LOL Sue! One is Alo mac which I think you said you have and the I think the other is A. Odora. I would have to check the tags.
I don't do anything to my castors unless they bloom very short. These have not been touched.
and it keeps getting bigger
Wow Chele, that castor bean is tall, just one growing season? Amazing. And you should put on some sunscreen dear. You do look great with that color, but "sunscreen"....
((((hugs))))
Molly
I TRIED to hide! The ears just aren't big enough. LOL Thanks Kell (blush!).
As for the tan, there is no amount of sun screen that will keep me from tanning because I am outside almost all day every day. Guess it does not hurt that my grandpa was full blooded indian. :) I get the blonde hair and blue-green eyes from my fathers Euro heinz 57 side. LOL
Vossner, can you over winter sun coleus there? I can send you some perilla, sun coleus, magilla perilla, whatever! Sue is right. The purple is Perilla frutescens. It does have to be watched closely though because it self seeds with a vengence! You have to keep the flowers cut off or spend the next ten years pulling seedlings.
Molly, the little castors I sent you in the 4" cubes were started at the same time as these. They take off once they hit the ground. Largest ones I grew-I stopped measuring at about 12' in September and they didn't get zapped by frost until November. I just couldn't reach them anymore.
Ahhh, Root didn't have his castor bean contest this year. That was such fun to follow!
So this is the Alo mac right? Is it the same as the first image of this post or did I miss its name? This is the one growing by leaps and bounds, its almost scary.
Nope! That is a Xanthosoma. Look at the leaves in Lisa's pic. Her's is an Alo mac. :)
Never mind, just got back in from watering and found the label for the Alo mac you sent me. Man, it will take a while to get all these names right.
It isn't that hard once you look at them all the time. The A. mac stand straight up in the air or straight off the stems. The Xanthosoma almost look like three leaves on one stem, the way the two parts stick off the back with the larger part sticking down.
You might have a lot of fun looking at the pics at agristarts. LOL
Don't let Chele talk you into the Perilla it's quite addicting. lol
We have it everywhere now but it is very well behaved.
I just got a Borneo today from Enid and can already see it's going to be a keeper.
It threw a new leaf in transit! lol
Ric
oooo Tropicman, I just some how noticed what you wrote about TS! LOLOLOLOL!........so, do you think he'd like an EE from the south? I would be more than happy to go bring it to him...LOLOLOLOL! Heck, I'd even part with this one :-)
forgot to say "'chele, you lookin' good gal!" I am so happy to see my baby EE living up north! How cool is that!
LOl, Lisa,TS,said keep an eye for a red sportscar driving by!!!
But then again that would be a long drive from Detroit!!!
He said those EE's On the big island get as big as our trees here!!!!
Chele,If I stood next to you,people think I was casper the friendly ghost!
What a tan!!!
Also this week,the news reported young women under 40 were reporting more cases of skin cancer than ever before.
So it might be a good idea to wear one of those sexy floppy straw hats
women are wearing this summer,with those huge sunglasses,and little bikinis,somebody slap me,here I go dreaming again!!!LOL
Ohh, thanks Chele for that site, I will be saving it and referring to it often.
http://www.agristarts.com/
Wow, Lisa, that looks so healthy. Do you fertilize it "
I have been meaning to ask you: Do you keep a Foxtail Palm outside in your zone? I hauled one back from Key West a few years ago, and haul it in and out of the greenhouse, and now it is big big. I wondered if it would make it outside all year. I think I am in zone 9a, but sometimes it is called 8b - anyway, I seem to have a micro-climate going on in some parts of my back yard cause stuff does not die back like it should!
my castors didn't grow this year=(
ely
I think I have one that is still small enough to get in a priority tube. I forgot it in a 4 inch pot. Want it?
I loved the Agristart site. I LOVED it!! I am really enjoying this thread. You guys are so smart!
