Growing Succulents Epiphytically

For Agaveville Forum

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Ever wonder why humans are exceptionally intelligent?  My theory is that it's because walking upright gave us the ability to simultaneously carry many things, and deciding what to carry is cognitively challenging.  Correctly discerning what to keep, and what to discard, depends on using more brainpower to process more information.  I collect relevant passages... jettison... here's one that I found on this forum...

Also, I recall reading a post somewhere a few years back written by someone who said he knew DW, and went on to describe how DW had thousands of hybrids, and saved the best, and discarded (believe it or not!) MANY of his "rejects" into a canyon off his property. The story goes, he did this until he caught wind that others were scrounging his castoffs in that canyon, after which he started destroying them instead. - Spination, A couple more new to me hybrids

Recently I separated a bunch of Echeveria rosea seedlings...

I'm pretty sure that most of the larger seedlings have Echeveria gibbiflora as their father.  It was blooming at the same time in the same area as rosea.  Am I going to destroy any of these seedlings?  Nooooooo.  Echeveria rosea is my very favorite Echeveria, so I really want everybody to grow it and/or its hybrids.  I'm going to give all the seedlings away next month at the Village Green Thumbs plant trade.  My friend Scadoxus and I recently created that Facebook group for plant enthusiasts in her area (Culver City) to trade/share/sell plants.  One person's trash is another person's treasure.  

Echeveria rosea is primarily an epiphyte, but I've found that it isn't a drier grower.  It slowly declined  on my tree when I reduced watering from 3x to 2x a week at night during summer.  Echeveria gibbiflora, on the other hand, is not an epiphyte but it is a drier grower, so the seedlings on my tree had no problem with less frequent watering.  Unfortunately they tended to slowly break their own necks.  Here are a couple exceptions that are starting to spike...

These are more compact than the typical form, all of which broke their necks.  In the photo you can also see an orchid blooming and a dragon fruit blooming.  The dragon fruit is actually growing on the fence.  Here's a pic of the orchid...

Rhynchovola Jimminey Cricket (Brassavola nodosa × Rhyncholaelia digbyana) is a strong grower that blooms more often as it gets more pseudobulbs.  The flowers are pretty big, but they aren't very long-lived... and the color white really doesn't stand out on the tree.  Ideally when an orchid blooms on a tree every hummingbird in the neighborhood should be drawn to it.  

This orchid is definitely a relatively succulent orchid.  But I'd prefer if this thread was primarily about growing non-epiphytic succulents epiphytically.  For example...

Plectranthus spicatus has succulent leaves and does quite well on the tree.  You can see another Plectranthus that's thriving... but it isn't nearly as succulent... I don't know the name of it.  

In Feb 2016 I sowed a bunch of Golden Barrel Cactus (Echinocactus grusonii) seeds together with seeds from Reed Stem Epidendrums.  It turned out that birds really like to eat the cactus seeds.  Fortunately I didn't keep all my eggs in the same basket.  I put a few pots in buckets covered in clear plastic, here's one of them...

If you look closely you can see one reed-stem seedling... it's the only green thing in the pic.  The cactus won this round, maybe because the medium was too big for the tiny orchid seeds.  

I also sowed some of both seeds behind a mounted Platycerium, here's a recent pic...

There are actually quite a few seedlings competing for very limited resources.  Here's another mount that I sowed some of the seeds on....

In this case I think most of the cactus seeds, or seedlings, fell off.  Neither of these mounts were watered frequently enough for the reed-stem seeds to germinate and/or grow.  

Some of the cactus seedlings in pots are much bigger than the mounted seedlings.  But it's not like I really have the space for a mature Golden Barrel cactus.  The mounted seedlings won't get very large.... they will essentially be bonsai'd.  Well, in theory!

On Flickr I created a gallery of accidentally epiphytic cactus and here's a gallery of accidentally epiphytic succulents.  Anybody recognize this Aloe?  I'd love to know what it is because it's sure thriving on that tree.  Some of the stems of this Aloe are much longer and thicker than I realized when I first saw the pic.  I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that I only just recently mounted my first Aloe... Aloe bakeri.  

For some reason you can't add your own photos to your own galleries, so I created an album for my photos of accidentally epiphytic plants.  There are a few succulents in it.

Three years ago at the Huntington I took this pic of an Aloe accidentally growing on a big cactus...

