I find hybrids distasteful. And then here’s one with stunning leaves that blooms for me and… then I become a hypocrite.
SlipperTalkers identified this plant for me as Ho Chi Minh a few years ago. I think it’s a funny story; I made annual visits to the general city nursery where this plant sat high on a shelf in a little fancy cache pot. It was always dried out. I can sure it wasn’t repotted in the 3 or 4 years I was visiting it. Always a single growth, post bloom. It had 3 leaves, all mature. I would haven thought it was plastic if I hadn’t seen the root running along the inside of the pot. No tag, of course. I would ask about it but it could only be with the dumb decorative pot, for $38. So I’d buy other things and leave it. Maybe the fourth time I was in there, the proprietor just ripped it out of the pot and tossed it, bare-root, in my bag. He said you’re the only person who even notices this damn thing, just take it.
So I did. And wow has it ever grown. I seem to have found a perfect spot down inside a high open terrarium, in a southeast window. Every leaf is pristine. It’s getting kind of crowded in this pot; I’ll repot when its show is over. Growing in a clay pot, in Hausermann’s mix with limestone gravel chips added.
The flower spike is much taller this time and the flower seems larger. I like how it retains swoopy vietnamense characteristics. No scent. Last flower is a pic from the last time I posted it.
SlipperTalkers identified this plant for me as Ho Chi Minh a few years ago. I think it’s a funny story; I made annual visits to the general city nursery where this plant sat high on a shelf in a little fancy cache pot. It was always dried out. I can sure it wasn’t repotted in the 3 or 4 years I was visiting it. Always a single growth, post bloom. It had 3 leaves, all mature. I would haven thought it was plastic if I hadn’t seen the root running along the inside of the pot. No tag, of course. I would ask about it but it could only be with the dumb decorative pot, for $38. So I’d buy other things and leave it. Maybe the fourth time I was in there, the proprietor just ripped it out of the pot and tossed it, bare-root, in my bag. He said you’re the only person who even notices this damn thing, just take it.
So I did. And wow has it ever grown. I seem to have found a perfect spot down inside a high open terrarium, in a southeast window. Every leaf is pristine. It’s getting kind of crowded in this pot; I’ll repot when its show is over. Growing in a clay pot, in Hausermann’s mix with limestone gravel chips added.
The flower spike is much taller this time and the flower seems larger. I like how it retains swoopy vietnamense characteristics. No scent. Last flower is a pic from the last time I posted it.
