The House Plants Thread

Mr_Bungle said:

I am not exactly sure, in an earlier post I tried to identify exactly what cultivar the plant was but my results were not 100% conclusive. African Violets are known to have some unstable genetics especially with hybrids called chimeras.

I believe that the light cycle in my house may differ from the greenhouse from where I purchased it as well as a slight difference in temperature and RH (relative humidity) may be at play for some of the change on color.

African Violets need at least 8 hours of darkness a day to produce florigen, a hormone that triggers blooming. This also reminds me of the Calvin cycle, its an important part of photosynthesis that does not require light to operate, its some dense material if you're interested.

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Calvin cycle. Gotcha.

I'll have to make sure I come across it someday. Thanks for the botanical knowledge.

Mr_Bungle said:

I could try doing a science experiment to try and determine if the genetics are stable. African violet leaf cuttings can produce baby plants in numbers reaching into the teens from a single leaf. If the genes are unstable they should not reproduce true to the parent leaf, similar to apple seeds. Chimeras can only be truly propagated through removing side offsets called "suckers".

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If that experiment has never been done, then you are a legit scientist.

AngryGerbil said:

Also, what is the little creeping purple-flowered thing crawling everywhere?

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That is the Myrtle, there is a picture of it in the first post up above. If you have a space, say along the house that is clearly a place where green bullshit shrubs have been planted in a bark bed for 50 years. There are a million reasons to tear that shit out, make the soil sing with just good shit, get a local blend of wildflowers / personal preferences. My yard just hums with bees while the flowers are roaring. When things fade, make sure you allow the remaining, less glorious plant stalks and roots to finish their yearly job. For lack of a better term, charging up whatever it takes to survive the winter and be the next generation. I think the major mistake that people make is that they tear out what they consider dead flowers too soon.

I think channeling one's inner Gregor Mendel - Wikipedia is a worthwhile experience in this realm of reality.

I wasn't really into the chaos of letting everything mostly just be itself. But the results are not disappointing when things mature, I'm hopeful there is some new lily colors this year myself, I don't know if there will be any purple. I was hoping that by posting this massive variety, we might get a few more seed in pot converts.

Planted these hellebores in my mom's garden this last Tuesday.

They are amazing. Variegated foliage with some sort of purple-green flower that you just don't see anywhere else.

Dandain said:

That is the Myrtle, there is a picture of it in the first post up above. If you have a space, say along the house that is clearly a place where green bullshit shrubs have been planted in a bark bed for 50 years. There are a million reasons to tear that shit out, make the soil sing with just good shit, get a local blend of wildflowers / personal preferences. My yard just hums with bees while the flowers are roaring. When things fade, make sure you allow the remaining, less glorious plant stalks and roots to finish their yearly job. For lack of a better term, charging up whatever it takes to survive the winter and be the next generation. I think the major mistake that people make is that they tear out what they consider dead flowers too soon.

I think channeling one's inner Gregor Mendel - Wikipedia is a worthwhile experience in this realm of reality.

I wasn't really into the chaos of letting everything mostly just be itself. But the results are not disappointing when things mature, I'm hopeful there is some new lily colors this year myself, I don't know if there will be any purple. I was hoping that by posting this massive variety, we might get a few more seed in pot converts.

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I planted some new viola tricolors. I think I messed up the first time. For starters, I sowed them in a large pot with no extra light, along side a dahlia that began to grow almost immediately. The dicot seed leaves came up easy enough but they stagnated and now appear to be fading. They just never got off the launch pad.

This time I've got them in little seedling starter pots under our one small grow light inside and will transplant them later. I think this method will be better than trying to sow them directly into a large pot. I also probably started too early in the season.

On Mr_Bungle 's advice I got some green zinnia seeds and put those in starter pots too to be planted outside along the purple lilies. I'm hoping they can be in bloom at the same time so as to have dark purple lilies alongside bright green zinnias with green grass spikes.

These are the three dahlias, now outside. You can see the about-to-bloom lilies in the planter's box.



These are the two I planted in the wrong sized pots. The one in the smaller pot is not only much bigger, it has two stalks of equal size whereas the other one has a second stalk that is only half sized. Still not buds showing on any of them yet. Just leaves so far.

AngryGerbil said:

Also, what is the little creeping purple-flowered thing crawling everywhere?

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I was going to correct him, but doing research, I guess myrtle is one of its names in southern areas. I've never heard it called that.

Its also Periwinkle/vinca.
Vinca minor - Wikipedia

Very hardy, fast ground, with little/no pests/diseases, and effective ground cover.
It is ALSO not native to the US and highly invasive, because it is hardy, and fast, with no native predator.

These are all today.

Many Flowers


Many Flowers


Wild Tulips


Wild Tulips


Wild Tulips


Wild Tulips


Wild Tulips


Wild Tulips


Wild Tulips


Wild Tulips


Wild Tulips


Name I can't remember


Lily Update for Gerbil


Cherry Tree Solar Panels have begun to fully engage.


Flowers to Fruit


Flowers to Fruit #2


Some Ground Cover Flowers with Two Bonus (Mosquito Hawks?) I'm not an insect pro.


Almost about to open up, In the Sun.

Well done. That's quite an impressive little garden you've got there. How old is it?

5 years.

Did you make it from scratch?

Yes, nothing new was planted in the front this year either. All those photos from the hyacinths to the tulips are all just this year's surprise.

Why do you call them wild tulips and not just tulips?

Because of the petal shape, but doing brief googling I'm sure they would be part of one the apparent 23 different groups of tulips based on flower morphology.

Tulip cultivars usually are categorized into one of 23 different groups depending upon flower morphology. The following is a brief description of some of the more popular groups:...

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https://ipm.missouri.edu/MEG/2016/10/Tulip_A_Brief_History/

Okay I was just curious.

I thought maybe the frilled petals with two colors were the natural state of a tulip and were therefore 'wild'.

I watched some horticulture videos about a year ago and I remember them saying that tulips are native to the mountains of Iran and Persia and the one stock photo they showed of tulips in the wild was of a bunch of mostly plain looking red and yellow ones with no frills. Imagine a basic looking small red or yellow tulip. That's the natural state of their genetics I think. I think all the other stuff is man-made.

Your article seems to agree. They come from Persia in the wild but have been cultivated and mastered by the Dutch into a staggering array of crazy shit. Actually I know that the big red tulips I posted here earlier said on the package that they were imported from Holland. Same with the dahlias I have.... which still haven't bloomed btw.... they are also imported from Holland.

Rhododendron about to bloom.

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