The Variegated Thumb

Primarily, the content of the posts on The Variegated Thumb is centered on plants, or at least orbits around the topic of plants.  This post is in a more distant orbit than most of my others.

Pippa (Boxer, left) and Pee-Wee (Boston Terrier, right) posing for the camera

Our dog, Pippa, likes to jump our 4 foot chain link fence.  We have tried keeping surveillance on her while she is outside but she’ll jump the fence so quickly we just can’t keep up with her.  We tried putting her on a chain the backyard, but she just broke it in two.  When we go out of town, Pippa (and Pee-Wee) get to stay with their grandparents.  But sometimes it is inconvenient for the grandparents or they might even be out of town at the same time as we are.  So, it has come time for us to invest in a taller fence that will allow us to keep the dogs without monitoring.

One corner of our yard before the wood fence was put in

The dogs are the impetus for erecting the fence now, but it is also a face-lift project for our backyard that we would have tackled eventually.  We have enjoyed having the open feel of the chain link fence.  We like being able to see beyond the fence and feel like we’re out in the woods when we venture into our yard.  And we enjoy talking with our neighbors.  But the fence will help to make our backyard become more of the comfortable oasis we’ve been trying to create.

The same corner of our yard after the poles were erected

A couple of years ago we built an elevated, tiered corner garden with a fence backing.  Now the corner garden is not highlighted by the fence since we will have fence around the entire yard, but we have a long list of improvements that will help highlight the corner garden.  Actually we’re planning on expanding the corner garden to run another 15 feet along the back fence (to the right) and meet the redbud tree that we planted last season.  As the overhanging trees fill out, some of our “corner” garden will be part-shade and some will be full-sun.

The same corner after fence has been completed

We have now completed 2/3 of our fence.  The side that remains to be built is at your back in pictures above.  We’ll be tackling that portion this weekend.

For the most part, our yard is the same, we just installed the wood privacy fence inside of the chain link fence on the back of our yard and one of the sides.  We removed the chain link on the other side because our neighbor went in on the fence with us.

Corner of our house prior to privacy fence. Notice how the chain link fence was even with the back wall of our house (left side of the picture).

We also extended the fence along one side of our house, enclosing the side windows in our backyard for a little more privacy.  This has given the pups some more room to run and explore in the shade of our house.  The fence runs about 30′ along the side of our house now, so that our side yard is now connected to the backyard instead of the front yard.

Corner of our house with fence wrapping around side of house. There is an extra 6' by 30' run enclosed by the wood fence that was previously part of our front yard.

We have been spending lots of time out in our yard already this summer - mainly working on the fence, but also discussing our future plans.  I will post some of my sketches and ideas a little later this month.

I have been hesitant to write on my plant blog about my bad experiences or flat out failures in raising plants.  I felt that someone who has a plant blog needs to appear to know what they are doing.  But I guess we are all experimenting and I don’t think PETP (People for the Ethical Treatment of Plants) will come after me if I share some of my more trying moments with my friend, Kingdom Plantae.

I live in zone 7A.  This region can get pretty cold during the winter – dropping to around 0 degrees Fahrenheit on occasion.  Needless to say, tropical plants must be brought indoors.  Unfortunately, I don’t (yet) have a greenhouse and my house is not well-suited to keeping hoards of plants over the winter.  My window space is limited and I have some beautiful large trees in my yard which pretty effectively scatter a lot of sunlight before it can make it in the window.  So, I’m limited on where I can put plants in the house over the winter.  It’s a bit of a struggle to keep everything alive until it gets warm again and I can put all my plants back out for some fresh air, circulation, real rain and warm sunshine.  I really should experiment with artificial lighting, but I only this year put most of my plants in one concentrated place where this would be effective.

Anyway, in this little house of mine, live myself, my wife, 2 aquariums with plants and fish, approximately a hundred plants – and 2 dogs.  Those last 2 inhabitants add yet another restriction to where I can place my plants indoors (and outside as well).

I was reading a blog post about Zamioculcas zamiifolia today at Plants are the Strangest People.  [PATSP is an excellent and entertaining blog, so you should check it out.]  In the post, the writer says that ‘ZZ plants’ rarely do anything and they don’t require any grooming since dead leaves are so rare.  I was just thinking about how this plant is nearly indestructible – and yet, I have a couple of dead leaves on my plant.  I felt kind of embarrassed at first, thinking I might be the only person in history who has had trouble keeping a ‘ZZ plant’ – although I’m sure that’s not true.  Then I remembered why my ‘ZZ plant’ has its brown leaves.

And that, my friends, leads us to “the Pee-Wee effect.”  My two canine daughters are a 70ish pound Boxer named Pippa and a 15ish pound Boston Terrier named Pee-Wee.

Pippa and Pee-Wee playing when Pee-Wee was a newborn puppy

Both of our pups been known to chomp a leaf from time to time, but Pippa is usually more trust-worthy than the younger, hyper and erratic Pee-Wee.  My wife and I affectionately refer to Pee-Wee as “the pig” [really it is affection], because of her little round, pink belly and her common snorting noises.  Most of Pippa’s attacks came when she was younger and less mature.