Anybody recognize the Aloe?   

Daniel Gledhill, who is very knowledgeable about tree Aloes and runs the Tree Aloe group on Facebook, said that he's seen Aloe thraskii growing epiphytically before.  He also informed me that Thomas Cole's Aloes of Uganda mentions that Aloe lukeana can be found growing on trees.

Why aren't there already the Aloe equivalents of epiphytic cactus?  Maybe it's because Aloe seeds are less likely to end up on trees than cactus seeds.  

Thanks to the Pinoy Epiphyte Addicts group on Facebook, I indirectly learned about a thread created in this forum for Agaves growing epiphytically.  Not sure how I managed to overlook that thread.  I didn't overlook the 2009 thread that Stone Jaguar created in the Growing on the Edge forum for Yucca lacandonica.  A Google search revealed a somewhat blurry picture of Agave mitis growing epiphytically in a cloud forest (Tamaulipas).   All these pics have got me really curious how a nondescript miniature Agave I have would do epiphytically.

A few years back, in the XericWorld forum, I created a thread for the same topic of growing succulents epiphytically.  I, and others, added quite a few pictures and links to the thread... it was really great!  But then one day the entire website was gone.  Evidently the owner decided that it was no longer worth carrying.  It was obviously his prerogative to make that decision, but his decision certainly wasn't informed by my valuation of my threads and other people's threads.  He knew the cost and benefit of the website for himself, but he didn't know the benefit of the website to others.  As a result, his cost/benefit analysis wasn't correct. 

Whether we're talking about a plant forum or an Aloe hybrid, correctly determining the actual worth of something depends on giving everybody the opportunity to share their valuations of it.    

Cedar Tree Epiphytes

[update] If you have trouble seeing any of the photos in this entry try this link to my Google photos album. [/update]

Recently I got thinking about one of my vining epiphytes...

It's on the second mount from the left.  At first I was pretty sure that it was a Dischidia.  My guess was Dischidia acuminata.  But then I became pretty sure that it was a Hoya.  My guess was Hoya micrantha.  I think the reason that I changed my mind was because I saw the flowers.  They looked a lot more like Hoya flowers.  However, they were so small and underwhelming that I didn't bother taking a photo of them.

What's remarkable about this Hoya is how well it does epiphytically.  It does really well.  Really well!   It's definitely a very strong contender for the best epiphytic growing Hoya family plant in Southern California.  I've seen it in several people's collections but nobody ever knows its name.

The other day I decided to inspect the one growing on my Cedar tree...

This one growing on the tree has smaller leaves that are yellow and quite succulent.  During summer I usually water the tree 2x/week at night.  As the temps get cooler I water less frequently.

I inspected the plant more closely but didn't see any flowers.  But I did see this...

It's a seed pod!  Surprise surprise!  The only other of my Hoyas that has produced a seed pod is Hoya serpens.  So far none of my Dischidias has produced a pod.

The other plants in the photo are a bunch of Tillandsia aeranthos volunteers growing on a Nematanthus stem.  Yesterday I was eating some lemon guavas off my tree and I brushed a bit of spider web off of one.  When I looked closer at the web, it was actually the "parachute" of a Tillandsia aeranthos seed, that had just started to germinate.

Also in the photo is Dockrillia teretifolia.  I have three different ones on my tree.  They've all had plenty of time to become specimens, but none have done so.  Maybe they want more water?

Finding the seed pod on my Hoya got me extra curious to see what else was happening on my tree.  So I started climbing.  Here's one of the three NOID orchid seedlings that most recently germinated on my tree...

Here's a pic that I took last year of one of the other NOID seedlings...

All three seedlings are growing next to the roots of a Vanda tricolor/suavis.  The seedlings have been growing soooooo slow.  It's like they are trying to kill me with suspense.

The previous batch of seedlings that germinated on my tree all turned out to be Laelia anceps.  There are around half a dozen on the tree... ranging from super small to blooming size.  I thought the largest seedling would bloom for the first time this year... but nope.  It's been around 6 years since they germinated.  Sheesh.  Here's an album with some pics.

Speaking of super slow seedlings... at the top of this NOID Sedum there was a succulent seedling...

At least I'm pretty sure that it was a seedling.  I was happy to discover that it was still there.  It's been hanging in there for several years.  So I decided to carefully remove it along with a section of the moss that it was growing on.  Here it is with two other small succulents...

