Happy Holidays

Aloe barbadensis (vera)

We like an alternative Christmas tree.  Every year, one or two unlucky plants get pulled for ornament duty.  :)

I believe this to be Aloe barbadensis, or some near similar hybrid.  It came to me without a tag.  Its a large, beastly plant, and I have divided out many pups from it over the years in a vain attempt to manage its size.  The normal blooming season for these would be around early Spring, attracting hummingbirds if it was outside.  However, frequently this guy blooms for me in the late fall, soon after it comes inside.  I assume the sudden change from exposure to temperatures of 45 or 50F (7-10C) overnight to constant 68 (20C) makes it think spring has come early.  That scape is nearly 5 feet high (150cm), but that includes the height of the pot. 

In Bloom: Random Orange Stuff

It's Autumn, and we here on the East coast have been enjoying the fall foliage. It is ephemeral, fleeting, beautiful but ever-changing and far too temporary. But believe it or not, with the waning of Autumn color marks an increase in the number of blooming activity at our house, especially orchids, but I've got some other things as well. In honor of Autumn color, here are a few orange selections.

Sophronitis cernua blooming out of season. Supposedly they are Spring bloomers, but this is not the first time I've seen one have other ideas. This species is native to Southeastern Brazil, in warmer and brighter locations than you would typically find the other Sophronitis species. Hence, this one may grow for people that have had trouble with its cool and shady -growing relatives.

This is Clivia x Crytanthiflora, a naturally-occurring hybrid between two species miniata and nobilis. I've shown you this plant before, but I rather like her so you get to see her again. I did a major repotting of most of my clivias (it was kind of like, "when did I get SO MANY!?") this summer, and attempted to repot this one. Note: "Attempted." I couldn't get it out of the pot. When happy, Clivias have a rather aggressive root system consisting of thick, succulent, tentacle-like structures, a style which is consistent with certain other plants of South African origin, such as Strelitzias, and bearing some similarity to the structure of certain beefy orchid roots. I had two options with this plant: Break it out of the pot or leave it be. I wasn't in the frame of mind to crack open a very thick clay pot, and if the root system was that dense I wasn't sure I had an appropriately sized pot for it to go into, so I took option B.

I love aloes, especially the little ones with cool leaves, but this is perhaps my favorite. This is Aloe bellatula. That is a 3 inch clay pot. I divided this plant this spring, selling one division, and keeping this one and one other. I had fully intended to sell another division, but they're just SO CUTE. Give me time, I'll either produce more divisions or will finally reconcile giving up my extra. Its like meeting a litter of kittens...I just want to keep them all. Anyway, its easy to grow and a reliable bloomer, though not as prolific a bloomer as some of the little Aloes, it does bloom at least once every year with these adorable bell-shaped orange-peach flowers. I'm not terribly knowledgeable on succulents, but I'll tell you what works for me. I keep the plant with my intermediate-growing cattleyas, meaning it lives in my unheated basement during the Winter and gets watered a lot less than during the Summer, but does still get watered a least a little bit every 2-3 weeks. In summer it gets watered every 2-3 days, especially when it is very hot and sunny.

2010 ASM Conference in San Diego

I recently attended the ASM conference in San Diego, CA. It was a good conference, I attended several interesting lectures both related and unrelated to my own research, and also enjoyed just being in San Diego in the few off hours I had. My traveling companion and I stayed at the Hilton in the Gaslamp Quarter, which had the lovely advantage of being directly across the street from the center point of the massive conference center, making for easy access. The hotel was, sadly, otherwise rather ordinary and middle-of-the-line at best. If you go, swanky places to stay in the area seem to be the Marriott on the North end of the conference center, the Hard Rock hotel (which you can see in the photo), and the Embassy Suites.

Incidentally, we could see the terrace of the Hard Rock hotel from our room in the Hilton, and on Sunday night they had a raucous party up there, complete with loud music, not very talented go-go girls, and grid of these large queen sized beds for people to chill out on. Might have been some fire pit action as well. It really looked like fun. Then, while milling around town that afternoon looking for Gluten Free food, we heard that the Gaslamp Quarter used to be a red light district. Don't know if its true, but I fond it amusing, so now I refer to the Hard Rock terrace as "the den of iniquity". (Note to folks of the Hard Rock - I mean that in the nicest/most fun way. :P )

Anyhow, I have lots of photos to share with you, most of them plants.


This is a mall we stumbled across on First Street, I think it was. It had an odd feel, multilevel with haphazard construction sort of jammed between two other buildings. I thought I was walking around in an Escher print. Very fun!


This is, obviously, the Dole cargo ship. It was hanging out in the bay behind the conference center. I wanted to grab a bottle of rum and storm the boat for pineapples, but nobody else seemed interested.


As far as plants go, about the strangest thing I saw were these three very large Platycerium ferns (sorry kids, not sure which, possibly superbum?) hanging on the side of a building. I was totally weirded out by this, since it seems like (a) too bright a spot, (b) too dry a climate, but there they were. There were also a couple smaller ones just by the door.


On the front side of the conference center, near the atrium (or whatever they called that giant, permanent tent-like room), the stairs were decorated with an array of what I think were very nicely grown Aloe ferox.


Some random succulents from the same area. Incidentally, they had whitefly.


Strelitzias were a common sight in the area, along with cycads and palms. This is a very nicely grown Strelitzia nicolai that was on the back (West) terrace of the conference center. I basked in the sun for about an hour one day back there, while watching the birds repeatedly land on the flowers. I assume they were after the copious amount of sap that always seems to be all over strelitzia flowers.


