Gardening and Plant Thread

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comfysocks said:
View attachment 2812117
Does anyone know what these beautiful purple trees in Pretoria, South Africa are named?
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Jacarandas, I think.

ForgedBlades said:
Unironically order them online. Run of the mill garden centers typically don't carry anything other than the basic stuff because they can't be assed. I can vouch for Orchids Limited out of Minneapolis. There are also some places out of Hawaii that ship.

Buy Orchids and Orchid Supplies - OrchidWeb

OrchidWeb offers a wide selection of quality orchid species, hybrids and supplies with special care in our shipping.
www.orchidweb.com www.orchidweb.com
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I might wait until summer, winter shipping is expensive.

It's always some dang game of logistics, there's a guy in a neighboring town who does cool things with pollination and sells cheap hybrid seedlings, but the cost to get there would outweight the cost of a more expensive established named cultivar that I could maybe get at an orchid seller in my town (and of course seedlings can always end up as duds). Same thing with delivery costs with online stores, they sometimes can double the cost of a plant.

I might also check out some local orchid shows if they still exist in 2022. I also wonder if wholesellers might have seasonal sales to clear out inventory? There might be some moderately unique varieties to find at affordable prices then.
 
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comfysocks said:
View attachment 2812117
Does anyone know what these beautiful purple trees in Pretoria, South Africa are named?
Click to expand...
Definitely jacarandas, they're all over my home town.

They look absolutely divine, but are absolute bastards in terms of mess. Those blooms run for about 4 months of the year, drop, and if they aren't swept they decay and become slippery as fuck. Flashbacks to childhood going ass over on them more than once.

And if they're placed over a pool, fuhgeddaboutit.
 
Another plant that I used to have but I do not have the space for on my landlord's lot are quince trees. They are sour and hard to eat when raw, but make excellent jam and baked goods. When cooked, the flesh turns from white to a bizarre pinkish-orange color.
 
Hepativore said:
Another plant that I used to have but I do not have the space for on my landlord's lot are quince trees. They are sour and hard to eat when raw, but make excellent jam and baked goods. When cooked, the flesh turns from white to a bizarre pinkish-orange color.
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My neighbors have one, I think they make some sort of an alcohol from it. Even during the few years I've been into gardening I've noticed the quince trees tend to bear fruit even during years when there are little to no apples. So a good plant to know for survivalist purposes I guess.

Speaking of which and slightly off topic - I've recently subscribed to a youtuber living in Siberia and she says they eat stuff like fern ("tastes like mushroom") and candied pine cones ("tastes like Siberia").
fern.png
pine cones.png
 
When do plant nurseries and big box stores usually do clearances? I guess it depends from store to store, but surely there must be a general period when they clear out winter stock and prepare for spring?

For houseplants (i.e. orchids), I guess the timing is completely random since houseplants are produced in nearly every season. Maybe it might be depending on when they start to look a bit ragged, maybe a month or so from date of delivery?

On the other hand, I’ve heard that places like Home Depot no longer have dedicated horticulturalist staff and now essentially rent out floor space to big nurseries like Costa Farms, and the more valuable plants are sometimes sent back rather than put on discount.
 
jje100010001 said:
When do plant nurseries and big box stores usually do clearances? I guess it depends from store to store, but surely there must be a general period when they clear out winter stock and prepare for spring?

For houseplants (i.e. orchids), I guess the timing is completely random since houseplants are produced in nearly every season. Maybe it might be depending on when they start to look a bit ragged, maybe a month or so from date of delivery?

On the other hand, I’ve heard that places like Home Depot no longer have dedicated horticulturalist staff and now essentially rent out floor space to big nurseries like Costa Farms, and the more valuable plants are sometimes sent back rather than put on discount.
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That's true about the stores not directly employing a horticulturist, but usually the vendor companies (Costa Farms, Masterpiece, Burpee, etc) are able to answer any questions or call a horticulturist and ask for you. I used to work at a Home Depot for Masterpiece Flower Company (I'm sure it varies by store, but the "lead" at the store I worked for was insufferable, the pay was shit, and you were more or less "on call" even if you specified that you were unavailable certain times). The staff for those companies is usually pretty knowledgeable about the stock.

As for sales, that was up to the vendor. I don't know what the rules were exactly for Masterpiece, but we would occasionally mark plants down before bringing new stock in. Usually, though, we just threw away perfectly good plants, and we were not under any circumstances allowed to discount them, give them away, or take them home ourselves. It broke my heart. I snuck a lot of plants home, and occasionally a lucky customer I trusted to keep their mouth shut would get a nice free plant.

Costa Farms was great; the staff at my store were passionate and knew what they were talking about. If you got lucky and caught one of their reps cleaning out stock or tending to the plants, you could usually get them to play "let's make a deal" on the sickly or just unsold plants. I got a huge Bird of Paradise and Schefflera tree for like $2 a piece one of those times. It's worth a shot.

