General Interest

Favorite Houseplants

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Someone asked me the other day what my favorite, presently owned plant is.  I honestly don't know.  I imagine most people who have reached the stage where they own over a hundred plants would have a very difficult time answering this question; that's part of the reason why they own over a hundred plants!  I can narrow down my favorites into an only moderately long list, though.  This is in no particular order, other than me thinking about wandering through my house, porches, and office and what's in each of those spaces.

  • Polypodium formosanum 'Cristatum' "E. T. Fern"
    This plant is my favorite fern.  Hands down.  It's surprising, because I don't know that I can categorize other types this broadly - I don't have a definitive favorite cactus, for instance - but ferns are tricky for me to keep properly.  I'm too lazy to provide the proper care requirements (constant watering and higher humidity being the main problems) and while in my care ferns often are either in a state of slow (or quick) decline.  Not E. T. Fern, however!  This plant is the only fern I've ever kept that puts up with my drier conditions and still stays lush.  It is the most easy-going fern I've met, which is lucky, as I've only ever seen the one plant (that I own) for sale so if I killed it I'd be hard pressed to find another.  (I also briefly saw a smaller plant for sale on eBay and my mother snapped it up and when I idly looked again some time later there were no others available.)  It's also a footed fern, which is an aesthetic I really enjoy in a fern, and the fronds are very soft and have a pleasing form.  This is also probably my favorite of all the plants that spend year-round indoors with me.
     
  • Sansevieria masoniana "Whale Fin" or "Mason's Congo"
    My Sansevieria masoniana is the largest plant I own.  It's beautiful in a way I didn't know Sansevieria could be due to the off-putting oversaturation of S. trifasciata laurentii (though I now also have a number of other Sansevieria species that I enjoy aesthetically like S. cylindrica).  I've read that this species typically takes a really long time to send off new leaves; this is completely untrue of my plant.  I have had to cut pots off of mine because it sent off new leaves faster than I'd planned for and warped the pot around its rootball.  Repeatedly.  But there's something pleasing about such a happy houseplant and its mottled, red bordered leaves are really gorgeous.  I love my other Sansevieria, but this is my favorite of the genus.
     
  • Senecio jacobsenii "Trailing Jade"
    I do not get along with actual Crassula ovata jade plants (I know, I know, even black thumbs seem to get along with them) or a lot of other species within the Crassula genus, which is perhaps why I like Senecio jacobsenii so much.  We jive.  I also genuinely aesthetically prefer the trailing habit to the bushy style of Crassula ovata so it feels like I'm extra winning.
     
  • Sedum morganianum "Burro's Tail"
    My affection for this sedum in part stems from the fact that my beautiful, lush plant grew entirely from one small stem segment I picked up off the floor almost ten years ago in a grocery store in Queens and which was given to me for free by the cashier.  Slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly, then all of a sudden quickly, this little stem grew into a truly enviable specimen.  I also have the rarer version that has pointed leaf tips as opposed to rounded ones.  I aesthetically prefer the points, and I also like knowing it's a rarer form because I'm petty that way.
     
  • Selenicereus chrysocardium "Fern Leaf Cactus"
    This plant was also one that I grew out; I bought an unrooted cutting from a man at an antiques store, and it took ages to grow into something attractive.  In fact, it was only this year that it came into its own.  Nevertheless, it finally has and I think it's really lovely.  I have a couple Epiphyllum spp. cacti that occupy a similar visual (and functional) niche, but of the flattened cactus-reverted-to-tropical genre, this is the most spectacular.
     
  • xNeophytum sp. (possibly 'Firecracker')
    I am enamored of this plant.  Its bright red coloration year-round is spectacular and it's relatively easy-going to boot.  I think this is my favorite bromeliad (and I have a number of bromeliads).
     
  • Copiapoa hypogaea
    This is just a very aesthetically appealing little cactus to me.  It also seems to enjoy living with me, which it demonstrates by flowering and not rotting or etoliating or catching any pests or fungal infections.
     
