The Variegated Thumb

Just days after posting about my Stapelia and Huernia plants I got my first bloom!  My Stapelia flavopurpurea had buds on it when I received it in the mail, but I wasn’t sure they would open after the shock of cross-country travel.  And they were very small, so I figured it would be a little while before opening anyway.  But the first one opened this weekend!

Stapelia flavopurpurea bloom - larger than life. This bloom is really just slightly larger than a quarter. (Click picture to see larger.)

Stapelias have two rings of corona.  The inner corona on this Stapelia is the tall and curly purple one, while the outer corona is shorter and yellow.  The species name flavopurpurea comes from the latin names for yellow and purple.  There’s a neat drawing of the coronas and more information here.  I got my nose right up to the bloom, but there is no odor for this plant.  There are more buds on the plant, so hopefully I’ll get to see some more blooms over the next couple of weeks.

Stapelia flavopurpurea buds. (Click picture to see larger.)

I also noticed that my original Stapelia (S. gigantea) has some buds forming on the long trailing stem.

Stapelia gigantea stem with buds

Those buds are held farther away from the stem than the flavopurpurea species.  The blooms are considerably larger, which is probably part of the reason.  They’re also much smellier.

Stapelia gigantea bud and new stem forming.

The appendage below the obvious bud appears to be another stem forming on this already long trailing stem.  I take this as a good sign, as most of the Stapelia giganteas I have seen in bloom are blooming from the ends of long trailing stems.  In fact, when I bought this plant, I picked out the one that already had a downward stem started.

I’ll try to keep taking pictures as the bud matures.  Before opening, the S. gigantea buds look like balloons with a diameter of about 3 or 4 inches.  They are pretty neat.

A while back (a year, two years?) I was given some seeds for Sweet Autumn Clematis (Clematis ternifolia).  I don’t really remember what I did with them, but my guess is that I must have either planted a couple or scattered them somewhere around here:

Sweet Autumn Clematis (Clematis ternifolia)

I didn’t really realize until a couple of days ago that I had a new Clematis growing on our front porch ironwork.  When the buds formed I realized this was not one of our normal Clematis, which bloom in the early summer and have large purple blooms.  This was something different with small white blooms.  Then they started opening and I thought that it looked very familiar.  I still had the name “Sweet Autumn Clematis” in my head, and when I looked it up, it was a perfect match.

Clematis ternifolia bloom closeup

It struck me the other day that the “sweet” part of the name probably meant something, too, so I pulled some of the blooms down to nose level and gave them a sniff.  I was surprised to smell something kind of nutmeg-like to me.  I had Christie smell them and she thought they smelled like Root Beer.  Now that there are more flowers in bloom the smell is quite clear on our front porch, without sticking your nose into them.  It’s fun to have this early Autumn bloomer to complement our other Clematis which finished blooming a couple months back already.

Plants are very crafty when it comes to getting things done that they can’t do on their own.  Without the mobility of many other living things on Earth, a single plant can manage to breed with plants miles away and then transport itself to a new location, via a seed which was carried by a bird or wafted away on a breeze.  But like I said, plants have to be pretty crafty to get all of this done.

In order to carry out the breeding, plants must intermingle their pollen.  Since they can’t transport the pollen on their own, they have to attract some more mobile friends – like bees, flies, birds, moths and butterflies.  Many people are aware that brightly colored flowers are used for attracting some of these pollinators.  But some things that fly are not attracted so much to bright colors.  In fact, some flying things are attracted to some pretty disgusting things – like dung or dead bodies.  Don’t think the plant kingdom has overlooked these flying things.  There is a nitch of plants which attract flies which feed on carrion by disguising their flowers with the perfume of a decaying body.  Lovely, huh?

In fact, there are several different families of plants that take advantage of these carrion-feeding pollinators.  One group is the Amorphophallus genus from the Aroid family.  Another is the Stapeliae tribe from the Apocynaceae family.  These plants have a pretty good following of people who collect from the genera Stapelia, Huernia, Caralluma, Tridentea and others.  Stapelia is kind of the shining star of the tribe, but I find Huernia to have some really neat species.

I bought my first Stapelia (S. gigantea) back in April and it has been growing very rapidly this summer.

I bought 5 more plants over the last week from a couple of vendors on ebay.  Here they are!

Huernia aspera

Huernia aspera is the largest plant I purchased.  The others are pretty tiny starts.  This plant has nice, deep red blooms that are shaped like stars, just like all plants in this tribe.  These blooms are often pendulous, facing down and looking like a bell in profile.

Huernia penzigii

This is the most attractive plant while not blooming, with it’s silvery stems.  I’m not sure about the blooms of this plant, as I’ve seen conflicting pictures online.  I guess I’ll just have to wait and see!

Huernia longituba

Huernia longituba has elongated blooms, as referenced in the species name.  The blooms have a base color of yellow with speckling of red on the inside.

Stapelia divaricata

Stapelia divaricata has very weird blooms that look like rubbery pale pink or yellow starfish.

Stapelia flavopurpurea - with a flower bud.

Stapelia flavopurpurea has really cool, petite blooms that almost have a touch of Passionflower-flare to them.  The plant I purchases has a bud on it.  I’m hoping it will open, but I wouldn’t be totally surprised if it doesn’t since it just went through a couple of days in a shipping box.

