OFFICIAL PLANT/GARDENING THREAD

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Pole

Pole

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Sep 8, 2013
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I think there should be a sub forum under planted tanks and aqua scapes for terrestrial plants, but for now this thread will do. post your growing projects, breeding projects and so on.


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Fantastic idea!!! I have a rare and unusual plant business - tropicals, succulents, bulbs, etc, from all over the world - I'm always game for talking plants, swapping, q & a, you name it!

My favorite groups of plants are caudiciforms, Aspidistra, and spine-less succulents, many of which are also caudiciforms. Oh, and let us not forget aroids!
 
fwprawn said:
My favorite groups of plants are caudiciforms, Aspidistra, and spine-less succulents, many of which are also caudiciforms. Oh, and let us not forget aroids!
Click to expand...

So I'm not the only one who likes em fat?!? :ROFL:


I had a mild interest in succulents/pachycauls, then started work at www.cacti.co.nz and my interest and knowledge grew considerably, so did my collection! Here's a few from my glasshouse, these pics are a couple of years old so they've grown a fair bit since then. I should take more pics as it is spring here and most of them are flowering.

Pachypodium rosulatum gracilius




Dioscorea elephantipes pair, just got my first crop of seed this winter!. The one on the right is around 20 years old IIRC, one of the originals grown from seed by the owner of the nursery I worked for, and I still have the original label with germination date, repotting dates etc. Encephalartos lehmanii in the foreground. I'd dearly love more of the blue Encephs, but the price tag and size puts me off a little.


Adenia glauca, another old ex-nursery plant, sadly the damage is from snails and neglect not being nibbled on by a Zebu in habitat...


Cyphostemma juttae[/I]


These are just some of my favourites, have many other Pachypodium (densiflorum, ambongense, brevicaule, horombense, inopinatum), Cyphostemma, Adenia (glauca, spinosa, firingalavensis), Gerrardanthus, Zygosicyos, Dioscorea etc etc. Also have planted a bunch of Aloe, Encephalartos, Beaucarnea, Dracaena, Cussonia etc in a rock garden at home. The glasshouse is still at my folks house, I moved it there before we sold our house in the city a couple of years ago and still haven't got around to building a new (larger!) one at our new house, fish tank had first priority! If anyone is interested I'll take some more pics to share.

I was lucky to work with such an amazing collection of plants really, there would only be a handful of people in NZ who have seen Aloe pilansii in flower, and of course I always got first dibs on new releases! Got to visit a few very cool private collections too, here's a pic of (a much younger) me with a massive Dioscorea in someones enormous greenhouse.

 
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Awesome! How could I forget about the Enc's - I have a lot of those as well :) Do you still work for that place? Sounds like a great place to get great specimens - such as the ones you took photos of! I'll share some of mine in the following weeks - I'm about to go away for the weekend.
I must say, I love snail / slug damage - it gives the "fat boys" more character - especially with things like Adenia, or Uncarina.
Your plants are very nicely grown - do you grow most of them in those Bonsai pots? I like! I would, too, if the pots didn't take up so much space.
Anothing thing I enjoy is sprouting all kinds of assorted Palms from seed - Granted, they are not good sellers, but they are easy to germinate, and cheap up-front, so it's good for kicks.
I go down to Florida once or twice a year to get new inventory.
Cheers!
 
Thanks! I don't work for the nursery anymore, I left nearly five years ago when I joined the railway. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there but there's not much money in horticulture. The nursery has gone through a massive downsizing since as the lease on their land was changed (long story), so I probably wouldn't have had a job anyway. They still have an amazing photo library on the website, well worth checking out if you've got time.

I love the snail damaged Adenia too! I've got several other "pristine" ones, but this was one of the old breeders growing in a ground-bed, often neglected under a pile of last years old leaves etc and it has great character. I grow most of my Pachypodiums in bonsai pots once they're up to a certain size to try keep them short and fat, they do take up a bit more room, but I try avoid having them bunched too closely anyway to keep they all in full light. I'll take a pic of the one in the first pic next time I'm at the greenhouse, I have an older pic of it and it has more than doubled in girth in the 3-4 years in that pot while the branches have barely gotten any longer. With the caudiciforms (Adenia, Dioscorea, Gerrardanthus etc) I'll try keep them regularly potted with room to grow, and I intend to put them in a ground bed once I get this new greenhouse built as having a free root run really helps them pump. But with the Pachypodiums (except brevicaule and namaquanum) I find torturing them in smaller pots gets far better looking plants, as with certain others like Pseudobombax.


On the subject of "normal" plants, we have a bit of a basic herb/vege garden, and I've planted a heap of chillis (jalapeno, habanero, scotch bonnet, thai, scorpion, serrano) this summer so I can try make my own hot sauce.

And despite all this I haven't had a single piece of greenery in an aquarium for years...
 
Mine isn't as great.... I might get pics if you guys are interested, but not right now.

A pothos with 18" leaves, a medium sized one, and two smaller onee, one of which is the silver variety.
A tillisandia sp.
Two dracaenas
a nerve plant
Two red yuccas
Three scheffleras, two big ones and one dwarf.
A fiddle leaf fig
A shada desert rose
An anthurium
four misc. cacti
three broms of some sort
a ponytail palm
a nepenthes alata
two mother in laws tongues
a zz plant
a Pitaya
a pineapple plant
and about a hundred lentils that are growing in my uromastyx enclosure.
 
That's a nice collection of assorted plants you have there!

David - Me neither - the only greenery I've had in a tank in the near past are two Anubias attached on Driftwood (bought at PetCo) - one in each of my betta tanks - that's about it. And even those aren't doing great :)
 
Let's see them Pole....This should be a good thread and I have a few other plants that I have collected and brought back from my travels.I'll get around to posting photos of them...
 
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