  • Ariocarpus retusus var. furfuraceus
    I haven't owned this plant for overly long, so I suppose I may change my mind, but I'm currently really into it.  I enjoy its form as is, but it's a real stunner when in flower, and unlike some cacti (ahem, Echinopsis subdenudata 'Domino', I'm looking at you), the flowers last long enough to really appreciate them.
     
  • Ibervillea lindheimeri
    This is a lovely caudiciform as it's also a vine, so it grows rapidly yet in a relatively unobstructive way toward light and is therefore probably my most flexible houseplant in terms of indoor positioning.

It's hard to call out only one species of these genera, so the whole genus will have to do:

  • Mammillaria spp.
    While I've rotted out a number of Mamms in my time, we seem to have struck an accord of late and I'm a sucker for silken-haired cacti like M. hahniana or M. plumosa.
     
  • Pachypodium spp.
    Combining the best aesthetic aspects of cacti and palm trees, these plants are like miniature oases in and of themselves.
     
  • Euphorbia spp.
    Despite the toxic sap, I enjoy the alien yet varied forms these plants take on.
     
  • Stapeliad spp.
    I'm actually more reactive to their sap than Euphorbia sap, but I've been getting really into these lately.  I think part of it is that due to my anosmia I feel an affinity for stink flowers since scent never enhances or detracts from my opinion of plants anyway, while another part is that species like Caralluma look so soft and squidgy in the best of ways.
     
  • Gymnocalycium spp.
    Gymnos are so easy that they can be almost overly unchallenging, but man, it's hard to gripe at cacti that regularly flower, don't rot, and don't quickly etoliate.  These were the first cacti I had real success with and are probably to be credited with deepening my interest in keeping cacti early on when I didn't have access to the best light conditions.
     
  • Aloe spp., Gasteria spp., Haworthia spp.
    Honestly, all three of these (and their numerous crosses), hit the same sweet spot for me in terms of care requirements and aesthetics.
     
  • Agave spp.
    To me, these are like aloe with a bit more metal in them.
     
  • Rhipsalis spp.
    Soft cacti that straddle the line between tropical and succulent speak my language.

So there it is.  For someone who has as many plants as I do, that's actually quite a narrowing down!  I left off perfectly good species and genera that I keep and enjoy like Homalomena 'Emerald Gem', Phalaenopsis "Moth Orchids", Aglaonema "Chinese Evergreens", Saintpaulia "African Violets", Paphiopedilum "Lady Slipper Orchids", Echeveria, Tillandsia "Air Plants", Hoya, Philodendron, Ledebouria, Mesembs, Anacampseros, Sempervivum, and so many more (including a ton of cactus species), so don't tell me I didn't winnow.

I can also tell you the plants are on my never-again list: Opuntia spp. and all other glochid-bearing cacti.  I fervently hate glochids.  I will take firm spines or toxic sap any day over hundreds of nearly invisible, easily detached, reverse-barbed stabby hairs.  It's like the difference between bees and wasps - bees are defensive stingers; wasps are aggressive jerks that seek out trouble.  Glochids are the wasps of the cactus world and I will not invite them into my home no matter how aesthetically pleasing the plant that carries them is.

Though they aren't necessarily perma-banned like glochid-bearing cacti, I also tend to avoid Selaginella spp. due to its rabid desire for water, Crassula and Kalanchoe spp. (with a couple tentative exceptions) and annuals due to my own disinterest in plants that die no matter what I do, and larger plants like many Ficus spp. pretty much solely due to my limited and already overtaxed space.  It may also be of note that since one factor in my favorites and not-favorites depends on what thrives for me which changes due to local climate, some plants I enjoyed more in Baton Rouge aren't on the list now that I'm in Leavenworth.  That's the thing about favorites, though - they come and go depending both on historical performance as well as present conditions, and can also be usurped by a relative newcomer who nevertheless outperforms admirably!  So when I make this list again in a few years, it'll be interesting to see what stays, what goes, and what takes the place of the jettisoned.

