The Variegated Thumb

My sister works for a non-profit outreach program here in town.  On Friday we went to a fund-raising dinner and trivia tournament for her group and my sister’s boss (Lynn), who also has a greenhouse, brought me a gift.

Ying Yang Beans from the Phaseolus vulgaris 'Calypso' plant

These are Ying-Yang beans (Phaseolus vulgaris ‘Calypso’).  Lynn was given some Ying-Yang beans when she got her greenhouse and she grew them into plants, which flowered and produced about 10 beans.  She is now passing three of them on to me for good luck.

They are really cool beans.  When she handed them to me I almost felt like I was being invited on a snipe hunt.  I thought, “Oh, this must be the mild hazing that all new greenhouse owners endure.  Surely these beans were painted by someone.”  But they’re not painted; they are authentically half white and black with little dots even.  And as far as I can tell, this is nothing like the fruitless snipe hunts.

These beans grow into small bushes that produce white flowers and eventually some little pods of similarly colored black and white beans that look like ying-yangs.  (see here) These beans have also been called “Anasazi beans” since they are believed to have been a crop of the Anasazi native Americans.  They can be cooked and eaten much like any other bean.  However, as far as I understand, the beans turn solid black when cooked.

I hope to be able to grow some beans of my own and maybe pass them onto to a fellow new greenhouse owner.

My mom purchased two double-flowering Angel Trumpet plants this last Spring and gave the yellow one to me to raise, while she kept the purple.  Each of our plants has produced between 5 and 10 blooms this Summer and seed pods have followed.

Seed pod and blooms on my yellow Datura. Notice how spikey it is.

Originally I was thinking that these Angel Trumpet plants were from the Brugmansia genus, but after looking into how the seeds should be germinated, I realized that our seed pods match the genus Datura.  As far as I can tell, Brugmansias have long seed pods that look like green beans.  Surprisingly the seed pods from my mom’s purple plant and my yellow plant have very different textures, but neither are bean-like pods.  Mine are spikey little balls that look like the “gumballs” produced by Sweet Gum trees.  My mom’s pods are smooth and polished-looking.

Seed pod and bloom on my mom's purple Datura. Notice how smooth this pod is.

After the seeds inside are ready, the pod breaks open and the seeds fall out.  I’m going to try to germinate some of these.  Wish me luck!

My yellow seed pod opening. I had a lot of trouble getting this picture, since it was dark out in my greenhouse when I got home from work yesterday. I really don't like the time change.

For now, I have just been scattering these seeds on the surface of the soil in the same pot.  With the next pod I’m going to be a little more intentional in matching the germination requirements of these seeds.

I imagine most people are thinking “Yeah, yeah - nice seed pods…  Show me the Blooms!“  Okay, here you go.

The stunning yellow Datura

Both of these pictures are from mid to late Summer.  Since then the flowering has trailed off.

The equally stunning purple Datura.

My yellow blooming plant is currently on a top shelf in my greenhouse.  I noticed last night that there were more buds forming on my plant, so I guess even though it lost some leaves over the last couple of weeks, it won’t be going dormant after all.

Zamioculcas zamiifolia is an unusual Aroid that is commonly kept as a housplant.  It has several interesting common names, including ZZ Plant, Aroid Palm, and Succulent Philodendron.  If you’ll remember the old Sesame Street game and were given a line up of Aroids, including the ZZ Plant, I can guarantee everyone would pick the ZZ as the plant that is “not like the others.”

One of my Zamioculcas zamiifolia plants back when Pee-Wee decided to try eating it. (click picture for that story)

And unlike other Aroids, the ZZ plant has a unique method of propagation.  Many plants can be rooted from a single leaf; this is a common method for Begonias and African Violets.  But the ZZ plant doesn’t merely produce roots when a leaf is used for propagation.

I received a ZZ Plant from my Aroid-collecting friend, Russ, about 9 months ago.  Somewhere in the mix, a couple of leaves fell off the plant and I decided to try a propagation technique that I heard was somewhat successful for ZZ plants.  I stuck two of the leaves into the potting soil, right next to the rest of the plant.  I haven’t given the plant any special care whatsoever.  It has been sitting outside in the shade and getting watered with the rest of my plants - weekly or a little more often when it is really hot and dry.

Recently, I was repotting my ZZ plant into a more suitable container when I noticed that one of the leaves had a new stem growing next to it.  I gently removed each of the leaves from the soil to find that both of them had successfully begun to produce new tubers!  I have read that this process can be very slow - often a year or more.  I’m pretty sure mine has not been in the soil for more than 6-8 months and both of them have taken.

Zamioculcas zamiifolia leaf starts

Most Aroids can not be propagated from a single leaf and petiole.  Most Aroids require at least one section of stem (from joint to joint) in order to produce roots and form a new plant.  The ZZ apparently carries all of its reproductive needs within the petiole.  I have had one occasion where I propagated a Monstera from a single leaf and petiole that had been torn off my plant by my Boston Terrier, Pee-Wee.  I haven’t heard of other people propagating Monsteras this way, so I’m not sure how successful this type of propagation normally is.  I just stuck the long petiole in water, not really expecting anything to happen, just enjoying the leaf while it was still green.  The leaf never browned and eventually started forming a thick white root from the base of the petiole.

As a junior in high school I had the privilege of going on a mission trip/choir tour to Costa Rica with my church.  We stayed at a Methodist mission camp there, which was surrounded by pineapple farms.  I had never seen a pineapple grow before, and not even thought about how they might grow.  If you had asked me, I probably would have guessed that they grew on a tree similar to a coconut.  But I would have been wrong.

Pineapples are actually the fruit of a bromeliad (Ananas bracteatus).  You know, bromeliads are those short, spiky plants that tree frogs like to sit in.  Most of them have beautiful blooms of bright red, pink, purple, orange or yellow.

