the Republic’; middle right, ‘Livin Easy’. Bottom two are both ‘Peach Drift’. ‘Beverly’ and ‘Star of the Republic’ are both gorgeous in person and smell incredible, but as bushes they’re too big for what I can provide right now. ‘Livin’ Easy’ has a subdued fragrance, but all the plants were covered in flowers. I would buy them all in a heartbeat if not for their size! ‘Peach Drift’, on the other hand, is a floriferous dwarf shrub, and I love how the flowers range from yellow to peach to pink. It would probably be great in a container!

syngoniums:

I’ve already had a couple of echeveria losses due to rain-induced rot. Common factors seem to be small leaves and tight rosettes, which is not surprising. I wish I had a good method for ascertaining the relative amount of epicuticular wax various plants have! Color and the behavior of water on the leaves are the best measures I have right now.

All of the pictured plants are doing well so far. What isn’t pictured is how satisfying it is to tip water out of them; instead of dribbling, it just falls straight out in big fat drops! Clockwise from top left: E. magnifica (not a valid name, but it’s the only one I’ve got), E. pulidonis, E. ‘Blue Prince’, E. subrigida.

syngoniums:

Frerea indica, a succulent asclepiad from western India. It grows leaves during the monsoon season in its native habitat. Normally flowers are five-sided, not four.

Not sure if Texas fall rains are throwing it off, but it’s budding up like crazy now. It may have to become a houseplant come winter if colder weather doesn’t knock it into dormancy soon. (I hope not because it just screams spider mite magnet, but I guess that will trigger leaf loss if nothing else does, lol.)

syngoniums:

Bordered patch (Chlosyne lacinia) on roadside aster (formerly Aster exilis, now something in Symphyotrichum). These small flowers are reviled by obsessive lawn owners, but they’re an important food source for small butterflies, moths and other nectarivorous creatures during the fall and winter months when few other plants are flowering.