November Houseplant Blooms

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Here are some of my November blooms!  I've excluded a few from display due to hard-to-photograph-well-for-various-reasons flowers (a couple of my ever blooming Phalaenopsis and Saintpaulia spp.), but there are more than enough that were accessible.  We've got a range of plants here; in order from top to bottom and left to right, they are: Episcia spp., Rhipsalis pilocarpa, Pleiospilos nelii, Mammillaria plumosa, Schlumbergera truncata, Quaqua incarnata, Mammillaria gracilis var. fragilis, Gasteria glomerata, Haworthia spp., and Faucaria tigrina.  I was particularly excited about the Quaqua incarnata blooms, as I've never had a Stapeliad bloom for me before; but I've also never had a Faucaria tigrina flower either and it's the Mammillaria gracilis var. fragilis' first time as well.  Admittedly some of the photos aren't when the flower was in full bloom; I'm quite busy and I'm not always around when they're at their prime.  That'll give me something to look forward to for future blooms, though!

Arilus Cristatus, The Wheel Bug

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Hey, hey, I finally got to see another beneficial insect on my porch right before hauling my plants in for the winter!  This time, it was Arilus cristatus, the wheel bug.  As their ridged back portends, they are a type of assassin bug which in both its larval and adult stages preys upon aphids, caterpillars, and beetles - including my very common fall pest, the stink bug.  If manhandled, they can bite painfully but they are not aggressive and this fellow somewhat unwillingly posed for me for several minutes before flying off when I got the camera lens just a little too close.  As I was planning on bringing in my plants later that afternoon, I was OK with having scared it away temporarily; I don't think it'd be able to survive overwintering in my house.  Hopefully it'll return, though, to guard my sempervivum and sedum which spend the winter outdoors.

Hurricanes, Rogue Waves, Rogue Wave Holes, and the Three Sisters

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Do you ever go on Wikipedia research spirals?  I end up on them all the time.  My most recent lengthy one began with this Yankee Magazine article, "A Fatal Mistake | The Sinking of El Faro," which brought me to the Wikipedia page for SS El Faro, which somehow led to researching rogue waves and rogue wave holes and the MS München as well as the Three Sisters waves and the SS Edmund Fitzgerald amongst other well known incidents.

This was all particularly interesting to me given my prior experience working as an assistant vessel operator in dry bulk shipping.  While steering-into-a-hurricane-leads-to-calamity is an unsurprising notion to me, I was not aware of the phenomenon of rogue waves prior to this research spiral; science itself wasn't really aware either until 1995!  It's amazing and kind of simultaneously exciting and terrifying to me that there is still so much about this world that we don't know or understand.

Halloween Pixelated, Low Resolution Face Paint

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I like to paint my face each Halloween with either an art-related theme or a high skill look (or ideally, both!); I fancy that it shows my students another facet of artistry they may not have considered - and being a good makeup or visual effects artist absolutely involves a lot of the principles and elements of design.

This year, I did a pixelated, low-resolution look.  That's what you get when blowing up raster... and we've been talking about vector vs. raster artwork in Computer Graphics all semester!

Finally, A Beneficial Insect Predator!

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I mean, I love my spider friends, but come on - there are predatory insects, too, and yet I haven't seen one aside from wasps this whole summer around my plants... until now!  Perhaps my favorite one just showed up on my back porch: the praying mantis.  Guard away, comrade.

More Porch Insect Visitors

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While most of the insects I observe in and around my plants are pests, they nonetheless possess a wide range of forms and colors that are always interesting to me.  Here are three of the latest visitors - a spotted cucumber beetle, a white planthopper, and a caterpillar who appears to be ready to turn into a chrysalis after having nommed on my Uncarina roeoesliana.  Speaking of plant visitors and pests, I will shortly be hauling all of my houseplants inside; this migration every fall always includes the accidental transfer of a couple spiders and tens of stink bugs.  I've already transported one stink bug inside when I brought a couple plants in for a particularly cold evening...

