PBS Forum

Quote from: CG100 on February 04, 2025, 12:13:59 AMThe small-growing Setiechinopsis mirabilis (a cactus), is night-blooming and is scented very much like mothballs (naphthalene) - that must surely be polinated by moths, despite the secnt?

Maybe it's pollinated by bats. Though I can't imagine they'd like that scent much either.

I was surprised to find this Eucharis × grandiflora blooming away in its Winter spot (down in the basement) today. I suppose I should water it a bit more until it's done blooming. Hasn't been watered at all in about a month.

Mike in the Finger Lakes/6A - where voting day was a nice clear/sunny 75 degrees

Large Nerine finally started blooming a few days ago. The inflorescence appeared in late August, I thought it would be blooming early September, but it just hung out until a few days ago when it started to develop some color, then got a few inches longer, and bloomed.

I bought a bag of somewhat desiccated bulbs at a local garden center (well, a handful of bags, but only 1 bag of Nerine bulbs) maybe a month before Covid struck. The bulbs were identified as 'Nerine sarniensis Red,' but who knows if those bagged bulbs are accurately labeled. Anyway, this is the first blooming. They took a few years to recover, then started getting big enough that I was sort of expecting blooms last year. Maybe I'll try moving the pot to our glass (door) enclosed porch for a while at the end of season next year.

The first picture is from a few days ago, it was the second day of flowering. It's a bit deeper pink color in the picture than is accurate, because the sun was shining on the petals, and all I was getting was a white glare instead of pink. I had to block the sunshine with my body while taking the picture which caused the pink to look a few shades darker. The second picture is from today, and is fairly close to the actual color (more gray than sunny today).

All of these were taken yesterday. Now, the flowers are probably mostly torn up since the remnants of Helene have been causing rain for the last couple of hours.

There's a supposed Crinum lugardiae (as received from a BX maybe ten years ago). Doesn't match the descriptions of either foliage, or flowers. Then there's a Cyrtanthus sanguineus (I think this one's from BX 482). The last is Cyrtanthus mackenii (pale yellow ex Telos clone from PBS SX 481 ex Rimmer).

Quote from: Too Many Plants! on September 01, 2024, 10:59:05 AMBTW, Mikent. Are Datura Geophytes?

Not really. Or I guess the answer would be yes, but only if you consider it mostly being a taproot that gets kind of woody to qualify it as a geophyte.

Yep, those are datura. During the day, the blooms don't seem to have much scent (at least that's the case with mine). If you happen to be out by the plants in the early evening, you will probably detect a strong floral scent. The more humidity there is in the air, the stronger the scent will be (which seems weird for a plant that grows in arid, or desert-like conditions). No problem attracting the sphinx moth's attention with that scent.

Quote from: Too Many Plants! on August 31, 2024, 12:06:36 PMIs this the plant or flowers that are deadly to consume? It looks a lot like what grows wild on my property that's said to be deadly. In Flower right now while hot and dry.

Any part of the plant will do it. There are several cardioactive drugs obtained from datura, as well as a few that are hallucinogens.

Some sources will quote all kinds of deadly threats from merely growing any datura. I've never had any issues. I do always make sure that I wash my hands as soon as I get inside. Also, do not let sap from leaves (or sometimes from collecting the spent flowers (which otherwise can become really messy)) dry on your skin.

One quick method to find out if your plants are datura is to give it the old sniff test. Crushed leaves smell just like peanut butter.

Quote from: CG100 on August 30, 2024, 11:42:05 PMHow woody is the stem?
Seedling palms frequently look like that.
Apiaceae?

The stem almost looks succulent. I haven't actually given it a squeeze (I was thinking it might be poison hemlock), but it does look soft and kind of swollen.

I was thinking along the lines of Robert's comment above - wild carrot/parsley/hemlock, but the leaves look nothing like this - they all look, more or less, like queen anne's lace, or carrot leaves. 

