Future Cacti/Succulent Area

This is the heart-shaped section of my yard that is currently pathetic looking but soon will be host to many kinds of aloes, a prickly pear cactus, other assorted cacti and succulents, some pitaya, etc. The large aloe I have had for many years, my chickens recently assaulted it.

Notice the sand. There is virtually no soil in our yard. Welcome to south Florida.

Elephant Ears and Such

I lump all alocasias, philodendrons, etc. together as "elephant ears." Here is a recent collection acquired from the fall plant sale at Mount's Botanical garden, ranging from $4-$20. I haven't figured out where to plant them yet.

I will need to properly I.D. these at some point, but I believe they are African Shield, some sort of variegated alocasia, a monstera deliciousa, and a variegated split-leaf philodendron. I think.
Hoping to propagate a bunch of these at some point.

Christmas Cactus

This plant doesn't excite me much, but Jason wanted it. Purchased in Plant City at a fruit stand. I want to experiment with propagating it.

Dr. Seuss Yucca?

I believe this is some sort of yucca plant. Kinda Dr. Seuss-looking. It is huge and occasionally has large blooms of small white flowers. Jason says he has propagated this via cuttings.

Heliconia

Here is your generic orange heliconia, purchased on sale from Home Depot for $4 a pot. We purchased 2, and it is growing fairly quickly. I am hoping to acquire some more exotic heliconias soon.

Calico Vine

People seem to use the term calico vine and dutchman's pipevine interchangeably, though I believe them to be different plants. This is one we bought for $20 at Butterfly World, awaiting to be planted. It seems to be growing vigorously and tangles itself into everything nearby. It blooms pretty frequently, weird large blooms which I will photograph at some point.

I am currently experimenting with propagation via cuttings, if the cuttings root I will have some available for sale/trade.

Mystery Cactus

This is a very special cactus to me. I have had it since I was probably 16 years old. If anyone could I.D. this for me, I'd appreciate it.

I bought it for $3 in the assorted cactus area at Home Depot. It lived in the tiny pot for years, neglected, before being planted in the ground in Gainesville, Florida, for 4 years while I attended UF. After being planted in the ground, the top part of it sprouted up. It survived neglect and freezing temperatures before being dug up and brought back to West Palm Beach, where it awaits being planted in the new section of the yard devoted to cacti and succulents. I can't believe it is still alive.

Silk Floss Tree

Another new acquisition from the fall plant sale at Mount's Botanical Garden for $20. Looks pretty scraggly right now. Mount's has a huge one with lots of spikes and beautiful pink flowers, what's not to like about it? I hear it is easy to propagate, they said they just cut off a branch and stuck it in the ground.

Variegated Aloe

This is another new acquisition for me, $10 from the fall plant sale at Mount's Botanical Garden. I love aloe, and I love all things variegated, so this was a no-brainer. Can't wait until it starts having pups, I hope to grow a bunch of these and sell/trade the extra pups, looks like that will be a while though.

Gold Tooth Aloe

Aloe is fun, I love growing it and I've never had a problem selling extra pups on ebay for some extra plant money. This gold tooth aloe is a new one for me, and seems to be doing well. I've recently devoted an area of the yard to succulents and cacti so I can grow more. I usually have pups available for sale or trade. :)

Australian Tree Fern

I don't know too much about this other than it lives in a pot in indirect sunlight/shade on the patio. It gets mad if you move it or try to plant it in the soil. That is the extent of my experience with this plant.

Papaya Tree

Another purchased tree from Home Depot for $20. I believe it is grafted. I also have roughly 50 papaya seedlings I am hoping to sell eventually. Big green caterpillars ate all the leaves off this tree, but it bounced right back and is growing well.

Crazy Airplant Tree

I don't know the real name of this tree, we call it an umbrella tree. I have a growing collection of airplants that I add to the tree, including this whopping 2' airplant.

If anyone could identify the dangling wiggly-leafed plant on the trunk, I would love to know what it is. I bought it at the fall plant sale at Mount's Botanical Garden for probably $3. I'm hoping it will attach itself to the tree.