I don't know how helpful that is because I'm sure it varies by region and vendors and whether or not the reps are dicks, but that's been my experience.
 
It's the middle of winter here, so my houseplants are more or less the only things giving me a reason to live. My current collection includes:
  • 11 (?) spider plants, variegated, reverse variegated, curly, curly variegated, and plain. I can't seem to resist planting the babies.
  • 6 different holiday cacti, two of which are starts off of my great-great grandma's plants.
  • 3 calatheas that live in my bathroom because they immediately try to die if I put them elsewhere.
  • Lots of pothos (regular, jade, neon, marble, silver satin and moonlight). Iirc, the last two aren't real pothos tho.
  • Raven ZZ, regular ZZ.
  • 3 aloes
  • Variegated and regular miniature prickly pears.
  • 4 kinds of jade plant.
  • 3 phalaenopsis orchids.
  • Two fiddle-leaf figs.
  • 4 kinds of sanseveria.
  • Two of the saddest Boston ferns in existence.
  • 29 African violets.
  • Four-year-old peace lily.
  • Green wandering jew.
  • Obligatory monstera plant.
There might be more; I'll check when I get out of the bath. Also, does anyone have tips for the stupid ferns? They also can only live in my bathroom, and I have a humidifier set up specifically for the little punks and everything but they still are half-dead. *sigh*
 
Micotil 300 said:
That's true about the stores not directly employing a horticulturist, but usually the vendor companies (Costa Farms, Masterpiece, Burpee, etc) are able to answer any questions or call a horticulturist and ask for you. I used to work at a Home Depot for Masterpiece Flower Company (I'm sure it varies by store, but the "lead" at the store I worked for was insufferable, the pay was shit, and you were more or less "on call" even if you specified that you were unavailable certain times). The staff for those companies is usually pretty knowledgeable about the stock.

As for sales, that was up to the vendor. I don't know what the rules were exactly for Masterpiece, but we would occasionally mark plants down before bringing new stock in. Usually, though, we just threw away perfectly good plants, and we were not under any circumstances allowed to discount them, give them away, or take them home ourselves. It broke my heart. I snuck a lot of plants home, and occasionally a lucky customer I trusted to keep their mouth shut would get a nice free plant.

Costa Farms was great; the staff at my store were passionate and knew what they were talking about. If you got lucky and caught one of their reps cleaning out stock or tending to the plants, you could usually get them to play "let's make a deal" on the sickly or just unsold plants. I got a huge Bird of Paradise and Schefflera tree for like $2 a piece one of those times. It's worth a shot.

I don't know how helpful that is because I'm sure it varies by region and vendors and whether or not the reps are dicks, but that's been my experience.
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I think I roughly figured out the clearance and restock days for my local Home Depot; they clear out inventory right at the end of the month, and have new plants available by the start of the next month. This is especially true for blooming plants and seasonal ones- they had trays of perfectly good Christmas cactuses marked down to $1 right before New Year’s, while orchids tend to be shuffled out as soon as their blooms fade.

Likewise, I have heard that IKEA usually gets deliveries Tuesdays and Fridays, but they have no big restock days. As IKEA only puts out a few trays at a time, inventory turnover is much faster and deliveries trickle in all the time.

Speaking of vendors, I wish it was easier to figure out and find the Phalaenopsis varieties orchid nurseries are supplying big box stores in North America.

There sometimes are some really unique varieties (apparently some of the cool European hybrids are finally making their way across the Atlantic) that are just as good as the expensive cultivars sold at dedicated orchid nurseries, but getting that information is tough as nails. You can roughly figure out the local nurseries supplying the stores, but the trail often goes cold after that, as the varieties supplied are chosen by the stores and randomized before shipment- meaning that it's almost entirely a gatcha game if you're seeking a particular variety.

I was only able to acquire a particular variety by asking the nursery themselves about the distribution of orchids with a particular quality, and then going to several grocery stories in that chain in the hopes they would have it. I don't regret it though, it is a very delightful orchid that continues to bring me joy every day.

On top of that, most mass consumer varieties in North America are unlabeled (meaning that for the average consumers, they're considered 'No identity' (NOID) orchids that can't be traced. European mass consumer orchids on the other hand usually have their cultivar name printed on the pots, meaning that the whole acquisition process is significantly easier.

Seriously though, the whole mass consumer orchid nursery process is incredibly fascinating due to the various intricacies of growing orchids:


But enough about that, time to find a Sweet Memory Liodoro (dirt cheap in Europe) without breaking the bank.
 