It looks like my mother-in-law's tongue is getting ready to bloom. First two pictures are from earlier this week. Third picture is showing the development/elongation of the inflorescence. Then I went around to the other side of the plant to water it, and saw a bunch more developing blooms (fourth photo showing two of them). It seems that almost every plant in the clump is sending up a bloom.

If the flowers would be selfing (all of the current plants sprouted from a single leaf), is it likely that any seed-grown plants would have the original gold leaf margins? Or, is that essentially a zero-chance thing (mother leaf looks like a laurentii cultivar, but all the plants sprouting from the leaf lost the margins)? Don't see a bloom coming up from the original leaf (yet).

I received this bulb in a BX about 8 years ago. It was identified as Crinum lugardiae, but it does not match the descriptions that I have been able to find. Those descriptions say the foliage is a nearly flat rosette. Nope. Also the stamens are described as black, and these never look any different from attached picture. Flowers last three-four days depending on weather conditions. I suppose it could be a hybrid of C lugardiae.

It is a reliable bloomer, except that I split the clump up last year because the pot was starting to deform. So far this year, it has only bloomed once.

Not sure what this is. I'm pretty sure it's a weed, or maybe a tree, although the stem looks totally wrong for a tree. Two sprouted up this year about ten feet from each other in an area I have never seeded anything. Although, I do have quite a few amaryllids growing in the immediate environs. I usually either deadhead the flowers, or collect the seeds.

Two different angles on the same clump. This started out as three Datura growing in a pot. For the first time in the 30ish years I've been growing Datura (I have seeds from four species/hybrids, but usually default to growing this one), some unprotected seeds survived the Winter and four or five sprouted the next Spring. This year's clump is made up of fifteen-ish plants growing all intertwined with each other (yep, seeds from the five last year survived the winter (again)).

Neighbors (I live on a private drive) stop all the time to ask what kind of lily it is (heh-heh) and whether they can get some seeds from it.

Side note: if you look at img 0252, find the triangle of blooms on the right side - a bit below the upper bloom, you can see a few hints of red. Those are from an Autumn Sage currently growing in the pot where the original three Datura started out. I don't know if the hummingbirds are finding their way to the sage blossoms or not since they're nearly completely overgrown by the Datura - but the sage doesn't seem to mind that at all.

While looking up some plant information, I came across a reference to the greg app (https://greg.app). It calculates the ideal amount of water necessary based on pot size, and amount of light (you can adjust the quantities of each with sliders). Also gives some basic info on the plant in question.

Has anyone used the app? It seems like there is (currently) a small number of plants profiled. It looks like maybe it started as care data on succulent plants that then expanded to include other plants.

I'd still research my plants as much as possible before acquisition. However, if the greg app information is accurate, it could be useful if you have a plant that just seems to want to die no matter what you're doing to care for it.

Mike
in Z6 Finger Lakes Region in Upstate NY, where we're expecting the entire coming week to be in the mid to high 90s (groan)

This was purchased by a relative at a local plant sale. Labeled as unknown Amaryllis.

Can anyone tell me the name of the hybrid? This is the second bloom for the year. The first showed some large cristate-type growths on some of the petals/sepals, so maybe it was the result of someone's attempt at breeding a double flower, and not a recognized hybrid. 

Hippeastrum hybrid called Lagoon. This is the third time it has bloomed in the last six months. The current bloom is actually a carmine pink color. The smart phone camera shifted the color into the carmine red zone.

In previous years, it has always bloomed as a saturated carmine red color. This is the first time it has been more carmine pink. The first blooming (late December) was interesting. The blooms were a mix of carmine red and carmine pink. It looked kind of like a watercolor painting, the more color saturated areas showed as carmine red, the less saturated as carmine pink. I was worried it might be an early sign of virus infection. Both the second blooming (later March) and third (just dying off now - this picture is from May 30) were carmine pink with no carmine red shading. No sign of any viral issues. Maybe the weird coloration was a result of warmer winter temps than previous years?