Blooming Ariocarpus Retusus var. Furfuraceus

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Check out my gorgeous Ariocarpus retusus var. furfuraceus in flower!  I've only owned this plant for about two and a half months (purchased from the Kansas City Cactus & Succulent Society annual show and sale), but it wasn't already set to bloom when I purchased it so it seems like it enjoys being in my collection, for which I'm thankful as it's a stunning specimen both in and out of bloom.

Guest Artists at USM

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Sorry for the slight gap in posts - it's been a very busy couple of weeks!  I did want to pop in and let you know that tomorrow afternoon is the reception for our latest guest artist, Assistant Professor of Art Hannah March Sanders of Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau.  Hannah is a fiber artist and printmaker often working in collaboration with her husband, and I am very excited about her exhibition!  Here's the press release for her exhibition, if you'd like more details!

I also neglected to highlight our previous guest artist, so I'll do that now as well.  Illinois painter Scott Thomas Arthur exhibited in USM's Goppert Gallery from September 9th through the 30th.  His press release is here.

I met both of these talented artists while in graduate school at LSU, and was very excited when they both agreed to exhibit particularly because both were willing to drive over to Leavenworth and actually be present for the reception as well as guest lecture my Portfolio Seminar class.  This allows students and reception attendees the ability to really connect with the artists and their artwork in a way that they just can't when they only have access to the artwork.

Lex Being Adorable

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My crested gecko Lex's home is a planted vivarium, and I somewhat regularly switch out the plants depending on what thrives, what she likes to interact with, what is available for a good price, and so on.  Quite a few months ago, I put a small Dracaena (I think perhaps Dracaena compacta but I'm not 100% certain) in her tank.  Lex is always suspicious of new tank additions, so while I know she acclimated enough to tolerate being around it some time ago, she's now finally decided it's actually trustworthy and quite comfy to boot; here's a few shots of her latest sleeping position.  Crested geckos are nocturnal so she mostly sleeps during the daytime; they also don't have eyelids so while she looks to be awake in these photos, she is really either fully asleep or drowsily wondering what I'm doing poking a camera lens in her face.

More Houseplant Blooms!

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I know there've been a lot of posts about my plants lately, but that's because they've been so happy!  Here's my Mammillaria bocasana and Uncarina roeoesliana in flower.

Neofinetia Falcata Flowering

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I can't take much of the credit for this, but an orchid I bought recently with partially grown flower buds has fully flowered!  It's a Neofinetia falcata, which is apparently a very popular houseplant in Japan and was originally cultivated as such in the 1600's.  I acquired it on a trip to Bird's Botanicals, a really cool orchid cave in Kansas City.

Summer Beetles

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Speaking of houseplants, since most of mine summer outdoors they get frequented by a lot of insect life.  Many are non-descript, most are difficult to photograph, but occasionally I manage to digitally capture a few!  These two aren't ones gardeners particularly want to see, but hey.  They were there, I was there, my camera was there.  Behold the green june beetle, Cotinis nitida, and the Japanese beetle, Popillia japonica.

Don't Use the Bank of America Travel Center

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I (and several travelers I know) have the Bank of America Travel Rewards credit card, because it has no foreign transaction fees which makes it useful for international travel.  The credit card is associated with the Bank of America Travel Center, which is advertised as providing double reward points on flights purchased through the Travel Center.  I decided to buy my tickets to my art residency this summer at La Maison Verte through the Travel Center to take advantage of the reward points, but when a problem cropped up with part of the flight, Bank of America wouldn't help.  Bank of America acts as a third party between you and the airline (much like reserving a car or hotel through a third-party site like Expedia) and everyone pointed fingers at everyone else when the problem arose that cost me a rather high surcharge to fix.  I've actually had this third party shenaniganery happen before with a site like Expedia (and learned to book car and hotel rentals directly as well), but in that case I was still able to do a credit card chargeback to fix that problem.  In this case, though, because Bank of America is both the vendor and the creditor, they found against my chargeback request as well as my refund request.

