Your plant collections?

Tarantula24

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jun 26, 2014
Messages
23
Hi,

I was just curious if anyone here has a plant collection. If so, what species of plants do you have?
I do not have a very large collection myself, but it is growing quickly. It is very additicting (much like tarantulas :biggrin:)

I have the following:

Mammillaria sp. cactus (probably M. marksiana)

Mimicry Plant (Pleiospilos nelii)

About 20 cactus seedlings of various species


What do you guys (and girls) have?
 

awiec

Arachnoprince
Joined
Feb 13, 2014
Messages
1,325
I started off with bonsai before I got into tarantulas, I find the two very similar as both just need some weekly feeding and need little interference from me. I have lots of plants but here is what I can think of off the top of my head:
2 Nana (dwarf) Pomegranate Trees
5 Orchids
1 Fukien Tea Tree-One of my favorites, flowers all the time and has a funky shape
3 Boganvallia-Two are magenta flowered pixie and the other is a purple flowered one. The former has bloomed for the past 2 months straight.
1 Hibiscus
1 I cannot recall it what it called exactly, but I think its called fire tongue.
1 Ginko-My first bonsai
Several pepper plants that include ghost, scorpion, tobasco, chilli, habanero. Goal is to keep them around for a while
3 Birds of paradise, all different colors
3 Redwoods: Dawn, Coast and Sequoia
2 Desert Roses
1 Bald Cypress
2 Barbados Cherries
3 Boxwoods
1 Rough Bark Maple
6-8 Rain Trees
1 Venus Fly Trap- who has been with me for a year
1 Azailia

and some other odds and ends, I'm also growing salad greens and a few varieties of tomatos.
 

Cavedweller

Arachnoprince
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Mar 23, 2011
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I don't know a lot about plants but I want to get into them. Living in an apartment limits my gardening ability, but I've got a bunch of succulent cuttings growing on my porch.

A week and a half ago I planted 5 Mimosa pudica seeds from a little kid's kit I picked up from the checkout counter of an electronics store. One of them sprouted right away but the others haven't yet.

Awiec, you got any photos of your bonsai collection? That sounds really cool.
 

edgeofthefreak

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A week and a half ago I planted 5 Mimosa pudica seeds from a little kid's kit I picked up from the checkout counter of an electronics store. One of them sprouted right away but the others haven't yet.
I have those same kits! From DuneCraft, yes? The Mimosa pudica are the craziest! I planted 2 kits worth. They took over 2 months to even sprout, then they grew too fast, and all but one died. I have in an ICU of sorts, lol. From what I gather, they like warmth (not hot), diffused light, plenty of humidity. My balcony goes from desert scorching heat, to sopping wet near zero.... the survivor is inside now, but bringing them in killed 4 out of 5.

For the ones of yours that haven't sprouted yet, put the egg-thingy in the sun, where it gets very warm. Check every day, and remove from sun once you have sprouts. We kind of forgot about one of the eggs, left in the sun for 6 weeks.... and it sprouted. Oddball little plants I tell ya.
 

Tarantula24

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edgeofthefreak,

So the Mimosa pudica are being sprouted in those little egg greenhouses? I'm actually sprouting my cacti from seed in one of those. I've read they are very good for sprouting seeds.
 

edgeofthefreak

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edgeofthefreak,

So the Mimosa pudica are being sprouted in those little egg greenhouses? I'm actually sprouting my cacti from seed in one of those. I've read they are very good for sprouting seeds.
I have those little cacti too...

Moment of shame: Michael's Craft had recently discounted their entire stock of DuneCraft. Each egg was about $1.50. I.... bought them all.
So I have:
Dusty Desert Cacti (5 varieties, not sure how many actually grew, but we have 7 sprouts about 1" high)
Prehistoric Fern (Asparagus sprengeril, which only one grew, but has 4 shoots and is 6" tall)
Fairie's Favorite Flower (Lobella riviera, only one grew and is already huge, about 9" long with around 20-25 flowers)
Pine Tree (Pinus nigra, first one grew about 4" and fell over killing it, second one is about same height and doing better)
Dragon Tree (Dracaena draco, neither of the 2 seeds have sprouted at all, the only real failure of the group)
Pink Polka Dot Splash (Hypoestes phyllostachya, all of these grew, they are pink and the leaves are about 1.5" - one of my favs)
Space Plant (Mimosa pudica, these all the toughest to grow, as they seem to require very specific conditions.... i have 1/7 still growing)
Fly Traps Fiends (Dionaea muscipula, I actually bought the eggs for these, as well as the Carnivorous Plant Collection with Fly Traps, Sundews, and Pitchers.... so far, I have 7 Fly Traps, no sundews or pitchers)

All in all, I'd say these little kits are hilarious to try out, but almost everything grows really slowly. The Fairie Flowers are huge, but the Crabby Joes by my apartment has basket FULL OF THEM, so they can't be very uncommon to buy in garden centers.
 

