More Sansevieria blooms

I don't have many Sansevieria in my collection. For some reason this was a banner year for the plants that I do have. I think I just have five plants and three of them have bloomed! I already wrote about one blooming in February. Then at the end of May I noticed that another of my Sansevieria was blooming. This one was purchased from Lowe's (I think) with a generic "Sansevieria" tag on it, so it is unlikely that it is a species. The flowers smell like ripe bananas.

unlabeled Sansevieria

unlabeled Sansevieria

At the same time I was pulling down that plant to take some photos of the flowers I realized that another of my Sansevieria was spiking. This last one was a plant I purchased at the Oklahoma Cacti and Succulent show last year, Sansevieria kirkii.

Sansevieria kirkii

Sansevieria kirkii

This species has incredibly thick and sturdy leaves. They could just about be used in a sword fight and stand up to the beating of a metal blade.

Sansevieria kirkii flowers

Sansevieria in bloom

Sansevieria are pretty common houseplants, office plants, or "mall plants" as I sometimes say.  As with many other plants that grow well in these conditions, there are a few species or varieties that have been propagated far and wide and are most commonly seen, while the genera themselves are much larger.

A few years ago I got a Sansevieria from my friend, Russ.  He had it labeled "Sansevieria sp. Chahinian 549" at the time.  It was the collection number of a botanist by the name of Juan Chahinian from his first trip to Kenya.  Russ obtained the plant from the Huntington Botanic Garden in California.  Russ believes this is actually Sansevieria parva.

Sansevieria parva?

The plant has grown slowly but steadily (as Sansevieria do) for me in the intervening years.  And this year, for the first time, it has bloomed!  The flowers are strongly fragrant.  When I stepped into the greenhouse it was a very pleasant smell, but when I stuck my nose right up to the flowers it was a little too much for me.

Sansevieria flowers

Trip Report: Plants along the streets of Jakarta

Yesterday I went for a walk.  Along the way I took a lot of pictures of plants growing along the sidewalk.  Jakarta is not a particularly pretty place, but there are some neat tropical plants growing wherever they can take hold.  For purposes of this blog, I'll be showing you those pictures.

Polyathia longifolia in front of a nice house in Jakarta

One of the more common trees here in Jakarta is the Polyathia longifolia, which is usually growing tall and skinny like an Italian cypress tree. It has long shiny leaves with undulate margins (wavy edges).

Leaves of Polyathia longifolia

Some of my favorite plants (Aglaonema, Dieffenbachia, and Calathea) are growing everywhere here.

Calathea

Calathea

A pot full of Dieffenbachia

Really large Dieffenbachia

Aglaonema, maybe

There are also lots of colorful flowering plants around: Bougainvillea, Plumeria, Heliconia, Canna and things I have never seen before.

Some sort of Acanthaceae, possibly Crossandra

Solandra

Heliconia

Do you know what this is?

(Update: mr_subjunctive and peaches identified this as Clerodendron thomsoniae)

There were some other nice Aroids (besides the Dieffenbachia and Aglaonema) growing here and there...

An aroid climbing a tree. Perhaps Epipremnum or Rhaphidophora.

Homalomena

There are Sansevieria growing everywhere. I noticed one in particular that was in bloom.

Sansevieria in bloom

When I finished my leisurely walk, I came back to the hotel, where is some more formal landscaping out front.

Agave in front of the hotel

Adenium (foreground) and Cycad (back right) in garden at hotel entrance

My walk took me to a park about a mile away from the hotel.  I'll post pictures from there in a separate post.  Stay tuned!

OKC Cactus and Succulent show

Before diving in, I must confess that cacti and succulents are not my passion. There are a couple of groups that interest me, like Stapelia and related genera. I decided to stop by the show and sale of the Central Oklahoma Cactus and Succulent Society last weekend because I figured it would be interesting to see, take photos and learn more about these plants.

Rhytidocaulon macrolobum

I was surprised to see more plants of interest to me than I had expected. The "show" plants were neat, but primarily plants that I enjoy looking at and that I don't have a great desire to grow myself. However, I found many plants on the vendor tables that were of interest to me. The first being the plant pictured above and below. Maybe you think it's ugly, but look at those awesome black flowers!

Rhytidocaulon macrolobum

There were quite a few Pachypodium on display and for sale (sorry, no pictures). I had just been giving a tour at the Myriad Gardens on Saturday afternoon, where the Pachypodium are 10 feet tall!

Euphorbia knuthii

There were so many Euphorbia I couldn't count them. As I was telling my tour group, Euphorbia has to be the most diverse genus I know. If you read my old post on Euphorbia you would have seen everything from the Poinsettia to the dangerously spiny plants, like the one I purchased this weekend.

Euphorbia cylindrifolia

The Euphorbia pictured below has a growth habit more like Mamillaria (those spherical cacti with spines all over them).

Euphorbia valida

Dyckia marneir-lapostellei

Check out the ghostly colors of the Dyckia and Crassula.

Crassula deceptor

The little Avonia was quite adorable. It looks like a miniature and really doesn't look real.

