A yellow-flowered crown of thorns (Euphorbia milli)! So far I have five different reds and two different whites, but no other colors.

I wonder if Asiatica knows how much business their high shipping charges is probably costing them. I am perfectly willing to treat myself to an outrageously priced plant every so often, but I cannot justify the shipping charges.

I'd love one (or more) of their Thai Aglaonema hybrids, their variegated Aspidistras, or their Pipers, but I cannot bring myself to order.

sasha_one56:

I may be able to get you some cuttings of Dischidia nummularia 'Pebble Beach' in exchange for postage. I don't know how easily they root (I'm kind of finding out right now), and it'd have to wait until the weather is warmer, but e-mail me and we'll talk.

-

I just looked more closely at the Dracaena I want, and -- that's $90 for a plant in a 3.5-inch pot! Not that it doesn't look beautiful and everything, but from the picture I was guessing a 6-inch pot. Now I have to revise my whole unreasonableness scale.

If it helps anybody, everything I've read about Asiatica suggests that they do an incredibly good job with the shipping and everything. I mean, if you're spending $90 on a plant (or more), you're going to want every precaution possible to make sure that it's not going to be damaged in shipping. And that is worth something. Maybe not as much as they're asking, but, you know.

Really, if I had the money (and had already bought a greenhouse, and a spare greenhouse, and a modest mansion, and fabulous rain-foresty landscaping for the mansion, and a gigantic protective Plexiglas bubble to protect the landscaping from the harsh Iowa winters, and landscapers to tend the grounds, and a secret underground lair like Dick Cheney -- but better than his -- and an aboveground lair too, and several highly-trained watering assistants to help me tend and groom the 70,000 plants I would own in this scenario, and security cameras to monitor the movements and behavior of the watering assistants so I know they're not sneaking cuttings and offsets off the property and selling them on the black market, and a team of highly-trained security personnel to watch the security cameras, and a team of vicious hounds for the security guys to release in the event of cutting theft, and a trusted personal assistant to monitor the security-camera monitors, and I'd bought health insurance for all these people, including dental, and and and) I would be all over Asiatica's stuff like spider mites on English ivy. They'd know me by name there. Possibly they'd know me by sight. Not that they'd be allowed to make eye contact.

*sigh* I would make such a good supervillain. Why is it so hard to find supervillain funding?

{{gwi:69967}}I would buy several fragrant Phal orchids and a healthy gardenia. The ones at Wally World look sick and they're $8 each.

Last summer someone posted a pic on the cacti and succulent forum of a big full lush variegated jade plant the leaves were cream and green.I have wanted one since I saw it.I'll keep my eyes open this spring and summer.

I saw a beautiful sans laurentii that had very straight, tall leaves that were an almost black dark green, with yellow edges. In bloom.

But...it was HUGE, 20 bucks and I don't have room for it. Maybe it will still be there in a few months?

Probably sounds a bit odd, but I've always wanted a Rafflesia arnoldii. World's largest flower; 3 feet across and weighs 15 pounds! Only found in the vanishing rain forests of Indonesia. Alas, it's also parasitic so I would need to attain it's exclusive host; the Tetrastigma vine.

Totally impractical, but I can dream can't I? :) Did I also mention that it smells like rotting flesh (that's not cool)? Funny thing is, it's apparently not a stapelia at all. In fact, it was recently reclassified as Euphorbia (go figure).

I would buy a large Beaucarnea recurvata( ponytail palm)I have been wanting one that I saw at a cacti nursery. It costs about $1,200.00 Yeah...I will keep dreaming. I can only afford the small ones.

I'd like a 2-3' Thai Euphorbia, bi-colored flowers, Crown of Thorn..
Mr Sub you forgot to mention, the pot size..3.5"-- Are they kidding? Though the plant is a beauty.
Hey Pep..Try www.almostedenplants.com I got a few COT's there this summer and they are nice..Toni

Saucer,
As a kid I read about the Rafflesia arnoldii in a national geographic magazine. I have wanted one ever since but knowing I couldn't keep it going I'd hate to have it die. If money and space allowed for proper care that would be it.

