Better-Gro Bagged Orchids No Longer Sold At Lowes :(

Have I mentioned lately how much I love Florida? Seriously, it is the best for finding cool things in at regular, seemingly run of the mill garden centers. Many of this year's hauls came from Lowe's or The Home Depot. Unfortunately, I just read on Better-Gro's Facebook page, that Lowe's went with a different supplier for orchids and they won't be carrying Better-Gro bagged orchids anymore.

Although Better-Gro says they are working on "expanding their relationship" with Home Depot instead, I have only seen them show up in one store here that I haven't seen these orchids carried in the past. I'm kind of more upset than I thought I'd be about this. We went from an abundant supply of cool orchids all the time, to 2 Home Depots in the area carrying them. Sucks big time, and that's the nicest way I'll put that.

Cat inspection of a Lowe's haul at the old apartment

The following are Better-Gro orchids purchased this year only, well below average of my typical year's purchases of these orchids as I think the hiatus I took was the entire summer through fall, about 6 months? I'll apologize in advance, as the photos on this post have no theme, and some of them just aren't any good. I didn't take pictures specifically with this post in mind at the time so some are also iPhone photos. I just wanted to show you why I'm disappointed these won't be available at Lowe's anymore.

This "Bag Baby" orchid is C. Caribbean x lawrenceana. I couldn't find a single picture of the bloom on the internet, but it sounds like it might be a cool flower. It is an H&R cross, so maybe I'll email them for a picture to see if this is something I'm willing to grow out. I'm hoping the flower has that lawrenceana shape to it, but if nothing else we'll be surprised.

C. Caribbean x lawrenceana bagged Better-Gro orchid

This year I also picked up Myrmecophila tibicinis. Please excuse the Monster can. The photo was taken with something a friend would recognize for scale (LOL.) An entirely different purpose than showing it off here.

Myrmecophila (Schomburgkia) tibicinis

I'm also trying to rescue this Oncidium ampliatum. It looks like it had been sitting around a while, it's dehydrated. New roots are starting and it should recover nicely. I'll have a better picture of it in 2015.

Oncidium ampliatum

Encyclia steinbachii below (mislabeled steinbachiana, because it probably originally came from H&R and that's what they mislabel it as?) was in bad shape too, but it's turning around quick. Look at all them roots!

Encyclia steinbachii

Encyclia guadalupeae, in new-shipment-great-shape. Got this one 2 days ago at The Home Depot that just started carrying Better-Gro bagged orchids. HOORAY for this Home Depot!

Encyclia guadalupeae

I especially couldn't resist these species orchids for so cheap. These are all really great species, purchased for about $12.98 depending on the tax in the area I bought them.

Lately we've been making many, many, trips to Lowe's. There's one fairly close to to our new home, and we're re-painting, re-landscaping, and re-whatever-else needs-work here. People tell me that never stops when you own a home, so I guess Lowe's will be losing out on my money this coming year. I tend to agree to run errands to pick stuff up for the house under the guise of being helpful, but in reality I don't pass up an excuse to go see if they have any new bagged orchids. Oh well.

And yes, I realize with the internet and all of Florida's orchid shows, there is almost any orchid I want ever, shipped to my door, pretty much whenever. It just isn't the same as digging through the bags in the display at a local store. It's like a treasure hunt for adults, sorting through for cool species or hybrids to take home that day, in hand, for super cheap so there isn't even any guilt that I've spent too much of our money on plants again.

Edit: Update 2016. Occasionally I see these at Lowe's. With far less stock and far less frequency, so maybe it turned out to be a cut back, who knows. Still disappointed it's mostly unlabeled generic Phals, and the occasional unlabeled Vanda 90% of the time anymore :(

My NOID Stapelia is going to bloom

I bought this at a Home Depot in the spring. Although I prefer to buy labeled plants, (or at least ones I can ID,) I figured this one would be a fun surprise to see what species or hybrid it ended up being.

I then had the idea to email Costa Farms, my Home Depot supplier, and see if maybe they could ID it early, (Patience is not my strong point.) I wasn't sure if they'd answer ID request emails, so I sent them a basic request for maybe just the list of what Stapediads they sold/grew/whatever. I got a reply about a day later asking for a picture to ID it with, which originally exceeded my expectations.

I sent them a few pictures, and then never got a reply. Just to see if maybe that was a fluke I emailed them for a cactus ID about a month later from a different email account (including pictures) and got nothing back about that one either. Maybe if I asked a really general culture question about a very common plant they would be able to give me a generic reply letter back and all would be well. Why bother asking for pictures if no one can take the time out to ID one of their own plants anyway?

Anyway, now it is growing buds. They are supposed to be fall bloomers, so the temperature decrease as of recent must've triggered it.

Close-up of the buds

The whole plant, buds on the stem farthest right.

These are my favorite succulents and the reason I started growing them at all. Stapelia, Huernia, Orbea, etc., all the succulents that bloom with interesting, although possibly stinky flowers. For pollination most of these species flowers smell like rotting meat to attract types of flies. What's not fun about that? I'll keep it outside though because carrion isn't exactly the scent you want to perfume your home with. I realize this isn't my most thrilling post, but it's my 1st Stapelia flower ever, plus the 1st one I'll get to see in real life, so I'm pretty excited. My fingers are kind of crossed in hopes it turns out to be a Stapelia gigantea, because although I already have one it's a one stem cutting that hasn't done anything but be a one stem cutting the whole year or so I've had it. Anything else would really be fine too though, I've never been less picky in my life.

Matucana madisoniorum

This was another Home Depot rescue. I wish I had taken a picture of it when I got it, but that was last year and I didn't think to. It was severely dehydrated, to the point where it had caved in around the base from the cells collapsing. I decided I'd try to nurse it back to health. Worst case scenario I could cut off the top and try to re-root it.