Sedum versadense (top) and Sedeveria 'Acultzingo' (right) were also growing on the tree.   The third succulent is the NOID seedling.  Perhaps it's Echeveria nodulosa.  I did sow some seeds of it on my tree a long time ago.

I attached all three succulents to a board with Sphagnum moss on it.  The mount is now hanging in a small section of my garden that I water 3x/week at night during summer.  Hopefully the seedling will respond positively.  As I mentioned in this blog entry, I would like to try and cross Echeveria nodulosa with rosea.

Here's one of the Echeverias that has done really well on the tree...

I'm guessing it's Echeveria minima.  Also in the photo is Columnea Elmer Lorenz, Dischidia formosana, Crassula pruinosa, Sedum rubrotinctum and Cattleya Portia coerulea.

The Echeveria clump is happily growing among the roots of Anthurium schlechtendalii.  If you look closely just below the Echeveria clump you'll see the Anthurium's two very first offshoots.  What's rather surprising is the amount of distance between the offshoots and the root crown.  The angle of the photo makes it hard to tell but the distance is around 2 feet.  Then again, now that I think about it, perhaps they might be seedlings.  Every couple of years or so the Anthurium manages to produce quite a few berries.

One very consistent and productive fruiter is Columnea Elmer Lorenz...

Here are all the fruits that I harvested...

Last month I harvested pretty much the same amount of fruit.  Columnea Elmer Lorenz is the only epiphyte I have that is almost always in bloom.

In order to extract the seeds, I peel the skin and put the fruit into a water bottle that I fill half way with water.  I put the lid on and shake the bottle vigorously to separate the seeds and the fruit.  The seeds will sink to the bottom and the fruity water can be poured off.  Usually there are at least a few unsunken seeds so I'll pour the fruity water into a large bottle.  Once I'm done processing all the epiphyte fruit (ie Anthurium) I'll pour the contents of the large bottle on mounts and in hanging pots/baskets.

This time I decided to drink the Columnea's fruity water.  I knew that the fruit was edible.  Well... I guessed that it was edible.  I remember Kartuz saying that Codonanthe fruit is edible.  Not sure though if he said that all Gesneriad fruit is edible.  Anyways, the Columnea fruit water turned out to be quite bland.

But it got me thinking about how different cultivated corn is from wild corn.  What would the fruit of Gesneriads, Rhipsalis or Anthuriums look and taste like after a 1000 years of selection?

I climbed a little higher on the tree and took a photo of the roots of this Cattleya Portia coerulea...

The roots are covered in moss.  Unfortunately this moss doesn't really escape onto the bark.  I super wish that I could find a moss that would be happy to grow directly on the bark.  It would help capture and germinate all sorts of seeds and spore.

Here's a photo of the shady side of the Anthurium schlechtendalii's root ball...

The plants in this photo include Columnea Elmer Lorenz, Dischidia formosana, Anthurium NOID seedling, Polypodium aureum, Crassula marginalis minuta (?) and an Aeonium that grew from seed that I sowed on the tree.

The Anthurium seedling grew from a seed that I received from Loran Whitelock during a tour of his place.  He had a decent sized Anthurium growing in the ground that had quite a few ripe berries on it.  I asked if I could have some and he said sure.  After I got home I sowed them on the tree.  This seedling and a bigger one higher up on the tree are the result.  Unfortunately, I don't remember taking a photo of the mother Anthurium.  But I'm guessing that it's something that has been referred to as  Anthurium 'whitelockii'.  This page has a picture of a mature plant.  What's rather tricky is that PalmBob and a few other sources indicate that the name has been changed to Anthurium faustomirandae.  From my perspective though the size and orientation of the leaves are quite different.  Plus, the leaves of Whitelock's plant are much more glaucous.

A few years back Dylan Hannon sold an Anthurium on eBay that was very similar to Whitelock's.  Here was the description that he gave...

Anthurium sp. Tomellin Canyon, Oaxaca, Mexico. This is a dramatic species that slowly grows to about 3ft across and not quite as tall. Leaves are strikingly blue-glaucous, very tough and heavy. Spadix and spathe are maroon. Fruits take well over two years to mature. This is an excellent outdoor plant in Southern California and has been around a while since its introduction by the late Loran Whitelock. It goes under a few names but I am not sure any of them are correct and it could still be an undescribed (new) species. Sale item (2nd photo) is a young seedling.

