New Plant - Myrmecodia tuberosa - Ant Plant

This is one of the new plants I got from my recent mail order - a Myrmecodia tuberosa. The roots make the care of this plant more like an orchid than a succulent. Hopefully I can keep up with the water requirements (I have been only watering my group once a week, maybe twice - the beauty of succulents - I can leave them alone for a bit and they are better for it). I used black cinder at the base of the pot, orchid bark, orchid mix - placed the plant - and topped it off with more orchid bark. I also am keeping it in a spot where it gets plenty of sunlight. Crossed-fingers....

Glazed Work 12/17/2016

I was able to pick up a batch fresh out of the kiln this past Saturday. I haven't had a chance to look over the pieces individually yet, but here is the group. When I get a chance, I'll post individual pictures. The Red 25 glaze came out wonderful again. The Turq, not so much (but still nice). The Buttery Yellows also came out superb!!! It literally is like Christmas every time the kiln is emptied!!!

Some Overdue Trimming

These are supposed to be matching bowls to go with the big salad bowl I made for La's Christmas present - the first one I made was easy. Getting the second one to match was tough - I got it close, but it dried to be smaller than the first. What I did get out of these was a much better feel for trimming to the interior of the piece. These did turn out lighter than the ones I've sent through the glazing firing before. I will not get these through the bisque and glaze process before the year goes out - so it'll be next year before La gets the matching set. I should get the big bowl back from glazing this coming Saturday (whew - just in time for Christmas!!!!)

Unidentified Cactus Cutting

These two were stowaways on the last plant I bought. Not sure what they are - but they got potted in this past Sunday. We'll see what this turns into over the coming months.

Double Jatropha podagrica Inflorescence

This inflorescence just keeps going and going. And the plant is putting out a second. It has actually done this a few times before, so this isn't a rare event. This is just one of those plant you either love or hate. Definitely got hit by the ugly stick while jumping around the evolutionary tree, but that's why I like it!

Euphorbia flanaganii Cuttings

Here's a picture of the potted cuttings. I really hope these set roots and grow. And here's the parent plant. There is a slant to the stalk before it goes upright (see the recent post on this plant) - and I guess as I repotted it the center needed to be pushed to one side of the pot. I'll likely try to repot this plant again in another six months - by then some of the other branches that weren't ready to trim away should be dried. I'll also make a custom pot for it - something to accommodate the stalk lean and still give it room to grow and settle in (possible entry for next year's plant show???).

Giant Varient Huernia zebrina at it Again

Pumping out the six petal flowers again!

Hylocereus coastaricensis Growing Out

It's been a few weeks now since I transferred the just germinated Red Dragon Fruit seedlings from the ziploc bag to the grow out tray. I took these pictures this morning and these plants have started developing the cactus portion. Maybe in a few more weeks the cactus transformation will be complete - stay tuned.

Euphorbia flanaganii Update and Cuttings

Over the past few months I've noticed some growth that looked like they could grow independently of the main plant. I decided to change out the soil I used when I potted the plant up last and go ahead and give the plant a trim. Here's what the plant looks like beneath the soil line. I used the new mix (dry stall, grit, some Black Gold Cactus Mix) to repot. Here's a picture from above to note the current level of growth (for future comparisons). And here are the cuttings I took. One of them definitely has a root, the other two have the structure to readily send out roots. I'll post a follow up with these potted.

More at Nohea Gallery

Noe and I both took lessons of hand building from Rochelle Lum. We saw some of her work at Nohea Gallery this past Saturday. We've seen Rochelle make some of the pinch pots while we were in our classes, and Noe was able to rattle off the different glazes used on the small pieces. But we have only seen one of her larger pieces - a dragon on display at the Hickam Ceramics Shop. These pieces are exceptionally detailed!

Kalanchoe luciae Flower Spike Getting Bigger

Not having raised one of these to flowering before, I don't have first hand knowledge of what the end state of this flower spike looks like. This has just kept growing more and more over the past several weeks. Knowing that the main plant is supposed to die back after the flowering is complete, you'd have a hard time telling that was about to happen anytime soon. This has always been a healthy plant. We'll see as time goes on.

Noe Got Interested in Grafted Cacti

After researching Moon Cactus regarding why they are different colors other than green, Noe has been interested in seeing how they grow as a graft. Her interest in dragon fruit is also driving this. We stopped off at Koolau Farmers on Beretania on Saturday, and we found one she is satisfied with (had to be not yellow and not red, but some combination of the two). As usual, they had a bunch of really other cool stuff. La saw the ceramic wall hanging planters. Now I have direction on what she wants (I guess I've made too many small flower cutting vases). Here are a few pots and some of the other succulents they had. Always a good time at this nursery!

Foodland Farms in Ala Moana

Not that this is breaking news, but you can buy succulents at Foodland Farms at Ala Moana Center. And they had some really cool vases that looked like coconuts. Nice, big fat plants - but most didn't have roots anymore and they seemed to be more for display. You could do a lot of propagating with all the stock they had.

Cool Arrangement and a Look Inside a Broken Succulent Leaf

I was killing time at Home Depot (Iwilei) waiting for traffic to thin out and these things caught my eye. This is the only nursery that I've seen pack a bunch of little semperviviums into a tight space. Makes for a neat display. They had a few of these thick Ice Plants, but the spread on them was larger than the standard plastic pot. That pretty much means some leaves are going to get broken. And here is one of those broken leaves. Same gel interior as your typical Aloe vera and other leaf succulent plants. This makes me want to look at the interior material through a microscope. Definitely a better way to spend time instead of sitting in traffic.

Visit to Kunia Nursery and a Three-Way Cock Fight

We ventured out of the house today to make a trip up North. First stop was Kunia Nursery. This plant gets a bunch of sun all year round and they usually have some vigorous tropicals (that La favors). They also have a large selection of succulents - you just have to look in the nooks and crannies. Here is one of their Agave attenuata. Noe noticed every Aedium obessum on the property. There was another that I didn't take a picture of - its caudex was pretty rotund. Marlon was the same with the Jade Plants - anytime one was in the area, he noticed them. Funny how we tend to gravitate to the things we normally like. A week ago I found a sprout of what I believe to be a sea grape while checking the surf. I was able to grab it and repotted it in the garden. This is what I think the plant will grow into. I'll check tomorrow when I go surfing again. And when I first saw this plant, it set me off on a mission to find one that was smaller. This Euphorbia punicea (Jamaican Poinsetta) entranced me then and the "shaka" leaf pattern and red flowers are still a favorite when we come up here. I'll post a picture of mine, but it hasn't flowered like this yet. And here are several other pictures - Always a fun place to visit! We also continued on to the North Shore to eat some gelato and drink some coffee. The North Shore Marketplace has several of these air sculptures for sale - And this place always has chickens running around - But today was special because we witnessed a three-way rooster battle!!! We came on to a full fledged cock fight and stopped the van to watch - then a third rooster saw the fighting and bolted for a piece of the action - all three continued to beat the crap out of each other only stopping to catch their breath. We finished trip off with a surf check at Puena Point and mahi sandwiches at Kua Aina (Kapolei). What a great day!!!