Lisa, one of my giant alo's like yours is putting on seed pods, I took a few seeds off and planted in a flat, in about 10 days they ALL came up! so now we know how easy they sprout from seeds I'm gonna try crossing a few kinds.... ;-)
Kyle, did you cross it, or did the bees do that, or are they self pollinating? I have blooms , or I did last week, and will be glad to hang on the the pollen or whatever anybody may need to try to pollinate. I need Suzie to give me a lesson in pollinating ees, with pictures, or drawings like she did brugs!!
Kyle, I wish I would have known who easy they were to sprout..Mine were full of seed pods when summer started. I am sure I'll get more seed pods before December. Can you tell me if you did anything special for the seeds to sprout? All my seeds were these big red musy seeds.
Lisa....great looking ears! When are you coming to the panhandle????
Hey Roz, LTNS. How are things over your way?
(((((((awwww, weeds)))))) so good to hear from you. It has been too long since we've been your way. We were hoping to make it there this year before scallop season closed, but chances are lookin' slim...
You can bet I'll let you know if we venture your way...
Hey, Weeds! Good to hear from you! Lisa, when you go to see Weeds, get off 1-10 at my house - I am not out of the way hardly at all, be glad to finally meet you!
I have some blooms too, and I opened one ( I knew it was not going to be good seeds cause they were green) and there were lots of little undevelped seeds inside. I imagine if I leave it on the stalk, it will rot.
OH my! Hi Lisa! That's huge! I have been searching and looking for one for long time and no luck!!!!! I am not going to give up looking for one!! :o) Nice to see you again!
It was insect pollinated, I tried hybridizing these buggers last year but no luck!, I just squeezed them out of the red seed covers and barely covered them with soil and put in a warm sunny spot, and PRESTO! a flat full of Odoras. :-)
Odoras seem to set seed fairly easily.
I had two pods ripen last year and one is setting now.
Macro and my other alocasia have yet to set any seed.
I've read that wrapping the spathe in damp newspaper and keeping it wet raises the humidity enough to set them too.
Ric
Ric I'll try that on the next flowers. :-)
I just started trying this a few weeks ago.
I've not had any luck yet w/ macro but my Caladiums have a few pods setting seed.
Course that may just be coincidence.
Ric
I have metallica crispa blooming, two plants. Will they make seed? Do I have to pollinate?
Mine have never bloomed so I'm not sure if they're self-fertile.
Here's a link to hand pollinating Aroids.
http://aroidiaresearch.org/infield.htm
Ric
This is really going to sound dumb, but where do you get the pollen? I saw the link about pollinating, and I am planning to try that. If the pollen is above the plant, in the upper part, then my pollen must be already dry, but there are new shoots coming on.
The spadix is the flowering stem inside the spathe.
It is actually covered w/ small flowers.
In monoecious (has both male and female flowers on the same spadix) aroids, the top flowers are male the bottom female.
Unsually the spathe pinches in to divide male from female.
The flowers also usually don't become ripe at the same time.
The male flowers ripen before the females.
This stops the spadix from self pollenating.
You can though save pollen in the freezer or get pollen from a ripe male and transfer it to a ripe female on another spadix.
We usually have two or three spathes on each plant in different stages so I've never tried freezing.
Ric
My cubanese anthrium is starting to bloom again,if anyone is interested in try a cross pollination,let me know,I don't have anything else blooming here that I could pollinate it with.
Here's overall pic of the plant.
Thanks for the info. I am going pollen hunting.
Wow, Lisa!!! Your EE is huge! What great cement leaves it would make!
Tropicman, I've never seen your cubanese anthrium before! That is a neat one to!
:) Donna
Donna I had a woman last fall ask for leaves of these for cement casting,I gave her several, wish I had asked her to make one for me...........I have the article from Garden Gate mag that tells how to do it..will try myself this fall. :-)
Wow that is some nice looking plants and even better looking women. Lisa that thing is taller than me.