I don't know what this is, but they were lovely. I assume based on the flowers and plant form that they're in the Amaryllis family. Please leave a comment if you know what it is. Note: They were purpleish, not blue, my camera doesn't seem to understand that particular shade. I fixed the color balance as much as I could, but it might still be a little off.

NOTE: This has been identified as Agapanthus africanus by Beverly. Thanks Bev!


As above, I don't know what this tree is, but they seemed popular in the area. Please leave a comment if you can identify it.

I'd like to go back sometime and experience more of the area. The weather was phenomenal, 65 and sunny every day (glad I checked the forecasts before leaving, that's a good 20 degrees F less than MD!!), and it just seemed like a quiet, easy going area. Incidentally, Sammy's Woodfired Pizza, located on Fourth Avenue in the Gaslamp Quarter, has the BEST GLUTEN FREE PIZZA EVER!!! Sammy, when are you opening a shop in the state of Maryland!? I miss you already.

USBG Production Facility Tour

Once again, we took the annual opportunity to visit the US Botanical Gardens production facility this past weekend. They have an open house every spring, and it is a wonderful opportunity to see parts of their collection that you may not otherwise see. You can see photos from last year here.

This year, not as much was in bloom, likely due to the cooler winter, or perhaps much of it had just been moved off-site for use in the conservatory or participation in various plant shows. As always, we were treated to several nobile-type dendrobiums and their lovely bank of Paph. victoria-regina specimens (upper left).

The Dend. loddigesii, one of my favorite dendrobium species (of which there is an increasing number) were in bloom. These are sweetly fragrant, like roses. It is a delightful species to grow and they bloom fairly young. There are variegated clones of this species as well.

They also have a succulent collection with an interesting variety of this & that. There were a number of Euphorbias there I don't remember seeing before, and a few miniature Aloes. Aloes are a new fascination with me. I am especially fond of the miniatures.

Euphorbia horrida var. striata

Aloe humilis

Aloe aristata


And finally, because I think its cool, some liverwort. (Although, The Larry accused me of being weird for taking this photo.)

A trip to the USBG

I did a couple things this weekend. One was to attempt to sell plants at the Old Town Village Marketplace in Fairfax, where a large crowd was anticipated for the Fairfax community fair. It didn't work out very well because the large crowd at the fair didn't know we were in that building. This was another lesson learned in selecting a venue and why I shouldn't do a show last minute - I wore myself out preparing. Oh well. On Nov. 1st I'll be selling again at the DC Craft Mafia show in Bethesda. Come out & see me!

The more exciting news was a trip to US Botanical Gardens adjacent to the Capitol Building to genuflect at the plants. It was a very nice day for it. The NCOS show was this weekend too, but for the first time in years I skipped it, so I can't report on it for you.
In one room they trotted out a number of succulents and put up cards with a list of their traditional uses. As you might expect this display included several aloes with their well known uses. However, some had some interesting details I'd never heard of before. For example, this A. ferox apparently is used to make snuff. ??? Thats a new one by me!

I also took a moment to muse about how a clone name can identify the origin of a plant. This Paph. Transvaal 'Orchid Loft' is a fairly obvious example, in that the original plant must have been owned by Orchid Loft at the time it was awarded.

This Phal. Valentinii 'Harford' is a little more subtle, but anyone familiar with The Little Greenhouse will recognize Harford as their location and a name they use quite frequently with their clones. Incidentally, if you've never been to Little Greenhouse, which is North of Baltimore, make the time to visit the next time you're in the area. It's a charming greenhouse with lots of little goodies tucked away all over the place.

I think I should pick some names to tack to all my plants. I'll have to think about that one.

There were lots of other interesting things there as well. For example, this Globba winitii, which is in the ginger family. I used to have an alba form of this species. They're pretty easy to grow as long as the bulbs don't stay too wet during the winter months.

Finally, I'll leave you with a photo of a nice cactus-mounted Oncidium onustum (a.k.a. Zelenkoa onustum). I don't remember seeing the plant there last time I visited, but that doesn't mean it wasn't there. In any case, its nicely bloomed out!

In bloom: Ctsm. Jumbo Eagle and Aloe 'Dorian Black'

Today I have two plants to show. First up is Ctsm. Jumbo Eagle, which is sanguineum x expansum. It has heavy substance and nice dark color. In person it looks almost black - unfortunately the flash of the camera bleaches it slightly making it look more burgundy. I picked up this cute at a Catoctin Orchid Society auction a couple years back. Oddly, I have a tough time with catasetums and similar. I'm sort of cheap with the fertilizer, which ctsms don't tolerate well. This summer I dumped some used coffee grounds on top of the pot and also made a point to fertilize it a couple times. This was much appreciated as you can see.

Next we have Aloe 'Dorian Black'.
This plant currently has 3 inflorescences in various stages of development. Its a small growing aloe with several tightly packed rosettes in a 5 inch pot. I thought this miniature clone was known for foliage with a brown overlay, but my plant is light green with darker ridges and little white teeth. I assume the color of my plant is a result of light that is too weak. It lives with my cattleyas and doesn't get full sun. But like a good little aloe it blooms a few times per year and has great flower color. If you're interested in succulents but haven't tried aloes, I highly recommend you check them out. They're really great plants and easy to grow.