JohnDapiaoen

Arachnobro
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I'm getting back into carnivorous plants, here's what I have so far:

My pot of Drosera sp.





Dionaea muscipula "King Henry"


Dionaea muscipula "Typical/seed grown"



Dionaea muscipula "B52"


Dionaea muscipula "Akai Ryu"


-JohnD.
 
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Cavedweller

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Messages
1,064
I have those same kits! From DuneCraft, yes? The Mimosa pudica are the craziest! I planted 2 kits worth. They took over 2 months to even sprout, then they grew too fast, and all but one died. I have in an ICU of sorts, lol. From what I gather, they like warmth (not hot), diffused light, plenty of humidity. My balcony goes from desert scorching heat, to sopping wet near zero.... the survivor is inside now, but bringing them in killed 4 out of 5.

For the ones of yours that haven't sprouted yet, put the egg-thingy in the sun, where it gets very warm. Check every day, and remove from sun once you have sprouts. We kind of forgot about one of the eggs, left in the sun for 6 weeks.... and it sprouted. Oddball little plants I tell ya.
Yep, space plants the kit I bought. If these things actually work I might have to try other ones...

I thought they might grow better with more space and better soil so I planted them in leftover deli cups with airholes in the lids and used a mix of old millipede sub and pearlite. I did lots of research and tried the soaking/nicking method before I planted the seeds. I suspect that's why one sprouted so fast. I've got mine in a sunny window, it's in the high 90s every day here and my porch is solid concrete, so I'm not putting those outside. My house is in the mid 70s and that seemed warm enough from my research.

I'm getting back into carnivorous plants, here's what I have so far:
Man sundews are so cool, I've wanted some for a long time but wasn't sure I could keep em alive.
 

edgeofthefreak

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Yep, space plants the kit I bought. If these things actually work I might have to try other ones...

I thought they might grow better with more space and better soil so I planted them in leftover deli cups with airholes in the lids and used a mix of old millipede sub and pearlite. I did lots of research and tried the soaking/nicking method before I planted the seeds. I suspect that's why one sprouted so fast. I've got mine in a sunny window, it's in the high 90s every day here and my porch is solid concrete, so I'm not putting those outside. My house is in the mid 70s and that seemed warm enough from my research.


Man sundews are so cool, I've wanted some for a long time but wasn't sure I could keep em alive.
I hope yours fair better than my first crop did! I'll be repotting my survivor soon, but I want see new growth first. I'd recommend trying other kits, in the event you can get them cheap.
 

JohnDapiaoen

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Man sundews are so cool, I've wanted some for a long time but wasn't sure I could keep em alive.
I'm sure you can ;). The species that I have in my community pot are pretty much bullet proof. Buy a Drosera capensis and I DARE you kill it. Only thing that they need is sunlight, wet/almost waterlogged nutrient POOR media(soil) i.e Peatmoss or Sphagnum Moss and pure water (not from tap). There are some other species that are a bit more tricky to grow though.
As you can see there are a lot of flower stalks shooting up so I'll have free seeds available soon to any who wants to take a crack at growing them.

-JohnD.
 
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Tarantula24

Arachnopeon
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Carnivorous plants are so cool. I've always wanted to try some. Is it true that they require a period of dormancy each winter in a refrigerator? I've read that online and I'm not sure.
 

JohnDapiaoen

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Carnivorous plants are so cool. I've always wanted to try some. Is it true that they require a period of dormancy each winter Ina refrigerator? I've read that online and I'm not sure.
Temperate carnivorous plants do require a dormancy period but there are some tropical plants that grow year round. The venus flytrap is a good example of a Temperate plant.

-JohnD.
 

JohnDapiaoen

Arachnobro
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Does the Drosera capensis require a dormancy period? Their native to Africa right?
Nope they can grow year round but they can go "dormant" if temps drop and have short photo periods, I say "dormant" but in reality this plant dies and comes back to life in the spring lol. I'm growing the mother plant outdoors with my temperate sundews who have a real dormancy but will be doing some leaf cuttings to have some indoor plants for the winter.

and correct they come from the cape of Africa, hence the name.

-JohnD.
 
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awiec

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Joined
Feb 13, 2014
Messages
1,325
I don't know a lot about plants but I want to get into them. Living in an apartment limits my gardening ability, but I've got a bunch of succulent cuttings growing on my porch.

A week and a half ago I planted 5 Mimosa pudica seeds from a little kid's kit I picked up from the checkout counter of an electronics store. One of them sprouted right away but the others haven't yet.

