We are having a rainy day today and the lawns and gardens say Thank You! My new plants have been outside getting a drink of rain water.
Lefse plant. Actual name is Pilea peperomiodes. I had one of these plants years ago and it died due, I’m sure, to overwatering. Last winter when Reed and I were in Minneapolis at Bachmans, I found a small plant but the price was $49.95! I think this one was $10.
Ficus petiokris
Euphorbia iharanae.
Agave geminiflora
Unknown – no tag. Anyone have an idea?
Pachypodium namaguanum
Euphorbia sakarahaensis
Terrestrial orchid
This is my existing plant that I photographed to ask them the name. It is a Medusa.
I’ve had this plant for at least 15 years.
I wish succulents and cacti all had common names, don’t you? This is my go-to book and not all of these new plants were listed.
It was a great trip to Des Moines. Reed bought different plants but they’re now living at his house of course and I don’t know their names.
The squirrels are at it again – ha!
I like the Little Rock’s you have in your planters. Is that just for aesthetics or is there another reason?
Cheryl – aesthetics mostly but it keeps out debris.
Mmmmmmmm…..LEFSA. The wee plant’s leaves look the same shape as the lefsa my grandma used to make. So good with butter n fine sugar. then rolled to bite into.
You certainly bought a nice variety of succulents, Mary.
Laura – I forgot to explain what lefsa is but you knew! Delicious!
Lovely plants horrible names I can’t pronounce them nor could I spell them
Also I do better with 100% outdoor plants (San Francisco Bay Area of California USA)
Roses
Hollyhocks
Nasturtiums
Belladonna
Avocado
Rosemary
Sweet pea
and a few others that come and go snapdragons, alyssum, freesia pansies
Reading your blog is very educational for me here we don’t move plants indoors in winter we might do things if there is a frost/extremely cold weather put the pants if in pots on the porch or cover with blankets especially our citrus trees
Lemon trees are a very common yard tree we have 3 each a different variety
I hope Reed does well with his plants
The plants may have common names. The one unnamed one looks like a Crown of Thorns relative?? I always liked the hairy Old Man cactus. Just too many plants and not enough time or space. They are so much fun to watch. My geranium was looking sad. Think it had too much rain. It is looking better now. Nice and full. I don’t have a lot of time, energy or space so my plants are down to a minimum. That is alright.
Your new plants look VERY interesting. I’ve got some books on the succulents, too. Lots of very strange looking things. And all to survive.
Betty – succulents are very odd looking plants – that’s probably why I like them!
There is a plant ID app called plantsnap. It’s free. I don’t know if includes succulents.
Connie has it – maybe I’ll install it so I don’t have to keep looking in my book!
I love the scientific or Latin names for plants. I always wanted to learn Latin, and was so excited to learn some when I took a plant ID class. Your plants always look so healthy and loved!
My husband laughed out loud when I told him you were asking about plant names. I’m great on roses, daffodils, and tulips and maybe a few others. Our Guild challenge was to make a quilt that depicted our birth month flower and our birthstone color. I am using a flower panel that was a challenge in 2007 that I had great plans for, but never finished. It’s due tomorrow and I started today!! Pitiful. But, it’s ready for the binding and very small so I’ll make it. The problem was I couldn’t remember where I put the fabric. Is there a carnation on it? No clue!! I printed pictures of the grandkids, stitched them in the middle of the flowers and called it Nana’s Garden:) Almost done!! You are amazing to me with what you know about flowers and their names. Awesome!!
My husband and I helped our daughter move to Des Moines four years ago. After the truck was unloaded and returned my husband and I squeaked in a little trip to the botanical gardens before our 5plus hour trip home. Nice. We have friends who have purchased a new home and they are selling a 50 and 25 year old jade plant (tree) at auction. They are amazing. Your plants look so interesting. I just don’t have anywhere to winter them.
Norma – maybe they’d like to donate that 50 yr. old jade to the garden – I can’t imagine how big it must be!
Love all the succulents & their funny names. I have a few, but have 2 euphorbias (cactus) about 6 feet tall. Haven’t been able to get them outside for a few years now!! Bummer.
I’m sure your squirrels were thinking of treats for the goats when they were throwing down leaves & such!! 🐐 😉
I had a couple of those plants myself. Crown of Thorns is what I called your Euphorbia sakarahaensis and I was told the Euphorbia ihananae was called Temple Plant. You have a lovely collection.
The Des Moines Botanical Garden is definitely not to be missed. It was often the highligh of my trips to the AQS show. Now I’ll miss both. The garden is worth a trip on its own, though. If you’ve never been, you really are missing something beautiful. Go in October when they decorate for fall and Halloween.
There is still a very nice quilt show…at least I loved it before AQS came to town.
I believe the unnamed plant is a sweetheart ivy. I had one many many years ago.
Julie – thank you! I will do some research on that – my plant has a large bulb (caudex) at the base – did yours?
I love all these cacti ~ one of the first things I bought for my house was a huge cactus plant, from Walmart. It was 3-foot tall and $10, figured I wouldn’t be out much if it croaked. From 1985-2012, not only did it survive but it produced many, many off-spring which I sold at garage sales. When I had to leave my home, it was the only plant I couldn’t find a home for. Who knows, maybe it’s still thriving in the dump.
Ann – cactus are very resilient – too bad you couldn’t find it a new home but when they get sooooo big they are hard to move.
Mary I enjoyed the plant pics! I’m a gardener and love digging in the dirt. I have an app on my phone called “Picture This” and you just take a photo of the plant and it gives you the name in seconds – it is so handy! There is also one called Plant Snap, but I think you have pay for that one. Good luck with your new plant babies!