Mystery Airplant Ball

This is a mystery airplant ball, purchased from the plant sale at Mount's Botanical Garden for $18.
It has green airplants with red tips, and purple flowers. Can anyone I.D. this airplant?

Dwarf Buddha Belly Bamboo

This is a dwarf buddha belly bamboo. I think I paid $20-$30ish. We got it at a place I think was called Tropical Bamboo in Loxahatchee. The first few stalks are relatively straight but the new stalks are more "bellied" than the old growth.

This also comes in a variegated variety... wish I had know that before I bought this one. :( I will eventually get the variegated one as well.

Lychee Tree

This is a purchased lychee tree. We got it at Home Depot for $20-$30. It seems to be growing fairly slowly.

Coconut Tree

This is a coconut tree that we started from a sprouted coconut. We get coconuts from the neighbor's tree, and dump cut grass on them and wait for them to sprout. They don't seem to do so well after we plant them for some reason. This one has a lot of brown leaves. :(

Avocado Tree

This is a purchased, grafted avocado tree. I also have several seedlings that I started from seed. We purchased one for about $20-30 at Home Depot hoping the grafted one would fruit faster than the seedlings we started, which reportedly take about 6 years to fruit. The seeds are easy to grow.

Cylindrical Snakeplant

This is cylindrical snakeplant, sanseveria cylindrica. It is supposed to grow with the individual spikes in a sort of fan arrangement, but ours don't follow this rule so well. It is supposed to be invasive, but I think it is neat-looking.

We have a ton of this stuff, and I have extra for sale or trade. I usually sell the smaller offshoots on ebay.

Propagation: Divide the offsets. I have also heard you can plant cuttings, but I have not yet tried this.

Pineapple

This is a 2-year-old pineapple that has never produced a pineapple. We have several of these. They are enormous, 2'-3' across.

I have heard the secret to getting one of these to fruit is to place it in a garbage bag with a ripe apple, and supposedly the ethylene will induce it to fruit. I have not yet tried this, but I intend to at some point.

Propagation: Easy. Cut the top off a pineapple, remove the excess fruit from the plant, and stick in the soil. Getting it to fruit... not so easy.

Way Too Much Rosemary

Sometimes you think it would be a good idea to grow your own herbs. You know, in case you ever need approximately 50 lbs. of fresh rosemary for a recipe. This is what results when you are too successful.

Jason says he has been able to propagate this by cutting off branches and sticking them in the soil with no rooting hormone.

Dwarf Poinciana

I had been wanting a dwarf poinciana for some time after falling in love with the flowers at Mount's Botanical Garden. I purchased this scraggly looking one for $20 at Butterfly World. So far it has produced 2 flowers and 2 seed pods. I am attempting to germinate the seeds. This is the red/orange flower variety, I am eventually hoping to get a pink one as well.

Double Purple Datura

I will take another photo when the flower blooms. It has sinister purple and white flowers on spindly dark stalks. It blooms pretty frequently and after the flower dies you get a neat spiked seed pod, which bursts open and drops lots of seeds. I've been pretty successful at selling the seeds on eBay. I usually have seeds available for sale/trade.

Mystery Orchid, Airplants

Not a great photo, but can anyone I.D. this mystery orchid? It was given to me as a gift, and has bloomed twice. Also some mystery airplants in the pot purchased from the fall plant sale at Mounts Botanical Garden.

I historically kill orchids, so the fact that I have had this one alive for months inspires me to attempt more orchids. I love orchids, but the high price and my high rate of failure with them has discouraged me from trying more. This one gives me hope.

I have it in indirect sunlight, on the patio, and water it whenever I walk past it. Seems to be working.

Rambutan and Longan Seedlings

This is a mish-mosh bucket of stuff that I haven't gotten around to replanting. We bought some rambutan and longan fruit from the asian market, and on a whim I decided to try to plant the seeds. (The other stuff in the pot is an epidendrum orchid and some wandering jew I probably stole off someone's lawn).