The credit card itself is still good for foreign travel, but I won't be using the Bank of America Travel Center to buy plane tickets again.  My recommendation is to buy directly from the airlines.

Houseplant Photos!

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I've been enjoying the end of the summer by spending more time with my plants.  Here are some photos of my flowering plants from the past few weeks!  They are, from left to right and top to bottom: Copiapoa hypogaea, Euphorbia platyclada, Gymnocalycium baldianum, Saintpaulia spp., and Senecio jacobsenii.  Not pictured due to less impressive and difficult to photograph well flowers (but still appreciated!) are several Aloe and Haworthia spp.  Not pictured due to missing the flowering entirely is Echinopsis "Dominos," though it has a second flower bud growing so we may yet get to see it this year!

Global Environmental Problems with Eating Meat

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The Washington Post recently covered this topic with some details I didn't know about before - like Denmark considering a tax on all red meat and the fact that of all the nations studied, the US could reduce its health care budget the most by cutting out American consumption of meat due to our country's ridiculous average diet.  Check it out!

La Maison Verte Travels Part 5

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Day 14 was sunny again!  I took a midday walk around the village to appreciate the weather, and as I was walking by a house, Erica (a transplant-turned-local orginally from Mexico) popped out to tell me about her bikes and how we at La Maison Verte should feel free to use them.  I then decided to pretty much invite myself into her garden to see it as the glimpses from the exterior of it were enticing, and then once in her garden her husband Morgan proffered some wine, and lunch... before I knew it, I'd spent the whole afternoon there, and gotten to sample homemade yogurt and rhubarb crumble (as well as veggies and salad) to boot.  Morgan then told me they were going to go wade around in some flooded road puddles later on and that I should come.  To be honest, it didn't sound that appealing but when in France...  I went.  At first we were supposed to walk but then everyone decided to ride bikes.  I am not great at riding bikes; I have one that I can just about get around on if I'm riding mostly flat streets, but it's a cushy bike that's been measured to my body, and I also haven't ridden on it for a few years now.  The bikes that are here are of random heights, hard seats, narrow wheels, and the terrain is variable.  I was not interested in riding a bike.  I thought I'd just bow out gracefully from the puddle-wading, then, but Morgan decided I would ride sidesaddle on the back of his bike instead.  It was hilariously awkward but moderately functional, so I just went with it.  The flooded road had a series of "puddles" that escalated quickly into pools and then frankly effectively turned into a stream.  We had a good time for a bit, but then the skies opened up and started raining hard.  And lightning followed, which freaked everyone out because we were all in water, surrounded by metal bridges.  So we all raced back.  The rain started to turn into hail, then rain, then hail.  It was a crazy but weirdly enjoyable end to the afternoon.

Day 15 was back to poor weather and I stayed inside working on artwork.

Day 16 Mathilde needed to go to Troyes to pick up some materials for the café she's constructing in the town (which will be the sole shop once it opens next year), so she brought us and Patricia along for the ride.  Troyes has a number of medieval churches, a tool museum that Patricia really likes, and is generally a nice small city.  We went to the biggest church, toured the tool museum, wandered about for a little while, and then all headed back.  I wanted to explore it more so I decided to head back soon.  Then I checked the weather forecast.  The only probably nice day was the following day; all the rest of the days in the extended forecast projected a lot of rain.