Awiec, you got any photos of your bonsai collection? That sounds really cool.
I can see if I can take pictures this weekend. I've been trying to grow some carnivorous plants from seeds as well so we will see how well that goes. I tried an experiment to see if my venus fly trap needed a long cold snap by keeping it warm for the winter and I only allowed it to get cool for about 2 weeks. It has been doing great thus far so I might just do mini-cold snaps with my venus from now on. I usually toss whatever leftover crickets I have from my Ts into the plant. Also for sundews I fed them gut loaded feeders and fed them a weak solution of plant food about once a month, it seemed to do pretty well until I gave it to a friend who I think killed it.
 

Cavedweller

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I hope yours fair better than my first crop did! I'll be repotting my survivor soon, but I want see new growth first. I'd recommend trying other kits, in the event you can get them cheap.
Thanks! I might have to make a stop by Michaels when I get a coupon. How did yours die by growing too fast? I didn't know that was a thing that could happen, but I don't know that much about plants.

I'm sure you can ;). The species that I have in my community pot are pretty much bullet proof. Buy a Drosera capensis and I DARE you kill it. Only thing that they need is sunlight, wet/almost waterlogged nutrient POOR media(soil) i.e Peatmoss or Sphagnum Moss and pure water (not from tap). There are some other species that are a bit more tricky to grow though.
As you can see there are a lot of flower stalks shooting up so I'll have free seeds available soon to any who wants to take a crack at growing them.
Ooh, I'd be willing to give em a shot! Do they need to be kept under a dome for humidity?

I have a ton of fungus gnats in my house from all the terrariums I got, I've been meaning to get some mexican butterworts to handle that but I have no idea where's the best place to buy them.
 

JohnDapiaoen

Arachnobro
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Ooh, I'd be willing to give em a shot! Do they need to be kept under a dome for humidity?

I have a ton of fungus gnats in my house from all the terrariums I got, I've been meaning to get some mexican butterworts to handle that but I have no idea where's the best place to buy them.
Nope, just keep their soil moist even waterlogged is fine. Planting them is easy too just sprinkle the dust-like seeds over moist peatmoss and wait for sprouts.

I'm planning to get some butterworts too! But I plan to get mine locally.

-JohnD.
 

Galapoheros

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I have pretty many things on the back porch. Sometimes I get cheap stuff at the grocery store! I bought some ginger roots in Spring, the plants are 2 feet tall now. I'm growing turmeric I got at the grocery store, it's where you think it would be if they have it, the veggie section. I also bought some passion fruit, took seeds out and have a few passion vines going from that. I have several Kiwi seedlings going from fruit I bought. I used to buy pineapples, pop the top off and stick the top on top of the dirt, grows another plant. If interested in that I'm sure there are vids on youtube about it. I really want to get those kiwi vines going, I could explode eating those.
 

edgeofthefreak

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Thanks! I might have to make a stop by Michaels when I get a coupon. How did yours die by growing too fast? I didn't know that was a thing that could happen, but I don't know that much about plants.
They shoot up pretty fast, when left in the sun. The egg topper keeps in precious moisture, protects against desiccation, while allowing sunlight to nourish. After about a week of growing, the shoot were touching the egg topper. I took the top off the egg for one day in the sun, almost all leaves were burned off that day. Took them inside, placed them into a huge Exo-terra with artificial lighting and good humidity.... only one survivor.

They can handle direct light and poor watering when they're an older plant. Often seen near construction sites, where there is no competition for water, soil, or sun. But in the growing/sprouting stage, I find them to be much more picky.

Lesson learned, and I still have an egg of "Space Plant" that I'm looking to germinate in the next few weeks. Hopefully they can one day BE the main attraction my Exo-terra!
 

Cavedweller

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I really want to get those kiwi vines going, I could explode eating those.
Ohhh if you have success with that you gotta let us know all about it. I love kiwis!

They shoot up pretty fast, when left in the sun. The egg topper keeps in precious moisture, protects against desiccation, while allowing sunlight to nourish. After about a week of growing, the shoot were touching the egg topper. I took the top off the egg for one day in the sun, almost all leaves were burned off that day. Took them inside, placed them into a huge Exo-terra with artificial lighting and good humidity.... only one survivor.

They can handle direct light and poor watering when they're an older plant. Often seen near construction sites, where there is no competition for water, soil, or sun. But in the growing/sprouting stage, I find them to be much more picky.

Lesson learned, and I still have an egg of "Space Plant" that I'm looking to germinate in the next few weeks. Hopefully they can one day BE the main attraction my Exo-terra!
My shoot got too tall for the deli cup lid real fast so I put an upturned plastic candy tub over the entire cup. It seems to be doing ok with that. I'm a little worried about how to transition it to no humidity lid and at what size I should do that. I've got some really nice flower pots I'd like to move em to when they're bigger.
 
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