Let's set this mystery aside for a bit and continue climbing the tree...

Not sure if this succulent is a Sedeveria (Sedum x Echeveria) or a Graptoveria (Graptopetalum x Echeveria).  Maybe it's Graptosedum (Graptopetalum x Sedum) Alpenglow?  Whatever it is, it can get a nice bronzy/burgundy color and does really great on the tree.  It grows super easy from leaf cuttings.  I just break some leaves off and place them wherever I want this succulent to grow.  Evidently I wanted it to grow here among the roots of Cymbidium madidum.  For some context, here's a picture that I took last year...

The other orchid blooming in this photo is Cymbidium aloifolium.  On the shady side of this orchid is a really neat trailing fern...

Lemmaphyllum microphyllum is an epiphyte and lithophyte from Japan.  It's perfectly happy with our temps here in SoCal.  It can handle drying out, especially during the winter, but it does appreciate a decent amount of moisture when it's warm.  Like the rest of the plants on the tree, this fern receives water 2x/week at night during summer.  However, it's growing on a decent amount of Sphagnum moss.  So far it has not managed to "escape" from the moss.  One of the best escape artists, as far as ferns go, is the somewhat larger trailing epiphytic fern Microgramma vacciniifolia.

Moving up the tree even further I have a big clump of plants all growing with the really excellent fern Aglaomorpha coronans...

In this photo you can see a never-blooming Oncidium sphacelatum, a Codonanthe carnosa (round leaves) that grew from seed sown on the tree, several Echeveria gibbifloras that also grew from seed sown on the tree, and a clump of seed sown/grown Tillandsia aeranthos.

As I mentioned in this entry, the E. gibbiflora seedlings grew really great on my tree... until they reached blooming size.  The very large and heavy rosette would badly bend the trunk and the plant would slowly deteriorate.  There have been a few exceptions.  The E. gibbiflora seedlings in the photo that are growing to the left aren't quite blooming size but the seedling growing to the right is.  It has already bloomed for a couple years but the trunk still hasn't badly bent.  One difference is that this seedling, unlike all the ones that badly bent, has branched.  You can see it a little better from this angle...

There are several different plants in this photo.  At the top is Tillandsia aeranthos (by far my most productive Tillandsia), Crassula sarcocaulis, Sedum rubrotinctum, Oncidium sphacelatum, Aglaomorpha coronans, Echeveria gibbiflora, NOID succulent (Sedeveria?), NOID Sinningia and another clump of Tillandsia aeranthos.

This gibbiflora has actually branched twice and is going to branch again.  Another difference, besides branching, is that the leaves aren't as long and the red outline seems to be more pronounced.  Here's the view from above...

In the upper left hand corner of the pic you can see the second Anthurium seedling that grew from seed that Whitelock let me have.  It is just starting to get the glaucous appearance of mature plants.  Recently I asked my friend if he had Anthurium whitelockii.  He said that he did and he gave me a seedling.  It is between my two seedlings in size, and looks somewhat similar.

If you only saw the Echeveria from this angle you'd really have no idea that it's actually one plant.  Here's a picture that I took last year of the mother plant...

I attached a Dendrobium orchid and a few Tillandsias to the trunk of the Ecehveria.  It's near a Parkinsonia aculeata tree which has grown quite a bit.  As a result, the Echeveria was in too much shade and it started to lean.  Here's a recent pic...

Echeveria gibbiflora fell into the open arms of Kalanchoe beharensis.  It would be wonderful to have a sturdier Echeveria that readily branched.  Then epiphytes could be attached to its branches.  One potential cross with this goal in mind would be to cross Echeveria gibbiflora with Sedum dendroideum ‘Colossus’.  Wow!  But I'm guessing that they wouldn't be compatible though.

In addition to harvesting a bunch of different seeds from the plants growing on my tree, here are some of the plants that I harvested...

Tillandsia mallemontii clump (upper left) grew from seed that I sowed on the tree.  The picture really doesn't do it justice.  It was so full of blooms that I decided to remove the clump to share divisions with members of the Epiphyte Society.  The Tillandsia aeranthos clump (upper right) grew from seed that volunteered on my tree.  It was growing in my way so I decided to remove it to share.  Below the Tillandsias is a cutting of Columnea Elmer Lorenz.  I didn't make the cutting.  Last month I found 3 other cuttings.  I'm guessing that a squirrel or raccoon had made them.  The last plant is an Echeveria gibbiflora seedling that grew from seed that I sowed on the tree.  It was hanging rather precariously.

