Epiphyllum update

All Andrew's Plants has moved to AllAndrewsPlants.wordpress.com

You can find this post here on my new site for the full post and to leave comments.

It seems my plant is probably Epiphyllum oxypetalum, which is unusual compared to other Epiphyllum sp. in that it is supposed to be a large lanky plant.

So the long branches with nothing but roots are normal, they're for connecting the plant to tree trunks which certainly makes sense. The species does grow long stems which only sprout "leaves" once they reach a certain length.



A healthy Epiphyllum oxypetalum. I guess the flowers make it worth it.
(Photo by Gagan, used under CC license from commons.wikimedia.org

I suppose going forward I should repot, give it more light (full morning to dappled afternoon), and start staking the branches

Epiphyllum

All Andrew's Plants has moved to AllAndrewsPlants.wordpress.com

You can find this post here on my new site for the full post and to leave comments.

Going through my list of tropical plants that look like crap (so far Peperomia obtusifolia & Syngonium podophyllum and an Aglaonema 'Emerald Queen' which had tufts of leaves at the tips of long sprawling woody stems - it also had bugs so we decided it wasn't worth saving) was inevitably going to get me to this plant, one way or another.



This is the best looking section.

It is either an Epiphyllum or something closely related. I'm going off leaves here alone as I've never seen it flower. The leaves are nothing to get excited about either.



Dry?

I suspect that the plant is not getting enough light, not getting enough water, and likely has terrible soil.



Long round stems give the whole plant a very sparse look. The stem begins to flatted towards the end.

The plant is very sparse. Unlike many Epiphyllum pictures I've seen this seems to prefer to send out longer round stems with the "leaf-like" stems coming from those rather than the leafy stems coming from the pot or shorter round branches near the soil (effectively hidden by the flat stems). The flat stems are short. The plant also sends out long shoots which seem only to have aerial roots on them?



There's nothing but roots all along this stem. It's over 3' long (and may have kept growing if it hadn't dried out at the tip).

So... I'm not even sure where to start here. The soil's crappy so it needs to be repotted. At least the one decent looking branch does. There's another branch that could be cut back to make a decent looking second section and I've got another branch that apparently broke a while ago and was just hanging on by a tiny fiber. The part pictured above that looks good but on that long stem... Will that stem root? Could I just root that whole bit? And what's the deal with the stems with nothing but roots? Can I get rid of them? For soil well drained but fairly rich is what I'm reading online - regular potting soil + extra perlite? Bark?

Picture Archives: Europe 2008 Part 1: The Exchange.

All Andrew's Plants has moved to AllAndrewsPlants.wordpress.com

You can find this post here on my new site for the full post and to leave comments.

Going through my old pictures it was hard not to stumble on pictures from my awesome 6 week trip that started as a 3 week exchange at Oxford Brookes University through England, to Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, the south of France, Spain, Paris and back to England (and looking at those pictures it was so easy to remember how amazing it was and how much I wish I were back there).

I've started to re-process those pictures for better colour, straighten some horizons and get things looking good. Here are a few plant pictures from the first three weeks in England (and a weekend in Ireland) during the exchange program.



Some sort of double cherry or flowering almond at Corpus Christi College in Oxford.


Looking south from the Black Castle ruins at Wicklow to Wicklow Head, the eastern most point in Ireland through what I suspect is Armeria maritima, Sea Thrift.


The neat shapes of a fallen tree reflecting in the calm water on a long walk back from The Trout to Oxford.


Some sort of Apple/Crabapple near our residence on Harcourt Hill, just west of Oxford.


Laburnum x waterii were coming into flower while we were there. They're hardy here but not that common - they're very common in England though. I'm sure they do much better in their warmer wetter climate.


Wisteria is common as well. Houses were covered in the stuff but apparently this was the only picture I took.


I suppose many Clematis weren't flowering yet but this one was. Nice purple leaves with light pink flowers were enough to catch my less well horticulturally trained eye even then.

I have a lot more pictures to go through but I hope I'll be able to get Part 2: The Vacation put together for next week. Maybe, maybe not. I think my video card has died on me and now I don't seem to be able to set my monitor's resolution to its native resolution of 1440x900 or anything with the same aspect ratio, which is a bit of a problem. That said I'm going to be spending tomorrow trying to get my computer to work properly... umm. Otherwise it'll be a while longer. Hey, it's been two years already what's the rush? (If I can't make it work odds are good it's a new computer, not a replacement card - this computer's not good enough to upgrade it anymore.

I suppose it'll give me some time off the computer to finish my indoor plant list. Though if i have to get a new computer it'll take a while to sort/move files to my external hard drive... Ugh I hope I can get it working again.

Peperomia obtusifolia problem

All Andrew's Plants has moved to AllAndrewsPlants.wordpress.com

You can find this post here on my new site for the full post and to leave comments.

Hello internet, I have a question for you: what is this on my Peperomia obtusifolia?


Slightly raised, slightly shiny, sort of metallic looking scaly stuff on the bottom of leaves (mostly older).

Next question: I understand this is supposed to be a pretty easy plant so why does mine look like crap?

Update - so once it became apparent that edema is very likely just another symptom of the broken down, very dense soil the plant was in I repotted it down from a gallon sized pot to a 4" (once I got the plant out of its old pot I also found that it was very over potted) in much better draining soil. With any luck that will solve all my problems, and if not it needed to be done anyway. I'll probably give it a fairly firm pruning once it seems to have gotten established. Maybe a branch at a time as so far it seems to be a slow grower (for me, anyway).

Opuntia macrorhiza

All Andrew's Plants has moved to AllAndrewsPlants.wordpress.com

You can find this post here on my new site for the full post and to leave comments.

This is my favourite cactus ever (of the two that I grow). It grows without protection in Toronto no problem. My drainage isn't even that good where I have it and it doesn't seem to care.


Opuntia macrorhiza


Opuntia macrorhiza

Pictures were taken in 2008 when it looked its best (It's really interesting to look through old pictures. Now I've got content for a few more posts as well!). Only a few flowers last year, with any luck we'll get a good show this year.