Variegated Purple Queen!

^regular purple queen, just to jog your memory

^variegated purple queen... even the flowers are variegated!

^look at all the pink! so pretty!

^almost white in some places!

I am way too enthusiastic for wandering jew types of plants, and I nearly flipped my gourd (is that an expression?) when I saw in someone's ended auctions on ebay that they had sold a variegated purple queen cutting. An inquiry revealed that she no longer had any left to sell, which left me disheartened until I came across a seller on ebay who had a very overpriced pot for sale, $14 with shipping for a tiny 4" pot. I reluctantly bought it, and several days later at Home Depot I spotted a massive one gallon pot full of them mixed in with regular purple queen! I think I paid around $5 for it. Sucks I got ripped off on the other one.

I will soon be offering cuttings of this rare and spectacular beauty on ebay, hopefully I can make back my cost.

Cost: $14, $5
Source: eBay, Home Depot

New Water Garden!

In an effort to spread my focus as thinly as possible (just kidding), I have decided to start water gardening in addition to the myriad gardening projects I already have going.

I didn't want to put rocks and a border around it, that was my boyfriend's idea. I wanted it to look more natural =/ But since I enlisted his aid to dig the rather large hole I was obligated to employ his stylistic input.

The water lilies he got from a customer at work for free. Unfortunately the flower that was going to bloom rotted and fell off, presumable after the poor thing sat waterless in his car all day.

I have a solar-powered, battery-backup pond pump coming from ebay from china for $30.

Also threw in some water hyacinth that I stole from a canal, and some dollarweed to see if it will survive in water, and a baby elephant ear to see if it will survive submerged.

Pond cost: used, 2 for $20 on ebay
Pump: $30
Goldfish: $.13
Waterlily: free
Water hyacinths: free
Rocks: $20 at rock place
Borders: free, came with house

Monk Orchid (Oeceoclades maculata)

The most exciting aspect of Adventure Gardening is the thrill of the hunt. No matter where I am, if I see a plant, it's mine. If it's not legal to take for being in someone's yard, I'm still grabbing a cutting or a seedpod. That's just how I roll.

Anyhow, wandering in the Florida woods we came across this lovely Monk Orchid. Actually, we came across dozens of them. We've seen them in Fort Lauderdale and again in the Keys. They have lovely mottled leaves, and dainty little flowers. They were growing in the shade, and I wouldn't have even noticed them except my eye instantly recognized the shape of the orchid leaves and was drawn to them.

This lucky fellow had one leaf when we found/stole it, and after kidnapping it a second leaf grew, and the entire thing doubled/tripled in size. It's potted in soil, and seems to be quite content. It sent up a flower stem about a week ago and today it bloomed- the first time I've ever seen the flowers.

I'm planning on grabbing some more if I come across them again- they aren't protected and are considered more of a weed, strangely enough.

I was happy enough about the foliage but the flowers were a nice surprise, and even more happy to know that they tend to self-pollinate and make seed pods, which is fun for me because I'm going to start flasking soon! I'm very excited about flasking, and I shall document my misadventures here. I ordered some orchid seeds from Thailand for experimentation. I also plan to attempt to tissue culture various rare/expensive plants in my yard. I'm stepping up my game on the plant propagation front.

Cost: $0
Source: Woods in south Florida somewhere

Variegated Gasteraloe Gasteria-Aloe Hybrid

Plant sales are one of my favorite and least favorite times of year. Favorite, because I get to find all kinds of plants I've been desperately wanting, and new ones I didn't even know I wanted yet, too. Least favorite, because I always end up blowing a week's paycheck. On freaking plants.

Mount's Botanical Garden in West Palm Beach, FL happens to be practically walking distance from my house, so I always make it a point to go to the plant sales. This occasion was an orchid sale, most of which is out of my price range, but I was counting on a few oddball vendors showing up. My mission- I had $100 burning a hole in my pocket, and my per-plant limit I set for myself was $10.

Sure enough, I found this overgrown pot of variegated gasteraloe, a variegated gasteria aloe hybrid. It was unlabeled, but a very nice seller on ebay had sent me a little pup as a bonus to some variegated wandering jew and pothos I had bought, so I was able to identify it.

I'll be sure to toss some of these pups on ebay, it's alway fun to try to make back what I spent on the plant.


Cost: $8
Source: Mount's Botanical Garden plant sale

~ NEW BLOG DESIGN!!! ~

In a desperate attempt to get SOMEONE, ANYONE, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF PLANTS, SOMEBODY! to actually view my blog and maybe gain a follower, I'm attempting to dress it up and make it a little prettier. So I made a logo which I'm not 100% satisfied with, but it will do for now. Also began watermarking my photos. I'll hopefully be sprucing up the design a bit more as time permits.

Variegated Ponytail Palm

This was a lucky find- three variegated ponytail palms, overgrown in their tipped-over pot in a mess of bushes at a nursery. The salesman must have not known their value, as we got them for $15. :) It's my understanding that the base will never be bulbous like the regular ponytail palms :( How unfortunate.

Cost: $15 for a pot of 3
Source: plant nursery

6 Kinds of Variegated Wandering Jew (Tradescantia)

Wandering jew is another one of those ultra-common plants that no one seems to like. But being a collector of all things variegated, I was super excited about these variegated ones. I love the ease at which wandering jew is propagated and how fast it grows.

I am also in the process of acquiring a variegated purple queen wandering jew, excited about that. :D Way more excited than someone should be.

Cost: $3-7 each
Source: eBay