My tree has so much going on!!!  I probably only documented 5% of it.  Watching the tree is better than watching most TV shows.

Winner Of Epiphyte Grand Prix

Around 6 years ago I started a thread in the PalmTalk.org forum... Epiphyte Grand Prix.  Figured I'd share the contest here as well.

May 2011 I added this bundle of plants to my Cedar tree...

Here's what the bundle included...

• Aeschynanthus hybrid - cutting
• Anthurium scandens (xeric form) - rooted
• Begonia NOID - cutting
• Campyloneurum angustifolium - cutting
• Cissus amazonica - cutting
• Dermatobotrys saundersii - rooted
• Disterigma pentandrum - cutting
• Ficus diversifolia (Variegated) - rooted
• Hatiora rosea - cutting
• Hoya engleriana - cutting
• Impatiens keilii - cutting
• Iresine herbstii - cutting
• Macleania insignis - rooted
• Medinilla sedifolia - cutting
• Pleurothallis palliolata - keiki
• Pleurothallis restrepioides - keiki
• Tillandsia albertiana
• Tillandsia butzii 

Can you guess who the winner is?



Here's a photo of the bundle in 2013...

The Dermatobotrys and Anthurium were the only two survivors from the original bundle.  Then maybe a year, or two, ago... because of the drought, I reduced watering from 3x/week to 2x/week during summer.  The Dermatobotrys crashed and burned.  But the Anthurium didn't even slow down.  Here's a pic that I took yesterday...

The Anthurium would be a bigger specimen but I've shared quite a few cuttings over the years.  The "flowers" are insignificant to say the least, but its berries go from white to a nice light purple.  What's great about this species is that it's a drier grower.  When I ordered it from Black Jungle I specifically requested the xeric form.  I have a few other Anthuriums on my tree (ie coriaceum, schlechtendalii) but they are standing still compared to scandens. 

The scandens beat a few other plants that I added to the bundle, including an Echeveria nodulosa that I added in 2012...

In the 2013 photo, if you look hard enough, you can still see it.  But it never really did that well and slowly diminished away.  This is somewhat surprising since nodulosa can sometimes be found growing epiphytically in its natural habitat.

The Dischidia cleistantha (shingler) did much better.  It wasn't very happy though when I reduced watering to 2x/week.  There are a couple places on the tree where it's still hanging on.  Dischidia milne (bottom of 2013 pic and middle of 2017 pic), on the other hand, didn't have a problem with less frequent watering.  It's more of a drier grower than Dischidia formosana (dangling in 2017 pic), which will die off if dry for too long.  However, formosana is a lot faster than milne.  I'm guessing it's partly because formosana probably grows in a wider range of temperatures.

Jumping back to Echeveria nodulosa... I recently saw this thread that Stan started for his.  Seeing it reminded me that I was really interested in this Echeveria that oldstumpy1 had shared in this 2013 thread...

I shared the photos with John Trager and he said that it looks a bit like a cross between Echeveria rosea and nodulosa.  For some reason I don't run across very many crosses with either.  Here are a few exceptions...

Echeveria corrinea x rosea
Echeveria pulidonis x rosea (flowers)
Echeveria coccina x rosea

In my previous entry I mentioned that I'm currently germinating rosea seeds that were hopefully the result of pollen from Echeveria coccinea and/or gibbiflora.  I wish that nodulosa had been one of the potential fathers!

The goal is to try and find/create an Echeveria that can easily beat Anthurium scandens here in Southern California.  In theory it shouldn't be a mission impossible given that Echeverias are relatively easy to cross.  The time it takes to accomplish this mission depends on the number of crosses tested.  So let's test more crosses! 

Begonia Diamantina

A couple years ago my best Brazilian friend, who I've never met in real life, sent me seeds of a few different plants, including a terrestrial Begonia.  A terrestrial Begonia?  Sometimes I'll say, "If it's not an epiphyte, or a phorophyte, then it's not for me!"  There are certainly some epiphytic Begonias, but they are generally pretty thirsty, which doesn't work so well here in parched Southern California.  What I've discovered is that plenty of drought tolerant terrestrials can actually make pretty decent epiphytes.