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For some reason, I have a magic touch with plants. Just one watering session with a troubled plant and it's thriving the next day. I don't garden as a hobby but probably should. Been wanting to start growing bird's eye peppers.
 
jje100010001 said:
I think I roughly figured out the clearance and restock days for my local Home Depot; they clear out inventory right at the end of the month, and have new plants available by the start of the next month. This is especially true for blooming plants and seasonal ones- they had trays of perfectly good Christmas cactuses marked down to $1 right before New Year’s, while orchids tend to be shuffled out as soon as their blooms fade.

Likewise, I have heard that IKEA usually gets deliveries Tuesdays and Fridays, but they have no big restock days. As IKEA only puts out a few trays at a time, inventory turnover is much faster and deliveries trickle in all the time.

Speaking of vendors, I wish it was easier to figure out and find the Phalaenopsis varieties orchid nurseries are supplying big box stores in North America.

There sometimes are some really unique varieties (apparently some of the cool European hybrids are finally making their way across the Atlantic) that are just as good as the expensive cultivars sold at dedicated orchid nurseries, but getting that information is tough as nails. You can roughly figure out the local nurseries supplying the stores, but the trail often goes cold after that, as the varieties supplied are chosen by the stores and randomized before shipment- meaning that it's almost entirely a gatcha game if you're seeking a particular variety.

I was only able to acquire a particular variety by asking the nursery themselves about the distribution of orchids with a particular quality, and then going to several grocery stories in that chain in the hopes they would have it. I don't regret it though, it is a very delightful orchid that continues to bring me joy every day.

On top of that, most mass consumer varieties in North America are unlabeled (meaning that for the average consumers, they're considered 'No identity' (NOID) orchids that can't be traced. European mass consumer orchids on the other hand usually have their cultivar name printed on the pots, meaning that the whole acquisition process is significantly easier.

Seriously though, the whole mass consumer orchid nursery process is incredibly fascinating due to the various intricacies of growing orchids:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=TMInsF0EI6A
But enough about that, time to find a Sweet Memory Liodoro (dirt cheap in Europe) without breaking the bank.
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I know what you mean about the NOIDs, because I have that problem with my African Violets. I only have definitive identification for four of them, and one is from a small nursery and was identified by members of an AV club that I participate in, and the other three were ordered from reputable online sellers. The rest were picked up at big-box stores, gifted, or traded with people, and were either unlabeled or labeled as "African Violet" (which is pretty useless but not as useless as some of the Costa tags, that say stuff like "Indoor Foliage" which I think is fricking hysterical because I have a weird sense of humor). The other African Violet enthusiasts I hang around online have tentatively identified a couple of them, but aren't sure. The reason I care is because I have a couple that are really neat, with like two-tone double blooms, variegation, unusual leaf shapes and colors, etc, and want to know what I have for propagation and eventual hybridization.

On a side note, a thread on some of the more hardcore African Violet/orchid/succulent/general indoor plant crazies that are online might be entertaining. Shit gets dramatic; personally I've witnessed death threats, pets being rehomed for messing with the plants (sadly this happens too frequently), breakups and even divorces, and members getting the law involved with other members for doing things like stealing leaves to propagate (I mean yeah it's unethical but holy hell, people). The outdoor/food crop gardeners seem a bit more sane, but it's still a soap opera once you go deep enough into things like seed banks and fertilizers and patenting hybrids and whatever else.

So I mostly just look at the pretty plants and point and laugh at the crazy weirdos unless I have a question.
 
Micotil 300 said:
On a side note, a thread on some of the more hardcore African Violet/orchid/succulent/general indoor plant crazies that are online might be entertaining. Shit gets dramatic; personally I've witnessed death threats, pets being rehomed for messing with the plants (sadly this happens too frequently), breakups and even divorces, and members getting the law involved with other members for doing things like stealing leaves to propagate (I mean yeah it's unethical but holy hell, people). The outdoor/food crop gardeners seem a bit more sane, but it's still a soap opera once you go deep enough into things like seed banks and fertilizers and patenting hybrids and whatever else.

So I mostly just look at the pretty plants and point and laugh at the crazy weirdos unless I have a question.
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TBH, this is a problem with any sort of hobbies that involve collecting and scarcity mechanics (intentional or structural).

There's always gonna be some hierarchy of rarity and value, and from that flows the greed and spergery.


But regardless, these months can't go fast enough, I can't wait until spring when specialty nurseries open up and start listing again.

On a side note, does anyone know if potassium salts of fatty acids (basically horticultural soap) can react with anything to create a weird sweet-smelling odor? Sprayed some of my plants with it due to a mealybug scare, and then I found out that some of them potted with sphagnum developed a sickeningly sweet odor (plants are fine though). It's such a disturbing smell that I think I may need to repot some of them ahead of schedule.
 
jje100010001 said:
TBH, this is a problem with any sort of hobbies that involve collecting and scarcity mechanics (intentional or structural).