I soaked the seeds in warm water outside for 2 days and then planted them. They are a few months old at this point. Several of them sprouted, but a few died. They are currently doing poorly and I am not sure why. The leaves are turning brown at the tips. Any ideas? They are in indirect sunlight. I am going to repot them soon and maybe they will do better with a little more sunlight.

Orchid Vine, Bauhinia Yunnanensis

This vine is my pride and joy, the orchid vine Bauhinia yunnanensis. After seeing these online it took me forever to track a live one down. I can't remember the site where I purchased it :(

It has neat bi-lobed butterfly shaped leaves on delicate-looking thin vines. I'm scared to plant it in the ground until it gets larger. It will eventually have beautiful pink orchid-like flowers.

I am currently experimenting with propagating it via cuttings. Currently I have snipped off one vine, dipped the end in rooting hormone, and placed in very moist soil. The cutting is drying up a bit so I will probably make some sort of greenhouse for it to keep the humidity high until (if?) it roots. Hopefully I will have some cuttings of this available for trade/sale.

Variegated Spider Plant

Here is another very easy plant to grow and propagate. Who doesn't love spider plants?

Ours is in a hanging basket, I also have some in the ground. Ours is happy and flowering small white flowers.

I root the babies and sell them on eBay for a little extra money. Gotta support the habit. I spend a ton of money on plants on eBay so I try to sell plants when I can for extra spending plant money. Want one? :)

Propagation: Easy. It sends out runners with little adorable baby spider plants. Wait for the tiny plant to start producing tiny roots, then snip it off and pot in soil. Alternatively, you can pot them in soil while they are still attached to the runner, then cut after they root. This method allows them to still receive nutrients from the mother plants until established.

Variegated Pothos

This is one of my favorite plants. You see it commonly in its small form in hanging baskets. But once planted, it vines up trees and buildings and the leaves become huge, providing an awesome jungle look to your yard. Some people dislike it and consider it invasive, but I looove the tropical jungle look it provides.

For a while Jason and I disagreed as to whether the tiny vines and the huge-leafed ones were the same plant. But it is! I have been envying the giant one vining up the side of my neighbor's house, when one day driving we saw a ton of it on the side of the road growing up some trees. We pulled over, and ninja-style, quickly hacked as many cuttings as we could and threw them in the trunk.

We merely stuck the pieces in soil, and all of them rooted. Easy.

I'm trying to grow enough of these to cover my entire chicken coop, which is actually a chain-link dog kennel. I also recently found a great source of these- one of my neighbors is a landscaper and has been dumping all kinds of plants onto a vacant lot, so I sneak out there and snip pieces all the time.

I have a ton of rooted cuttings if you are looking for this plant, I am always open to trades :)

Propagation: Simple. Cut a piece, stick in soil. It will root, no rooting hormone necessary.

Amorphophallus titanum, or Titan Arum

I will now take you on a tour of our ever-expanding garden... it's going to take forever to photograph all my plants, hehe.

This is an Amorphophallus titanum (titan arum) tuber (and unidentified weed sprout). My boyfriend, Jason, bought it at the plant sale at Mount's Botanical Garden for $20. The plant itself was about 4 feet tall, and would wilt dramatically and flop over every time it needed watering. It finally bent in half one day and died.

We don't know if it is dead for sure. It rained heavily recently and exposed the tuber in the pot, and it seems viable. Hopefully it will sprout again. If anyone has any experience with these, please comment, I would love to know if we killed it or if it is going to grow again. If it should resurrect itself, I will update the blog. I hate waiting patiently for things to sprout!

The Plant Princess's Reign Begins!

Welcome to my new blog! Follow my adventures into the world of gardening as I attempt to transform a small, depressing urban yard in the middle of the city of West Palm Beach, Florida into an exotic paradise.

The sub-tropical weather here allows an enormous range of plant life, which benefits me as I love tropical and exotic plants! This blog will cover my propagation attempts, acquisition of new plants, urban chicken farming, and much more! Hope you enjoy! :)