Here's a picture of my tree in 2012...

Begonia boliviensis and Echeveria gibbiflora are both terrestrials.  They did well epiphytically... for a while.  Each one has the opposite issue.  The Begonia's pendent form is perfect for growing on a tree, and it's drought tolerant, but it isn't a drier grower.  The Echeveria, on the other hand, is definitely a drier grower.  It grows really fast and quickly develops a trunk, which eventually badly bends and causes the plant's gradual decline and eventual demise.  So its upright form is far from perfect for growing on a tree.  There have been a few rather interesting exceptions.  I'd love to speed up the evolutionary process in order to see its optimal epiphytic form.

There are a few mainly epiphytic Echeverias... such as rosea.  Here's a picture of it from "The Genus Echeveria" (I think) by John Pilbeam...

So nice!!!  Here's a picture of it blooming on my tree in 2012...

It was growing a few other places on the tree as well.  They were fine when I watered 3x/week at night during summer, but weren't so fine when I reduced the frequency to 2x/week.

Echeveria rosea's form is much better than gibbiflora's form for growing on trees, but gibbiflora is a much more drier grower than rosea is.  It would be wonderful to have the best of both worlds!

In a small section of my garden that I water 3x/week I have some happy roseas growing in baskets and on mossy boards.  When two of them bloomed earlier in the year I placed them right next to some blooming gibbifloras and coccineas growing in pots.  I was hoping that the hummingbirds would do all the work of cross-pollinating them.  Recently I sowed the seeds from the roseas and I'm crossing my fingers that some of the seedlings will be better at growing epiphytically here in SoCal.

My Echeveria strategy is the same one that I've planned on using with the Begonias.  I've been on the lookout for drier growing Begonias... so I was really happy that my friend in Brazil sent me some seeds of one.  I used water bottles for pots and put pure pumice in some and a mix of pumice and peat in others.  On top of the medium I put a layer of New Zealand Sphagnum.  I thoroughly watered the pots, sowed the seeds on top of the moss, misted the seeds and put the pots in ziplock bags, which I placed near windows or under lights.  When the seedlings started to get too big for the bags, I gradually opened them in order to slowly acclimate the seedlings.  Then I placed them outside in a somewhat shady area.  I don't think that I lost a single Begonia over the winter.  Here's a pic of the seedlings right before I divided and potted them up (13 Aug 2007)...

They look like nasturtiums!   They were in a decent amount of shade and weren't very drought stressed.  The ferns are all volunteers.  They popped up when the pots were in the bags.  Some might have come up from the Sphagnum, but some might have also come up from the additional epiphytic moss that I added to the pots.  There were also a dozen or so regular Begonias.  I'm not exactly sure where they came from.

Here's a pic of the plants after I unpotted them...

I grouped the plants according to their medium.  Can you guess which group was in pure pumice?  Let's just say that when I potted them up I didn't use pure pumice...

There are around 50 seedlings.  I had already given one to Fernando and another to Scadoxus.  I placed the Begonias in square pots in a sunnier spot that I water once a week during summer.  The Begonias in the water bottle pots went back to their original location.

I'm not exactly sure which species my Begonia is.  My friend said venosa but I don't think that they are.  Then again, they have been growing in a decent amount of shade.  They might look pretty different after getting some direct sun.  I believe that my Begonias are from Chapada Diamantina.  So I searched Flickr for "Diamantina" and created a gallery for the pics of Begonias.  Most of the Begonias look the same but there are a few that look different.  What's a little "tricky" is that there are actually two places in Brazil named "Diamantina".  In the state of Bahia there's a region called Chapada Diamantina and in the state of Minas Gerais there's a city called Diamantina.

According to this article, my Brazilian Begonia might be Begonia umbraculifera.  When I did an image search I found this page with a photo of a Begonia that looks quite similar to mine.  What are some other possibilities?  A few of the Begonias in my Flickr gallery are identified as Begonia grisea.  When I search Google images for Begonia grisea, the fourth image is from an article about Begonia petasitifolia.  It looks very different compared to this Begonia petasitifolia.  If its leaves unfurled would they look like the leaves on my Begonia?

Whatever my Begonia is, so far it seems to be a decent drier grower.  But I doubt that its tall upright form is the best for growing epiphytically.  I definitely plan on trying to cross it with Begonias that have a more suitable form, such as boliviensis.

