rex begonias

I recently discovered rex begonias, a family of begonias known for their amazing and unusual foliage.  I was instantly entranced by them.  They're not easy to grow down here because they love warmth and high humidity so even as a houseplant they often struggle.  But I was determined to give them a try.

It wasn't easy to find them.  I tried three or four different nurseries and most never carried them.  I'd never seen them at my local garden centre either.

My first break came when a nice fellow at the Garden Express forum agreed to send me several leaf cuttings from his begonias.  They're meant to grow readily from leaves but unfortunately they dried out a bit in transit.  Only one's survived so far but I've set it up in a little cup of water so hopefully it'll sprout roots.

But then came another stroke of luck.  My local garden centre had just received several in stock!  So now I'm the proud owner of this little beauty.  I have no idea what the variety name is but the leaves are thick with a fine fuzz on them and hairs along the edges and stems.  I'm hoping the hairs will keep it happy even though my home is hardly humid.  But it hasn't shriveled and died so far so we'll see if it likes its new home on a high shelf where the cats can't get at it.

new kentia palm

I decided to replace the Monster Plant with an indoor palm.  I did a bit of research and decided on a Kentia palm from Lord Howe Island which is meant to be superb for indoor use.  Other palms, such as the majestic palm and the coco palm, I was specifically warned against as making bad houseplants.

I let my wallet win out over my sense and went to the B-store (a large, popular chain of hardware stores I shall not name) for the palm.  But there I was surrounded by majestic palms, coco palms, and Alexandra palms for sale as already huge, advanced specimens as tall as I am.  I finally found just two Kentia palms.  They cost a good third more than all of the others and they were half the size.  Once again I am reminded that when you go to the B-store, you shop at your own risk.  They are not at all interested in selling you the right product for your needs, they are interested in selling as much as possible at maybe, at best, 5% or 10% cheaper than elsewhere.  The "expertise" of their employees is shockingly bad and they are particularly known for selling plants out of season (such as continuing to sell tomato seedlings into the fall, or months before they'll be happy outside).  Only go there if you know exactly what you want and don't need any help, otherwise you'll walk out quite pleased with yourself having bought a majestic palm that will promptly die.

I felt doubly guilty because I ended up buying the pot from a nice garden shop because I didn't like the pots at the B-store ... and their Kentia palms were only $5 more than at the B-store.  And when I got it home and potted it up, I found this.  What you see in this photo is a small, very compact root ball of quite dense clay that was resting in the plastic pot of potting mix.  Thankfully it's not really root bound (when the roots constrict into a too-small pot), but I'm a little worried it'll have trouble spreading out into its new home.  But again, that's what you get when you risk buying something from the B-store.

But enough about that store, look at my lovely palm tree!  It'll keep growing to some height, but slowly enough that it should be with me for years.  I'm very happy with my little palm tree ... and even better, the cats are unimpressed which should mean they leave it well enough alone!

poor monster plant

My only houseplant is a gigantic Monstera deliciosa, also known as the Swiss cheese plant.  I prefer to call it the monster plant because it has absolutely thrived on neglect.  If you're really good at killing houseplants and you want something big, lush, and tropical, get one of these.  The only way to hurt it is to water it too much, which I did the first month or two after I bought it two years ago.  But to give you an idea, when I watered it too much the potting mix grew mold but the monster plant didn't even blink.

However, the monster plant met its nemesis about a month ago.  After generally ignoring it for two years, the cats (mostly Percival) suddenly decided it made an excellent toy and proceeded to shred every leaf that was low enough to grab.  I think he got the idea from attacking the fig tree. 

That's why it's looking sad and wilty in this photo.  The top lucious leaves are what the whole plant used to look like, but the lower leaves are shredded or completely pulled off.  And there's the primary suspect returning to the scene of the crime.

After some consultation on Ozgrow forum, I was advised that they do bounce back from pruning so I cut the better part of three branches off.  They're actually the best parts of the plants, strong and healthy, so I've put them in a bucket of water to see if they'll strike as cuttings to make new plants.  I'll have to give them away as the last thing I need are more monster plants for the cats to shred.  You can see how interested they were in the carnage.

And finally the monster plant got moved to a new home on top of the filing cabinet.  It looks so small and sad now but I'm hoping it'll put out some strong new growth soon.  And though the cats can pretty easily jump up there, I'm hoping they're not dextrous enough to try to bat at the leaves from such a precarious perch.  They're no ballerinas after all.

Oh poor little monster plant, I know you'll survive!