Saturday, March 16

March Foliage Follow Up: Monstrous Monstera


A few years back, in the summer of 2009, I was working part-time at a local garden center when a fun surprise came in our tropical order from Florida: 8 inch pots of variegated monstera deliciosa! In the 3-1/2 years I've had this plant, it's grown to the point that I'm not sure where I'm going to overwinter it next year.


Mind you, I KNEW how big these guys eventually would get. There are a couple in the rainforest biome at the garden center, and at least one of them has climbed up into the 2nd story canopy. Still, I couldn't resist. In the photo below, I included the couch arm and 3ft wide bookshelf as a reference... and then realized that two of the biggest leaves were cut out of the picture on the right!


On the smaller end of the foliage scale, one of my favorite succulents is Drunkard's Dream, hatiora salicornioides. At certain times of the year, its segments look like beer bottles, and it also shows off sweet little yellow flowers. Mine seems to be more upright than most, but there's still a lot of foliage spilling over the side of my broken birdbath. And it looks cool when backlit:


Last but not least, here's the real reason that I couldn't resist buying oncidium mendenhall 'Hildos' at the orchid sale:  It has cool leaves that are mottled with deep red!


And, like most colorful foliage, they look awesome backlit, too:


And those are the foliage highlights from around these parts today. To see more foliage from around the blogosphere, check out the comments on Pam's March Foliage Follow-Up post!

10 comments:

Alison said...

Great foliage pictures! I love that orchid, it looks like fabric.

Lisa at Greenbow said...

Simply beautiful foliage. That first one is a brute. The second one looks like one I would love to have. I have never heard of it. Cheers.

Unknown said...

Alison, it DOES look like fabric! Like some bold weave for suiting, or something... that makes me happy. :-)

Greenbow Lisa, Cheers indeed! lol. I can try sending you a piece of it this spring if you want. It can't be that hard to propagate since it has all those joints, right?

BernieH said...

That vareigated Monstera is fantastic! They do grow to be quite enormous.

David C. said...

After this winter, and the last 4-5, I think I'd like to move somewhere where I can overwinter such a plant in the ground outside! I forgot about that variegated Monstera.

Unknown said...

Bernie, they are--and they do! I'm secretly hoping that mine lends itself to propagating this year. Some of my friends at the botanical garden want starts of it, and I want an excuse to chop it up a bit!

David, same here! Although I guess that those places probably have their own troubles... but being "too warm" sounds good right about now. (We're still dealing with overnights below freezing. Boo.)

Pam/Digging said...

Common names can be so delightful, and Drunkard's Dream is one of those. Too cute - thanks for sharing why it has that name too. Watch out for that first plant. It looks like it might become an Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors at some point.

Nelson said...

You have definitely done a great job growing them; literally means. It is so huge indeed. Also the oncidium mendenhall 'Hildos' has a very cool leaves.

Garden Broad said...

Lol, "monstera" certainly is an apt description! Love that orchid-another to add to my want list :)

Unknown said...

Pam, it's already well on its way!!! *grin*

Thanks, Nelson! I thought that the flowers on 'Hildos' were very cool, but I have to admit. I bought it entirely for the leaves.

Garden Broad, I'll warn you: I was told that it's not all that easy to grow. (Or that it's not that easy to get to rebloom, anyway.) I'm lucky enough to be able to bother orchid experts at my volunteer gig, though, so I'm hoping for the best. :-)

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