The squirrels are at it in my back yard, also. My son will be getting married out there on Sept 15, and I told my hubby he may not have to mow, but will have to pick up the leaves from the pin oak!
Wow, Mary! I would love to go to that place, botanical gardens are magic places to me. I have been to the one in Milwakee that somebody mentioned. Enjoyed all the new collection of succulents, mine are still alive, but a squirrel stole one and I couldn’t find it. I think it was the smal leaved donkey’s tail.
Hi Mary! I was cleaning up plants – repotting, dividing, hosing them off and spraying for bugs and while I was cleaning up my philodendron vine, I remembered this post and that I was going to see if the unmarked plant you have Is this one – https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/houseplants/philodendron/caring-for-philodendrons.htm . I had read that post on the run and was planning on taking a pic of mine to see if you thought it was the same. The link is even better lol. While I was working on this, Tom – our youngest son and his 4 year old walked over to our house. Tom asked about the Jade plant we had started when he was younger. While we were talking about it grandson Joey came walking up with a Jade leaf that I had knocked off while washing it. So Tom and I asked him if he would like to plant it to grow a new plant. Joey was so excited. We ended up planting 4 leaves, hopefully at least one of them will ‘take’. I am sure he is at their house now – looking at it and asking when it will be a plant lol. Hopefully I will finish up bringing the houseplants in. I potted up a bunch of pothos – devil’s ivy that I had rooted, for some reason I just can’t toss those trimmings. I also repotted my african violets and potted up the broken leaf cuttings. Last spring I chopped up a dieffenbachia stem into about 15 pieces and it yielded about 12 new plants, so I potted them up as well. I think I have a problem…..
Sherry – my plants are pothos but the plant I have that is unmarked is a succulent with a caudex.
I have the same problem as you – I can grow all those leaves and clippings and honestly these plants become a part time JOB! Do I really want to work this hard on house plants?
Whoa – I missed the caudex! Okay, does it have an ‘interesting caudex – hexagon like? (Yikes, llooonngg web address….thank goodness for copy and paste lol) Or, I googled dioscorea and it brought up a bunch of photos – related to wild yam. the elephantipe must be the hexagonish caudex. With over 600 dioscorea, I imagine there are smooth caudexes? or is it caudexi? lol, as well. Anyway, many of them seem to have heart shaped leaves. Curious, are the leaves thicker?
https://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_ylt=AwrEwVqy96Zb4AsAXrs2nIlQ;_ylu=X3oDMTI0bG83b2ptBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDaW1nBG9pZAM5ZjYzYTYxOTJmOTU4MTE4ZDNjYzdhODNiZjdjMzA0MwRncG9zAzI2NARpdANiaW5n?.origin=&back=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fyhs%2Fsearch%3Fp%3Dsucculent%2Bwith%2Bcaudex%26fr%3Dyhs-prodege-mypoints_beta%26hsimp%3Dyhs-mypoints_beta%26hspart%3Dprodege%26nost%3D1%26tab%3Dorganic%26ri%3D264&w=600&h=900&imgurl=www.terrapin-gardens.com%2Fsucculents%2Fphotos%2Fdioscorea-elephantipes-large-m.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwetmyplants.blogspot.com.au%2F2011%2F03%2Fdioscorea-elephantipes.html&size=113.6KB&name=wet+my+plants%3A+dioscorea+elephantipes&p=succulent+with+caudex&oid=9f63a6192f958118d3cc7a83bf7c3043&fr2=&fr=yhs-prodege-mypoints_beta&tt=wet+my+plants%3A+dioscorea+elephantipes&b=241&ni=360&no=264&ts=&tab=organic&sigr=1264qv31o&sigb=150k4ua32&sigi=12d6ek98q&sigt=1154vj3am&sign=1154vj3am&.crumb=rbYR4nOyhzK&fr=yhs-prodege-mypoints_beta&hsimp=yhs-mypoints_beta&hspart=prodege
Sherry – the leaves are very fine – almost tender, very thin and so is the vine. The caudex is bumpy but I can’t say it’s hexagons – this is a small new start however so I’ll keep looking. I think I’ve come close
Sherry – another question. – do you have all your plants labeled with proper names, etc? I am not very interested in anything but common names however I know that some plant enthusiasts insist on everything being labeled. My unknown start had a broken marker.
Mary – Think about sweet potato vines – those leaves aren’t thick and yam leaves are similar – the yam could be considered a caudex.
I don’t have them labeled, however I do know their names or if I don’t I know the process of finding the name. You see – 45 years ago when I was a senior in high school I took 2 semesters of horticulture classes, and I fell in love with it all, the new life, the smell, the beauty. I still have some of the plants I started in those classes! Jade is a child of my original, Al overwatered and killed my original lol. I was planning to go to college for physical therapy at Luther or U of I – and I changed everything and decided to go to ISU for horticulture. I liked the classes…and I liked partying. And during that summer I had met my future husband and left him at home in Cresco, a 3.5 hour drive at that time, so I spent a lot of time on the road. And while I liked the classes, the plants, the school, during that year I decided I really liked horticulture for a hobby NOT a profession. One of the classes was botanical classification, with lots of research and memorization. (I can’t remember what I walked into a room for but I can still remember some of those names! And now google makes it easier). So at the end of that year I came home and got married lol, went to work in a jewelry store, then a creamery lab, stay at home momma, did daycare, a group home, IBM. And I have never worked in a greenhouse or nursery!
This is a fun conversation! So good to chat with you!!
Sherry – wow! Love your story. I was at ISU 1966-69 but did not get my degree. I’d love to meet your plants sometime – can’t believe you’ve never had a job in your first love of horticulture. Maybe I could bring you some plants?