Best case scenario it would rehydrate and be fine, sure enough it is almost completely round again. It also bloomed twice already this year, and is working on another one. Although Costa Farms doesn't label their plants sent to HD, at least Matucana madisoniorum is an easily recognizable species. One feature is it's unusually textured epidermis. It's rough, but kind of like short hard fuzz. It may have spines, be totally spineless, or a bit of both. It's ribs also make it look a lot like Lophophora species, especially the spineless ones.

Side view, you can see the rib shape and occasional spineless areole.

Close up of the flower

Rear view, you can also see where it was still sunken in on one side from dehydration.

I can grow this one in full sun here, it gets shade only for about 2 hours a day, tops, as the sun moves around a large tree in the back yard. I haven't repotted it yet as I usually do with all new purchases. It hasn't fully recovered so I'm taking the risk of leaving it be until next spring. I won't be watering it at all in a few months so it won't matter what it's potted in over the winter.

Bloom #2

Finally starting to look fully hydrated and round again

HD Cactus Update #2: It's Gymnocalycium mihanovichii!

The second Home Depot (Costa Farms) Cactus ID is correct too! I'm glad about that, seeing as how I have no room for doubles, but really wanted to collect one of each mihanovichii, mihanovichii var friedrichii, and stenopleurum. Which leaves one more to find. I wanted clear representatives of the species too, if they are distinct ones, so it's a happy day. Even better, these were less than $10 each at Home Depot, (can't remember exactly, something between $6-$8.) A pretty good deal seeing as how they're mature and I didn't have to pay shipping.

Gymnocalycium mihanovichii is identified by the yellow-brown, not fully opening flowers. It's considered a miniature cactus, this is about as big as it's ever going to get. Cool looking out of bloom and great for small spaces. In it's natural habitat (Paraguay) it isn't exposed to full sun all year, growing under bushes. This makes it an ideal cactus for growing indoors for most of the year if your conditions are like mine and you have to. I put it out in full sun for the few months of summer we have and this is the result.

1st bloom opening

My hand for size reference, and I have pretty small hands.

G. mihanovichii may not have the stunning colors of friedrichii or other Gymno species, but it's beautiful in it's own way.
 

From the top

So of course it's super cloudy today and although the flower never opens all the way, this one is should open a bit further, and it's still more brown than yellow. I've got more buds that should be ready to go soon, I'll put up some better flower pictures if I can get them at a future date.

HD Cactus Update #1: It's Gymnocalycium friedrichii!

According to Cultivar 3 (25) the scientific name of this cactus is still Gymnocalycium mihanovichii var. friedrichii. G. friedrichii is just as good a synonym in the mean time seeing as how someone already tried to re-name it that and it may very well be it's own species, not a variant of another.

There's discussion on G. mihanovichii, friedrichii, and stenopleurum being distinctly separate species based on flower color, (yellow, pink, white, respectively) but with so many intermediate forms there's also some basis to combine them into one highly variable species. I don't know if anyone is studying these right now or not, but hopefully someone will be able to figure it out. It is a mess to try and do any research online with people calling them different names and substituting one for another (unless they are all the same, in which case it just makes things more complicated.) If I was a taxonomist this would totally be my project, that's all I know.

Well, based on what information is out there at least for now I can say for a fact what my cactus is. I'm on the lookout for a stenopleurum too just because white flowers are my thing, but it's hard to find one that's guaranteed to bloom white unless it's already mature, which usually means $$$.

Now, on to some pictures!

I Love it!

Flower close-up

From the side

This one is officially my second favorite cactus. It's flowers are exactly my favorite color, it's got a red colored body, and huge spines. Not bad for a cheap Home Depot cactus!

Cacti from Home Depot

As with most people, my collection of plants started local at the big box stores. Cacti are easier to identify, unlike orchids or garden plants that hundreds of hybrids are made from, to the point where non labeled plants are impossible to ID. More serious hobbyists might snub these purchases, but here's why you should maybe check out your local stores, you never know what they might have. Costa Farms supplies to all the Home Depots around here, so if you are new to growing cacti they actually have a decent selection. They don't look so hot when they aren't cared for, sitting on a dark shelf in a Home Depot, but there's potential there.

This cactus looked terrible when I bought it. The second I saw it I knew what it was and how it was supposed to look. It's not as if it was diseased or pest ridden, just clearly sun deprived , dehydrated, and knocked around a bit from shipping and employees not trained to take care of cacti.

See? Looks not so nice.

The cactus above is probably Gymnocalycium friedrichii (or mihanovichii var. friedrichii depending on which taxonomy you agree with, I haven't figured out which is "official") Below is how it looks with full sun and regular water.

ID hopefully in a few days

This cactus is supposed to be a purple or red color, it isn't sunburned.


This one below, is sort of a "before" picture. I didn't take one when I first got it of how sad it looked too, but you can see it's light deprived. It's most likely just a too green Gymnocalycium mihanovichii.

Not quite as bad, but too green for my taste

Here it is again below with proper light and water.

ID to come shortly!

When these bloom, I'll be able to verify the ID's that were made. They are definitely Gymnocalyciums, those are easy to spot. If you can't tell by looking at the body of the cactus, the flower buds will give it away. Buds are always spineless, wool-less, bristle-less, smooth and scaled looking. I guessed on the species ID's and my guesses were verified on a forum, so we'll see if any of us are any good at ID'ing cacti, or if I labeled them prematurely.

EDIT 7/9/12 *Links to ID updates below*:
Cactus #1 ID
Cactus #2 ID