Common Bromeliad plant - photo courtesy flickr member Jofel Tobias

I remember going to the Myriad Gardens in Oklahoma City on a school field trip when I was younger and we were told about the rain forest and about how many bromeliads grow up in the trees (epiphytes) and the center of the plant holds water, where the tree frogs would lay their eggs.  Now that I am a plant and aquarium fanatic I know that bromeliads are the staple plant for terrariums/paludariums/vivariums for people who keep tree frogs.

Bromeliads (in general) are fairly easy to care for.  They prefer humid environments and like to stay wet in the middle but don’t require a lot of light.  You can just check on them every once in a while and pour some water into their center if they have become dry.

Want a free bromeliad?  Well, it’s not entirely free…  If you ever buy a pineapple at the store, save the crown.  You might notice that the crown itself looks a lot like a bromeliad.  It is!

I’m not sure how you normally pick out your pineapples at the store, but if you plan to start a plant from one, you will want to get one with a nice looking top.  (The leaves at the top of the pineapple are the only ones you will see for several months.)

Starting a pineapple bromeliad

The first step is to remove the crown from the pineapple - like so.

Step 1: Lop off top of pineapple, leaving a little bit of fruit attached

Next, cut away ALL of the fruit, even with the bottom of the leaves.  True, you could just do this in one cut, but I usually don’t prepare the pineapple top when I cut the pineapple for eating.  I usually leave some fruit attached to the top for several hours - maybe even a day or two - moving to step 2.  It is important to remove all of the fruit.  The fruit can cause the rest of the pineapple top to rot, if left attached.

Step 2: Carefully remove all fruit from pineapple top, cutting just below the lowest leaves.

Next, peel away several layers of the bottom leaves, exposing the stem.  I would suggest at least 4 layers of leaves all the way around.  You really can’t pull away too many leaves.  Now you will notice some little root starts.  If your pineapple sat for very long before you prepared it, these roots might be as much as a 1/2 - 3/4 of an inch long.  Otherwise, they are probably just little nubs.

Step 3: Peel away several layers of leaves, leaving a bit of stem exposed from the sides and some root nubs showing at the bottom. In this case, the root starts are very small.

Place the crown in a plastic cup or glass.  The remaining leaves should hold the pineapple crown in place.  Fill the cup with water until the exposed stem is in the water, but the leaves are more or less above the water level.  The crown should not be placed in full sun while it is rooting.  I actually stuck mine on top of the refrigerator, which is pretty dark except when the kitchen light is on.  Light is not really necessary at this stage.

About once a week I would replace the water, as it will get stinky if you don’t.  When you’re changing the water, check to see if any of the lower leaves are starting to turn brown and rot.  If so, just peel them away.  This will help prevent the rest of the plant from rotting.  Within a couple of weeks you should see real roots growing to several inches in length.

Roots beginning to form from pineapple base

In some cases, the pineapple might be reluctant to put out many roots while in water.  If yours has been in water for over a month and you have little to no root growth, you might want to go ahead and plant the pineapple head.  However, if roots have not formed and the head has turned mushy, you need to just throw that one away and try again with a new pineapple.

Many bromeliads are planted in peat moss only.  I potted my pineapple plant in a rich potting soil with some vermiculite added in.  I water it about as frequently as my other tropicals and it been happy for about three years, growing long leaves out of the top.

Established pineapple plant with significant new growth

I think it is pretty rare to have a potted pineapple plant produce fruit in temperate climates, but it doesn’t keep me from growing one.  Who knows, maybe one day it will surprise me!

Everyone has been given directions at some point that end with “you can’t miss it!” What a great phrase. What purpose does this phrase serve? It serves only to humiliate you when you drive around the supposed location for hours, not being able to find the sign or obvious building that “could not be missed.”

Well, in the plant world, a similar phrase is often used. A phrase which usually makes me wince. Just like I know that I will be searching for days if someone tells me “you can’t miss it,” I know that I will soon have a dead plant if someone gives me a plant and says “you can’t kill it.” It’s as if some subconscious part of me (much to the dismay of the conscious part of me) takes the exaggerated phrase as a personal challenge. I have unintentionally murdered a number of unkillable plants. It happens.

In the realm of directions, it is easy to notice certain things when you live in a place and are familiar with the layout. Sometimes you notice things simply because you don’t have to focus as much on traffic or road signs when you are used to the area. Other times, visitors notice things to which the average local has never paid attention. I always see my hometown a little differently when coming home from a trip, having visually scoured my surroundings for the last week.

With plants, some species can be tolerant of all sorts of lighting, watering or soil conditions for one owner and something unseen can make the plant all but miserable with another owner.

Yesterday I gave my mom a big pile of moneywort. I’m afraid I might have given her the “you can’t kill it” line before leaving the house. Hopefully the phrase does not plague her. A couple of years ago I was admiring this thick, attractive, low ground cover at my wife’s grandmother’s house. She told me that I could take some pieces and transplant them at my house. She also warned me that it was pretty hardy and could choke out other plants if not weeded back. It has since taken over our corner garden and multiplies faster than bunnies.

I have an interesting relationship with this plant, moneywort. One part of me wants to praise its wonderful attributes of being a shade and sun-loving, dense carpet of ground cover. The other part of me wants to call it an invasive weed. If defining a weed is a matter of meeting a certain number of criteria on a list, moneywort probably qualifies. It grows very fast, chokes out desirable plants, has a small yellow bloom (common for weeds) and is pretty much impossible to remove once it has ever gotten started in a flowerbed. The only thing that keeps me from calling it a weed is the fact that deep down - I like it!

So here’s to moneywort - the unstoppable ground cover that can. It’s sure to take over the world some day, and I guess I won’t be the one to stop it.