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

Variegated Pothos "Enjoy"

I am far more excited about this than anyone ever should be about a pothos. I like pothos. I don't care how common they are. Here in Florida, pothos turns into a massive vine with leaves easily reaching 2' in diameter. I think they have the quintessential jungle look.

So when I saw this new pothos variegation "Enjoy," on ebay, naturally I felt obligated to purchase it. These are cuttings, so hopefully they root, because I will cry if they don't. Really. I will cry.

Cost: $6
Source: eBay

Crazy Bromeliad Tree: Update

There's so much going on with this tree right now! It's got a massive 2'+ airplant, and hundreds of smaller tillandsia airplants of about 15 different varieties, several of which were collected locally.

Sometimes when you have good karma, the plant fairy rewards you. I had been wanting bromeliads really bad. I bought a lot on ebay of 5 different fancy bromeliads. Then, my boyfriend was driving down the road and saw literally dozens of bromeliads dumped in a garbage collection pile! Solid green ones with beautiful red/orange/pink flowers, green ones with red spots, green with red splashes, green/gray with zebra stripes, etc. I can't believe someone would just throw them away! Many of them are on this tree and the rest are around the yard. I'm not sure if I am mounting them correctly but they haven't seemed to die yet, I just tied them on with string and hope they root. Many have pups already. What a lucky find.

The zig-zag cactus and the variegated monstera were from a plant sale at Mount's Botanical Garden. The ferns, snake plant, and oyster plants were stolen from the neighbor's yard. In the background you can see the rooster version of the dutchman's pipevine, which the caterpillars seem to love. The tree is a massive umbrella tree. Lots going on here.

Variegated Sea Hibiscus

I fell in love with this plant after renting a house that had a massive sea hibiscus forest on the property. They must have been 30 feet tall and the inside was pretty clear of leaves, it looked like the ultimate childhood secret hiding spot for a fort or something. The flowers start yellow and turn to burgundy before shedding, but this one hasn't bloomed yet. I found this variegated one on eBay and had it shipped from Hawaii.

Variegated Rubber Update

Just a quick update on my variegated rubbers. I have 3 of them, 2 from ebay and one from Target plant department. It's about 3 feet now, and the variegation looks awesome. We found a fully grown tree of this by the airport, we are thinking of sneaking over and cutting some branches off for cuttings :)

So many new things to report!

I'm looking back at old posts and realizing I have been neglecting this blog for a while... I have dozens of new plants to post! Lots of goodies and rare plants! Photos soon. :)

Homegrown Pineapple!

This is my second homegrown pineapple! This time I waited for the pineapple to turn golden before harvesting it. The scent alone was intoxicating. This pineapple was small but the most delicious, sweet pineapple I have ever eaten in my life. I replanted the top so now I have quite a few pineapple plants going.

I am in the market for a variegated pineapple! I cannot find one for sale. I want the edible kind, not the ornamental kind... keeping my eyes out!

Gloriosa Lily Finally Bloomed!

I've been trying for almost a year to grow gloriosa lily from tubers from ebay with no luck, and finally a few months ago they sprouted! The vine grows quickly, so every few days I was having to clip the curly ends of the leaves onto things to help them hold on. The first one died after blooming and left behind what appears to be seed pods, but not completely sure yet.

These flowers are dramatically beautiful and were totally worth the wait.