Foliage Follow Up - January 2015

It's time for Foliage Follow Up. There's snow blowing around outside but I stayed safe and warm inside, photographing the wonderful foliage of my numerous house plants. And wishing I had a better flash rig. Make that ANY flash rig besides the one that came with my camera. It's high on my wish list. If only the house can stay standing without a major expense for a while so I can afford it.

Here we go: 

I've been developing an interest in Aglaonema lately. Unfortunately each grower seems to have a gazillion varieties with the growers own unique name and I can't get a consensus about which varieties mine actually are.

This one has a bit more of a pale yellow wash than shows up in the photo.

Another Agalaonema, this one has more splotches on younger leaves.

This Agalaonema looks like the one most commonly found in public spaces. I would have passed it up except it was on sale for $3.00 at the Big Box Store and I'm a sucker for cheap plants.

Another $3.00 Aglaonema. This is one of my office plants that came home for the Holiday Shut Down and needs to be carried back as soon as it's reasonably warm outside.

I have mixed feelings about Calathea. This is C. lancifolia, aka Rattlesnake plant. The underside of the leaves is dark purple. I like the foliage and it grows well but if I'm not careful about de-chlorinating the water and watching the temperature these guys seem to get a lot of leaf burn. Then again most of my Anthuriums are also suffering from leaf burn right now, too, possibly due to the extremely dry air inside. Maybe I should set up my old 55 - gallon aquarium as a plant tank... If only I could convince The Husband (and find a spot for it).

This is a bit of a cheat. That's the shadow of a bloom on my Calathea corona (again, I'm not sure of the specific variety. I wish plant sellers would do a better job of labeling).

This is a small Corn Plant (Draczenea fragrans, unknown variety with yellow-green leaves)

Cuban oregano, Plectranthus ambonicus

Dracaena deremensis Lemon-lime, an old reliable for me and a really nice looking plant

Chamaedorea elegans, a nice, very small palm that normally lives in my office at work, where the cats can't nibble on it. 

Last up, Sansevieria trifasciata var. inheritedfrommomii

As you can see I tried to get a little creative with my photos this afternoon. Anything to avoid working on preparing my syllabus for classes that start next week.

Thanks to Pam at Digging for this meme

New Houseplants!

I just got back from a trip to one-of-the-states-in-the-middle to visit The Husband's family for Christmas. I don't fit in with his family very well and the bed they put me in is a twin bed with a mattress that hasn't been replaced since sometime in the early 80s so I don't sleep well, either.

My mother in law has ONE houseplant. ONE.

BUT. About half an hour from my in-laws lies the land of PATSP, Kingdom of Mr. Subjunctive himself. He and I have been Internet Friends for years and on this trip I finally got to meet him for the first time IRL.

Fortunately he didn't turn out to be a very patient serial killer who lures unsuspecting plant aficionados to their dooms with offers of houseplants. [And neither did I]

I thought I was houseplant obsessed but I've got nothin' on Mr. S. Wow. I could tell we had the right house when I drove up and couldn't see inside for the wall of green. Very cool.

Mr. Subjunctive lives in a cute little house with his significant other and Sheba, a sweet dog who decided The Husband and I were great because whenever I feel fur under my hand I automatically start petting. 

He has has plants everywhere. Where there isn't enough natural light there are artificial lights to support the plants. I wonder about his power bill.

Best of all I have some new ideas for my place. I don't think I'll ever get as many plants as he has but I could use some more space for a few more plants [and so it begins...].

AND he very kindly sent me home with a few, small, plants. Meet the newest additions to my jungle [sorry for the poor quality of the images, the plants are all in my shower after getting a post-flight watering and the lighting isn't great]:

Aeschaynanthus longicolis

Bilbergia borracho [the only one with any noticeable damage from going through TSA screening and then being stuffed under an airline seat - two badly bent leaves. It should recover]

Bilbergia nutans

Columnia orientsomethinga [I con't really translate my handwriting and couldn't find this one on the interweb with a quick, pre-coffee search this morning. I'm sure I'll get a comment with the correct spelling soon, right, Mr. Subjunctive?]

Euphorbia leuconeura

Also known as the Madagascar jewel

Leuchtenbergia principis

Syngonium wendlandii

And, not from Mr. Subjunctive but found in a hardware store in The Husband's hometown, a nice variegated Hoya. They also had a variegated Peace Lily [Spathophyllum] that was just too big to try and carry on a plane. I'm not a big fan of most Spathophyllum but this would have been nice for the leaves. I do like the jumbo sized Spathophyllum but I just don't have room for one.

It was nice to meet an Internet Friend in person. Mr. Subjunctive is a genuinely nice guy with a nice dog, good taste in plants, movies, and music. As I was leaving I commented on how nice it was to meet someone like me, most people aren't like me and sometime that makes me feel like an outsider. He suggested it was in part because I am intelligent. I think that's part of it but it's also that I am willing to be myself, no matter what anyone else thinks. Thanks, Mr. Subjunctive, for the hospitality, for the plants, and for just being a nice guy.

Now to send The Husband to the hardware store to pick up some supplies...