There's always gonna be some hierarchy of rarity and value, and from that flows the greed and spergery.


But regardless, these months can't go fast enough, I can't wait until spring when specialty nurseries open up and start listing again.

On a side note, does anyone know if potassium salts of fatty acids (basically horticultural soap) can react with anything to create a weird sweet-smelling odor? Sprayed some of my plants with it due to a mealybug scare, and then I found out that some of them potted with sphagnum developed a sickeningly sweet odor (plants are fine though). It's such a disturbing smell that I think I may need to repot some of them ahead of schedule.
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Yeah, it can. I'm not sure how exactly, or what it reacts with, but when I accidentally brought mealy bugs home from a Walmart pity-plant. I can't remember what brand I used; I think it was marketed for use on algae because I found it was the same shit but cheaper. But it did cause a nasty smell, that seemed to get worse after the first watering. It was so weird, almost like rancid chocolate milk, but like if you mixed it with something organic and acidic.

The plants were fine, and I just tolerated the smell until it went away. Granted, it was summer so I had the windows open and stuck some of the nastier ones outside.

You just made me remember that time I used that fertilizer made from dead fish a couple years ago on my houseplants. Plants liked it, cats liked it, I thought it was atrocious. Good results though, I mean I'll definitely use it again, just not while the plants are in my house. Yeeick!
 
Hey kiwis. For reasons no one cares about, I can no longer tend to my outdoor garden, so I'm more focused on my indoor plants. I really miss growing vegetables.
African Violets and various easy plants and succulents are what I have now. I had to dispose of a money tree and a few flowering plants because I moved from a city to near the freaking forest and stink bugs love to get inside and harass me.

Doing some propagating from cuttings right now.
Succ13.jpg

❓Any advice on growing lavender indoors would be so appreciated. I have either failed or let it grow out of control.
 
Shilly Shillberton said:
Hey kiwis. For reasons no one cares about, I can no longer tend to my outdoor garden, so I'm more focused on my indoor plants. I really miss growing vegetables.
African Violets and various easy plants and succulents are what I have now. I had to dispose of a money tree and a few flowering plants because I moved from a city to near the freaking forest and stink bugs love to get inside and harass me.

Doing some propagating from cuttings right now.
View attachment 2905909

❓Any advice on growing lavender indoors would be so appreciated. I have either failed or let it grow out of control.
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In my experience, lavender is one of those "bathroom plants" that enjoy high humidity and like their soil moist all the time. The "tolerates drought" on the tag is bullshit. That said, I haven't had one as a permanent indoor plant, just overwintered them.
 
So I'm toying with idea of doing another fish tank, anyone fucks with aquaponics? I'm thinking doing some plants before I commit to fish etc.

Plot twist, I'm also thinking salt water....
 
Bassomatic said:
So I'm toying with idea of doing another fish tank, anyone fucks with aquaponics? I'm thinking doing some plants before I commit to fish etc.

Plot twist, I'm also thinking salt water....
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Salt water always feels sort of intimidating (and expensive). Like the equivalent of a very expensive pet that can't be left on its own lest you return and find thousands of dollars floating on the top of the tank.

Ironically, a dream goal for me is to get back into aquariums and focus on setups that are as self-sustaining as possible.
 
My sister just got a Venus fly trap and I'm trying to ensure its longevity despite murdering at least three of them myself (I think I drowned one, tapwatered one, and insufficient humidity-ed them to death in seperate incidents). I have pretty much written them off as, "really neat, but not for me." However, she's really excited about the damn thing but has already killed one herself (I think she tried to repot it leading to its swift demise). I researched their care online and still made them be dead.

It's winter in a northern climate, we get like six hours of (usually overcast) sunlight a day, and she lives in a drafty old house that's the type of dry that makes you wake up with nosebleeds. I just gave her my (actually fairly reliable), "Idk, keep it in the bathroom."

Anyways I feel like the last person on the planet who should be telling anyone how to care for those things... so I'm asking on Kiwifarms.
 
I had a rose called Adobe Sunrise where I used to live. I cannot grow it where I am now due to the lack of space on my landlord's plot, but this is another unusual color I have never seen before in a rose. It is a hypersaturated, neon, pinkish-orange color that is hard to describe. The photographs do not do it justice.

Before anybody asks, yes, this is also a floribunda.

Adone-Sunrise-Rose-2_1024x1024.jpg
 
Hepativore said:
I had a rose called Adobe Sunrise where I used to live. I cannot grow it where I am now due to the lack of space on my landlord's plot, but this is another unusual color I have never seen before in a rose. It is a hypersaturated, neon, pinkish-orange color that is hard to describe. The photographs do not do it justice.

Before anybody asks, yes, this is also a floribunda.
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I can only grow moribundas, but my cactus is doing okay for now.
 
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