Conservatory plant sale & a few corners of the new apartment

Saturday was the bi-annual plant sale at the volunteer park conservatory. I've been looking forward to it for months now! We always find such interesting things, and learn so much. The sale is run by volunteers involved with the conservatory, so they love plants. I mean, really love them. If you hold a plant, and stand still, one of them will find you, and tell you all kinds of little juicey things about that plant.

I think I love people who love plants. Even the people who are really obsessed with them.

So, here are some of our finds. The damage form this weekend was pretty bad... The trouble is, Erik and I are both obsessed. We've become enablers! We had 38 plants when we moved in. We lost 3 ranunculus (it was their time). I did a count this morning - 62. That's nearly twice as many. Oops!

This is one we got at the conservatory a while ago, I love how the flowers are developing.


Guess what this is. Go on, guess. It kind of blew my mind, even though I recognized those tell-tale, brighter than life, african violet leaves. Specifically, it's a petrocosmea forrestii, and it makes botanists weak in the knees. I think the guy who sold it to me would have said no if I hadn't seemed to appreciate it, and he may have given it to me for free if I had been able to place the species. It was a very emotional thing for him!

This little guy is so cute! A euphorbia ritchiei. Can't wait for those flowers.

This was Erik's pick. A cycas revoluta, considered to be a living fossil. Their hay-day was between the Cenozoic and Mesozoic eras, and they are threatened today. Plus, it looks kind of like a spiky-buny.


These two made my heart stop a little bit when I found them. They are so small and delicate... but they are also carnivorous. The utricularia livida on the left has traps for small bugs underground. how cool is that?? The pinguicula primuliflora on the right is covered in sticky dew drops, that can capture very tiny gnats. They are both dwarfs, and cannot be over-watered (we basically have them sitting in a dish of water). It turns out they are also a bit of a gateway drug - Erik has been talking about a terrarium with swamp plants, bushy ferns, and a pet frog. Swoon!
I got lots of african violets! They were all $.50-$2. This is rob's grey ghost on the left, and irish laughter on the right, both still very young.

Erik found this bad boy hidden with with the cacti. It's a rhipsalis - I think rhipsalis salicornioides. Dancing bones. The cool thing is, it prefers low light. it may be a cactus, but it can get a sun burn!

Another Rhipsalis we picked up at Lowes while buying paint. Also, the north west corner of our living room! There's still lots of clutter, but there are pockets that are coming together really nicely.

A philodendron pertusum, or swiss cheese plant, for the bedroom.

Another corner I'm loving - the hallway. Erik put in these hat hooks, I love them!

Sewing nook with plants. I don't know why I didn't do this sooner, I love the fabrics and threads with the green growing things, so so much!

Erik's painting hanging in the north east corner of the living room.


This is the North window of our living room - we decided to do plants instead of curtains. Top row, from left to right, a large relative of the african violet I haven't IDed yet, the orchid Terry gave me as a house warming present, a kaffir lime, a pachypodium lamerei, and a bay laurel. Middle row right, 5 types of gesneriad (African Violet family). Bottom, a few cuttings, and my petrocosmea forrestii.
This plant is so cool. I brag about it all f the time, so I thought it was time to take some good pictures of it. It's a gesneriad, which is the larger family that african violets belong too. It has those luscious, luminous, green leaves covered in little hairs. But, unlike african violets, it's HUGE. One of the biggest plants we own. And, it's flowers are at the end of those rad antennae, that just keep growing and growing! We bought it last October, and it was blooming then. It started blooming this April, and I am starting to believe it will really will sustain flowers until next October. It also puts out side shoots that can be cut off, and rooted. We've got two smaller plants going from cuttings now, and Erik's Step-mother took a leaf home with her, she says put out roots as well.