My ZZ plant’s browning leaves were most likely brought on by an assault by Pee-Wee.  There are some little perforations in the affected leaves that could only have been made by the little pig.  If it had been Pippa, there wouldn’t be a plant left.  She destroys all evidence.

Anyway, the “effect” of Pee-Wee’s random plant chewing is almost always that I lose the affected leaves.  I usually don’t do anything after she has messed with one of my plants, hoping that the plant will remain healthy and just have some new features.  I probably should just immediately snip off the affected leaves, though.

Pippa in front of the Christmas tree

Pee-Wee driving the boat

Pee-Wee pretending to be incapable of any wrongdoing

Other plants that Pee-Wee has attacked include my Aglaonema ‘Maria’, a bromeliad, a pineapple plant (which is also a bromeliad), a coconut palm, and a gerbera daisy.  She actually managed to eat the bromeliad and pineapple plant, but she only damaged a couple of leaves on the other plants.  This summer, the pig ripped a leaf (with attached stem) off of my Monstera deliciosa ‘Borsigiana’ and left it lying on the back porch.  I stuck the leaf in water (about 4 inches across with a 10 inch stem) and was surprised to see two fleshy roots appear within a week or so.  So, in one case (and one case only) Pee-Wee has actually helped me propagate a plant.

This year, I have managed to move all plants out of their reach.  I built a small shelf in the extra bathroom in the house where some more plants can get some bright, indirect light.  And I bought a shelf to put in the laundry room, loaded it down with plants and put a baby gate in front of everything on the floor.  The main bathroom in the house, however, has a number of reachable plants on the floor.  So I have to make sure to keep that door closed whenever I leave the house.  Otherwise, I will be sure to come home to some disappointment.

Since my last post I have acquired several new plants, specifically three Aglaonemas. So, this post is going to be about Aglaonemas. As I mentioned in the last post, I have lots of favorite plants, but genus-wide, Aglaonemas are my favorite. They are a very common foliage plant in office buildings, malls, etc. – commonly called “Chinese Evergreen,” “Silver King,” or “Silver Queen.” It is a very low maintenance plant that grows well in a range of lighting conditions and watering. For this reason, many different varieties have been cultivated that have varying silvery variegations. The goal of these cultivars is to create a more showy, unique look, with the same hardiness as the natural occurring species. Here’s what I know about them:Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Liliopsida
SubClass: base monocots
Order: Alismatales
SubOrder:
Family: Araceae
SubFamily: Aroideae
Tribe: Aglaonemateae

I have compiled a list (nomenclature) with as many different species and cultivars as I could find.

Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Liliopsida
SubClass: base monocots
Order: Alismatales
SubOrder:
Family: Araceae
SubFamily: Aroideae
Tribe: Aglaonemateae

Two of the species I found recently were of average size plants (about 8 inches tall) – of species that I had not seen before.

My third find was another A. species I had not seen before(below), but this one was monstrous - and blooming! Aglaonemas are not known for their inflorescence (bloomage), so I was surprised to see fairly elegant, simple white blooms on this plant that closely resemble a peace lily (spathiphyllum). I have not been able to get a proper species identification on this one yet.

A couple of my Anubias plants have also produced nice blooms in my 29 gallon planted aquarium, that resemble the bloom of a peace lily.
Back to my new species of Aglaonemas… I have another new species (below) without an id. It looks a bit like a variety of A. pictum. The leaves have three shades of green and the plant appears much darker than most Aglaonema species, due to its lack of silver coloring.

My other new Aglaonema (below) is also unidentified. It has fairly large leaves that are predominantly silver, with two shades of green.

And here are some pictures of my other Aglaonemas:

A. commutatum (above): This was my first Aglaonema, given to me by my mom. It grows on a long, spindly stalk, much less like a rosette, compared with my others. It was in a jar of water for a long period of time (at least a year) rooting, before it was planted and given to me.

A. ‘B.J. Freeman’(above): This one is a very large cultivar and has survived an attack by Pippa, my dog. She ate several of the large leaves, leaving behind the spines. It had a rough time for a couple weeks after that, but has recovered pretty nicely.

A. minima: This plant (above) is claimed to be an Aglaonema. I’m not sure that it is; I’m not sure that it isn’t. I am sure that it doesn’t look much like the pictures of the plant before I ordered it (above-top)! I have 5 of these living in my 29 gallon aquarium, where their leaves turn yellow and mushy quite often, but are replaced by new growth.


A. ‘Maria’ (above): Last is my favorite - Maria. It seems to be the most striking of all Aglaonema I have seen. And it does help that this is my fullest Aglaonema.

As far as I know, there are about 20 naturally-occurring legitimate species and probably around 150 cultivars. Some of them are so similar that I don’t know how they can be correctly identified. Just in case anyone is interested, I like to post pictures of my unidentifiables plants to the “Name that plant” forum (http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/namegal/). There are lots of knowledgeable people who regularly check the forum and identify plants for people. Most Aglaonemas have cool silvery splotches of some sorts. But there are a couple that are not very showy, and to me, not very interesting (A. modestum). Some cool Aglaonemas that I don’t have include A. costatum, A. ‘Black Lance’, A. ‘White Lance’, and A. pictum ‘tricolor’.