Avonia quinaria v. alstonii

You have probably already seen my cucumber orchid. Now I see there is a cucumber succulent!

Senecio pendula

Sansevieria has quite a dedicated following. This show had two plants, one being the famous Sansevieria masoniana, with big floppy leaves. The other was more to my liking, Sansevieria scabrifolia.

Sansevieria masoniana 'Mason's Congo' and Sansevieria scabrifolia

Most of the plants I am showing won an award, but the cactus below won "Best Cactus." Check out that long fur hanging off of the pads.

Opuntia tequiliana - look at that fur!

The only Stapelia-like plant in the show was this Huernia. It was a really big plant that is supposedly just 3 years old. It must be a vigorous grower.

Huernia thuratii

I ended up purchasing 4 plants, 1 of which was an orchid. I had been told by some friends that Eulophia petersii is easier to find at succulent shows than at orchid shows, since it likes to grow so dry. I was talking with a vendor at this show and he was telling me about how he once heard someone describing this plant as having "orchid-like flowers"...

Huernia hystrix

Two of the plants that I purchased are from my Stapeliae: Huernia hystrix and Stapelia hirsuta. The S. hirsuta is the one that gets really hairy flowers. It is also probably the species that is most similar to my Stapelia gigantea, which grows really well for me. So I feel confident I can get it to bloom eventually.

Stapelia hirsuta

The last plant I purchased is the Euphorbia, which I mentioned earlier in this post. Dangerously spiney!

Euphorbia aeruginosa

I don't plan to become a cacti and succulent addict, but I would like to go to this show again in the future. There were definitely some neat plants.

Trip Report: The Audubon House

While in Key West last month, we visited "The Audubon House."  You would think with a name like this that the house would have once been under the ownership of someone with the name of Audubon.  It turns out the connection is a little less direct.  John James Audubon, the well known historical figure for his art depicting American birds, traveled to the Florida Keys in 1831 in order to paint the native birds of Florida.  While he was in the Keys, he stayed at the house next door to this house.

The Audubon House

John James Audubon's trip to the Florida Keys

The house has been preserved and connected with Audubon because he admired the gardens while he was in the area and supposedly painted some of the trees and plants into his portraits of various Florida birds.  The gardens have been kept in great condition as a tribute.

Roseate Spoonbill portrait by John James Audubon - my favorite from the Florida collection.

Tree loaded with blooming orchids in front of Audubon House

The house is now a shrine to his work and has a very nice garden outside.  We toured the house and gardens outside, enjoying the beautiful setting.  I think Christie and I could settle into this house just fine.  The trees outside are covered in orchids, and many of them were in bloom for our visit.

Brassavola orchid

Crinum lily bloom

Other interesting plants filled the flowerbeds, including a couple of large Crinum lilies, some yellow Walking Iris (Neomarica longifolia), and a nice Chenille plant (Acalypha hispida).

The yellow walking iris - Neomarica longifolia

Chenille plant - Acalypha hispida

There were lots of Calatheas scattered throughout the gardens, and concentrated here and there.  I have seen these growing in many botanic gardens, but not very often in an outdoor setting.

Calathea Peacock (so the sign reads)

The gardens also contain some Florida native plants, which would have been important to Audubon, as he preferred to paint his birds sitting on authentic trees and plants to the area where he would find them in nature.  One of the natives I really liked was this cycad, Zamia floridana.

Florida native cycad "Coontie" - Zamia floridana

Christie under a nice Staghorn fern

Philodendron stenolobum

There were also some nice aroids, including this large Philodendron stenolobum (above) and Alocasia portei (below). I loved the pendant Anthurium vittariifolium, with its pink berries showing (two below) and now have a small seedling plant from a recent plant trade. I hope my plant is this attractive some day.

A large Alocasia portei (in the center of the image)

Anthurium vittariifolium with berries on spadix

Chamaedorea metallica

My second favorite palm in the entire family is Chamaedorea metallica, which is called the Miniature Fishtail Palm, or Metallic Palm.  It has silver-blue leaves and striking orange flowers and berries.  It is small for a palm, with a maximum size of only 5 or 6 feet tall, and it is therefore usually growing as an understory tree.

Bed of Sansevierias - probably Sansevieria metallica.

You probably already know that I like Stapelias. Am I crazy or do the buds of the Stapelia below look just as cool as the open bloom? Yes, I did bend down and stick my nose into the flower to smell the pungency. And yes, I did request Christie do the same. She grudgingly did so - after a third or fourth request.

Stapelia leendertziae in bloom.

The Audubon House sits on a lot large enough to have several wandering paths through the gardens and 2 separate set-aside gardens: a water garden and an herb garden. The water garden was very tastefully designed, with some heron statues in the pond. I'm sure JJ Audubon would have liked to sit and stare at these nice statues.  The setting of this garden is similar to what I have talked about doing with a portion of our backyard, with the ground paved in either bricks or rock and a shallow pond or other small water feature.  Just a relaxing place to sit and enjoy the outdoors.

The appropriately decorated Audubon water garden.