So on Day 17, I worked in the morning but went in the afternoon back to Troyes just to wander around for myself.  While at the train station, Mathilde was waiting to pick up some people from the other side of the tracks and we chatted across them talking about my visiting Troyes and my future plans for Paris until my train arrived.  I got on, and saw her through the window signalling NO, GET OFF!  I was so confused; I asked people on the train if this went to Troyes, and they said yes, but Mathilde was doing acrobatics on the other side viewable through the windows so I got back off, ran to the end of the train where there was a gap we could yell across, and she yelled, "That's not the train to Paris!" as the train made a noise that indicated it was about to leave.  I yelled back, "I'm going to Troyes!" and ran back to try to get the last door on the train to open.  I was in luck - I think perhaps the conductor saw the drama happening as I got a door open, stepped in, and the train immediately took off.  Since I'd been so cooped up in Marnay, it was nice to get to explore a new city on my own (and pop into some actual shops!).  Unfortunately, the prices on things here are really high.  I kept seeing things for 30 euros that would probably go for around 5-10 dollars in the US.

Day 18 was rainy again, as predicted.  Nonetheless, a British expat-turned-local named Andy had promised me he'd take me to a gorgeous botanical garden/greenhouse in a park in a town about an hour away called Sens, and we decided to go that afternoon.  Melanie joined us.  When we got to the park, there was about a fifteen minute walk inside to get to the greenhouses, and Andy was worried they'd be shut due to the weather (there was already some flooding in the park) but we figured we'd see when we got there.  Along the way, we got to see some white swans, geese, ducks, and then a black swan.  The black swan was such a character.  He knew he was beautiful, and wanted to be appreciated.  Once he saw us, he swam back and forth on a patch of stream like it was a catwalk, and he'd slow down and pirouette when he came to where we were to turn around.  We enjoyed the show for a while, and then tried to leave, but he moved the show up along with us like he didn't want us to go - but still with the overall affectation that he was deigning to display for us.  It was hilarious.  Melanie and I had to use the toilet, though, so we eventually left him and made our way to the WC.  I believe this was my first squatty potty.  I know I've seen them before, but I think I've never had the courage to use one until now.  They're actually quite easy to use, luckily!  Then we went into the greenhouses which were thankfully open.  They were really, really well put together.  There was an outdoor cactus and succulent section, a semi-tropical outdoor garden, an indoor cactus and succulent section, and a winding indoor tropical section.  I'd be happy to have the whole greenhouse transported to my house.  I knew more about all the plants than Andy and Melanie, so I told them trivia and then spotted some Mimosa pudica.  Neither of them had encountered the plant before (which I thought a little odd of Andy since it's a moderately common European houseplant) so they were thrilled to experience its sensitivity.  On the way back, Andy took a detour and showed us two local dolmens (one up close and the other from afar) dating back to the early Neolithic period.  They're like mini-Stonehenges, and it was really interesting to get to see them.  He also drove us past a menhir, which is a monolith from the same era.  This whole afternoon was a pretty much ideal excursion to my taste, so I was pretty satiated with my somewhat more eventful week and returned to the studio feeling much less cooped up.

Day 19 was entirely a studio day.  I sculpted with QCC on the door, which I'd finished preparing a few days earlier after finally getting Leo to fix the bottom of it, getting Kinga to loan me her scrapers, and after spending a long, hot afternoon myself scraping all the old paint off the door.

Day 20 was also committed to artwork.

Day 21 I mostly worked in my studio, but in the evening we took a quick trip over to the neighboring town of Saron-sur-Aube where we'd be participating in the Art & Jardins 2016 festival exhibition and sale.  We got to see some of the sites some other artists would be exhibiting in, and then got to visit the house we were displaying in so we could discuss who wanted what space and how we planned to exhibit.  I brought quite a large stack of my greeting cards with me since I knew I'd be participating in this, so hopefully they sell well!

Day 22 was another studio day.

Day 23 was primarily another studio day, but at 8pm we all went over to Mathilde's house for apéritifs and entrées (the latter of which, in French, means appetizer and not the main course) with many of the core group of friends (Erica, Guillon, Abril, Leo, Kinga, Patricia) and some new faces as well.  It was a lot of fun, and I learned I like prosecco!