Echeveria Epiplus Orchid

Without trimmed bush...

With trimmed bush...

Uploaded for: Echeveria gibbiflora

My Echeveria gibbiflora is trying to win the Guinness World Book Record for tallest Echeveria. I'm guessing that it's around 8 years old because it blooms once a year and I counted around 8 bloomings.

A few years ago I attached a small division of Dendrobium discolor x canaliculatum to the Echeveria. So happy together? So how is the weather? Which orchid would you have chosen?

On the left you can see Kalanchoe beharensis epiplus Encyclia cordigera.

This is the first year that I've attached orchids to a few of my Aloes. I'm pretty sure that, out of all the succulents, Aloes have the most potential in terms of hybridizing to create some super awesome hosts for orchids. Right now there are some species and hybrids that are good hosts... but none of them are super awesome hosts. They are either too slow and/or don't have enough suitably sized and accessible branches. If I had to pick the best one it would probably be Aloe tongaensis. It's relatively fast but still not nearly fast enough.  And it's just a bit large for taking to shows.

A little while back I pollinated my Aloe tenuior with pollen from several different tree Aloes.  Aloe tenuior is a relatively fast grower that makes somewhat upright branches.  The branches are on the skinny side though so I tried crossing it with Aloes that have much thicker branches/trunks.  Pods formed and ripened, I sowed the seeds and now I have four seedlings.  From the getgo they looked stouter than tenuior but I couldn't be quite certain that they weren't selfings.  It's been kinda driving me nuts.  Their stoutness might just be a function of somewhat different culture (more sun, more water, fertilizer, etc.) but I'm leaning towards the idea that they are hybrids.  With what though?!  I didn't keep track of which pollen went in which flowers.

This last weekend my friend Michelle and I walked around my front yard comparing one of the seedlings with its potential pollen donors.  We narrowed the list down to these two Aloes...

Aloe dichotoma
Aloe Hercules

Woah!  It would be pretty wild if either of these two Aloes really was the pollen donor!  And normally I wouldn't jump the gun like this but I really want to encourage anybody and everybody to try and reduplicate these crossings in order to provide some evidence for, or against, the possibility of compatibility.  Of course with the main goal being to create/proliferate some super awesome hosts for orchids.

One Echeveria Is Not Like The Others

Reply to: Not Echeveria harmsii?

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I see a lot of different plats on the Google page. Not all are E.harmsii. Some are allied species. Some are hybrids. To which actual picture do you allude?

The only illustration that really matters is that of the original type. - stephenopolis

Like I said, I was referring to the top results for the Google image search. The top results are usually more relevant than the lower results. And they look far more like the original type than the Echeveria in question.

For example, the Echeveria in the photo taken by Palmbob looks just like the illustration of the original type. The Echeveria in question looks completely different. It looks less stout, the leaves don't look fuzzy or show any color...and the flowers are a different color. I grow enough candy corn Echeverias to know that their morphology doesn't change that much when grown in shade instead of sun.

I think this might be karma. I like to give my Platycerium enthusiast friends a hard time by telling them that their dozens of bifurcatum types all look alike. They get flabbergasted and then spend 20 minutes pointing out the differences. When they are done I say that I still don't see it. Now it's just a running joke we have.

A few years ago, my bff was down for the holidays with his young daughter. The three of us went to the shopping mall with my Korean girlfriend. The girl really likes my girlfriend and they were holding hands while walking around. Something caught the girl's eye so she ran ahead to inspect it. It didn't hold her attention for long and she ran over and grabbed some random Asian lady's hand. The youngish Asian lady, who was walking with her boyfriend?, was really surprised that some little white girl was holding her hand. LOL! She stopped walking and said something to the girl. The girl looked up...and it took a few moments for her to realize her mistake. She quickly looked around and spotted the three of us laughing 10 feet behind. I'm pretty sure that I accused my bff of raising his daughter to be rayshist (a bit racist).

If I kissed some random Asian lady...I don't think my girlfriend would believe me if I told her that I thought the lady was her. haha

Do you think you can tell whether a random Asian is Korean, Japanese or Chinese? I'm better than most at telling them apart. But I can tell them apart 100% of the time when they speak.

When I went to the Huntington Gardens this last Monday...in the desert garden I heard Chinese parents saying "Xiaoxin" to their kids. It means "be careful".