These plants are succulents primarily found in southern and eastern Africa, including some from Ethiopia!  They like to be pretty dry and they don’t at all mind the heat we’ve been having lately.  With a little luck and a couple of seasons, I hope to be able to bring all of these to bloom.

Our peach tree was planted in April 2007, as a congratulatory gift when I got my real job after graduation.  It was about 3 feet tall then.  Three years later, it’s pushing 15 feet and covered in blooms every spring.  This year we noticed something a little different after the blooms had all been blown away.

Very young peaches on the tree

Our tree is covered in fruit.  Up until this point I had been referring to our tree as a “Flowering Peach” because I thought it was a flowering only variety.  The fruits were growing quickly in the early Summer, but did not get big enough to eat this year.  Now they’re beginning to litter the ground and get squished on our driveway.

Little more mature peach. They didn't get much larger than this - maybe 2" in diameter.

I’m hoping that next year we might actually have some fruits mature enough to eat.  The hot and dry latter half of the Summer might have contributed to the small fruits, but I don’t know very much about that.

Does anyone know if Peach trees (or any other fruiting trees) take some time before producing mature fruits?

It’s been a while since I have posted updates on some of my plants that I’ve had for a year or two.  So here are some of my Aroids, which are doing quite well:

Aglaonema 'Gold Dust'

Though Aglaonema ‘Gold Dust’ has not grown a lot, it has recently put out a new offset, which I would prefer over height anyway, since I just have one stalk of it.

Aglaonema 'Royal Ripple'

My Aglaonema ‘Royal Ripple’ has been putting out many offsets and is now filling the pot rather nicely.  Some of my other Aglaonemas are also doing really well: A. ‘Peacock’, A. ‘BJ Freeman’, A. ‘Abidjan’, and A. ‘Silver Bay’

Anthurium barbacoasense

The Anthurium barbacoasense which I brought back from the April meeting of the MidAmerica IAS chapter is growing really well.  I need to figure out a good system for supporting it.  I probably just need to set up a totem for it.  For now, it has been growing leaning against a taller pot for support.  This plant was collected by Dr. Tom Croat in Colombia.

Epipremnum pinnatum v. 'Cebu Blue'

My Epipremnum pinnatum v. ‘Cebu Blue’ is one of my favorites!  It has been growing very steadily and has latched on to the wood totem I made for it.  Recently this plant was knocked over in a wind storm, which caused me to lose a leaf or two and some of the plant lost its grip on the wood, but the plant was mostly undamaged.  I’m so glad this one is doing well.  You can see from one of the neighboring plants that I am a sucker for this foliage color.  I just love the blue-silver shade.

Monstera obliqua

I’ve had luck off and on with my Monstera obliqua, but this set of cuttings really took off recently and I gave it a totem to climb, which is going pretty well.  It has produced some very large leaves down at the base of the plant, which I didn’t expect.

Philodendron '69686'

My Philodendron ‘69686′ is growing very well.  It has been putting out leaves profusely, one right on top of the other.  According to Steve Lucas, this plant is likely a naturally-occurring hybrid from Brazil.  I’m glad it got out before they clamped down on exports of all plant life!

unknown Philodendron hybrid

My unknown hybrid Philodendron from cuttings at my office has been growing really well and attached to the totem.  It’s already taller than the totem I made, so I’ll need to come up with something taller or start cutting it back.  It would be neat if I could make a really tall totem for this one and just let it keep growing taller.

Philodendron florida?

This Philodendron was searching for something to climb, so I recently fixed up a totem for this one and have it temporarily attached with string.  I really like the texture of the stems of this plant.  This plant was a gift from Russ Hammer, who told me that it is called Philodendron florida, but I haven’t been able to find much information on that name.

Philodendron mayoi - with two happy pups in the background

My crowing glory right now is my Philodendron mayoi.  About 6 months ago I found a really nice piece of wood that was contorted and scarred and it was scheduled for destruction, along with a bunch of other tree limbs.  So I held onto it and waited for the perfect use.  One day I realized it would make a really nice climbing apparatus for one of my Aroids.  And I had just the perfect plant!  The P. mayoi latched on very quickly and has roots wrapping all around this unique branch.  It’s a work of art, in my opinion!  I really don’t think the pictures do it justice.

Philodedron mayoi

Philodendron 'Rojo'

My Philodendron ‘Rojo’ hybrid is one of the few Meconostigma (upright, self-supported, non-climbing) Philodendrons in my collection.  This plant has been growing slow and steady since I got it sometime last year.

Philodendron bipinnatifidum?

The other Meconostigma Philodendron in my collection has not been identified.  For a while I was calling it Philodendron selloum, but I’m not sure that is correct.  It might be Philodendron bipinnatifidum.  My plant has stayed about the same size since I got it in a trade about 3 years ago.  It puts out new leaves and loses old ones, but stays about the same size.

Philodendron tortum

My Philodendron tortum is one of my newer plants.  It has been growing really well.  I will have to set up a totem for it soon.  I guess that will make it a “tortum totem.”

Syngonium wendlandii

Syngonium wendlandii is probably the most attractive Syngonium that I have ever seen.  This plant, like my other Syngoniums, really likes water.