If I had any place to put them I would have dozens of Phyllostachys bamboo.

I would cut a hole if the roof if a Phyllostachys would grow here.

Snowflake plant (trevesia palmata)

Hey saucer,

If you like Rafflesia, did you go to the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park to see the Titan Arum (corpse flower) in bloom last year? Oh, my God. That was really something. But I'm still trying to wash off the smell.

Matt

wiccagardener,
I bought my snowflake plant from Logee's greenhouses. It's mail order firm out of Danielson CT. Great plants, small and pricey but lots of uncommon stuff! Just got delivery today of a variagated solandra maxima, the last they had! I'am thrilled!!

mr. sub-you made me laugh so hard i thought i was going to fall down and pee my pants...and since i work in a nursing home i'd fit right in! i will def talk to you about some pebble beach cuttings
pepperomia-i have a pink euphoria-and i think there's a nursery in town(omaha) that may have more colors- i can give you a cutting of mine and check out mulhall's next time i go...i could always fedex to you if you absolutley must have it and its reasonable. let me know if i can help!

Mr Sub,
You know, now a days somebody with as much imagination as you have would be put on something like ritalin or prozac. Keep up the dream, good supervillains are hard to come by ;)

If I could have any plant it would be a banyan fig, but I'll stick to rhipsalis and epiphyllums, at least they are somewhat easy to come by.

There ain't no WAY I'd buy just one plant. I'd buy a whole truckload. And you can bet most of em would be variegated! :-)

i would love one of the enormouse yuccan elephantipes i see in all the houseplant books. but all the ones i find out in my neck of the woods are hell-a expensive.

A Dracaena draco: http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grafika:Dracaena_draco.jpg

I think I'd have a hard time getting it to fit into my living room, though.

Lapageria rosea,climber from Chile with pink flowers.Saw a pic on the cover of a plant book years ago,have 3 times bought seeds(really expensive too!), ONE germinated and produced one leaf, then it died. Have not seen any plants for sale. Sometimes called "copihue".

An aside: mr subjunctive, your post reads like a well thought out piece of Literature.
My Saturday morning is off to a delightful start.

wow, that draceana draco is gorgeous! i'm sure i'll be long-dead before my seedling looks anything like that.

wiccadgardener: OMG yes. I forgot about Trevisia palmata because I never, ever see it for sale. Which leads me to . . .

chazparas: Thanks for the tip. Though they say they're out of stock for the moment. And, speaking of unreasonable prices: $10.95 for a 2.5-inch pot? Holy crap.

blutarski: I think the Sansevieria you're talking about is 'Black Gold,' though no doubt it goes by other names too. I've seen them where I work, and at one other place in the area, but they're not incredibly common. We were selling ours for $20 (6-inch pot), and then I bought one at the other place for $16 (also 6-inch), so that's a good price, if it's still available. You could always buy it, divide it, and send any of the divisions you didn't want out on trades and exchanges in the spring.

mentha, ronalawn82: Thanks.

sasha_one56: Thanks, and also -- just bear in mind that you're going to have to remind me about the Dischidia, 'cause we're heading into the busy season at work (roughly Feb-May, is my understanding) and I'm not likely to remember without some help.

stokesjl: What kind of size / price are you looking for, and whereabouts in Iowa are you? It's kind of a long shot, but I might be able to find something. The Lowe's here in Iowa City (Coralville, technically) has had smallish Y. elephantipes on the clearance rack for like $2.50 for weeks now. They're in 6-inch pots and only about a foot high, with no visible stems yet, but still: $2.50, and they looked like they were in okay shape.

seriously? the only places i've looked around here are holubs and earle may. i looked at the lowes in ames, but was told they do not carry houseplants. looks like a little road trip may be in order. i've got good friends in iowa city, so i'm always looking for an excuse to head out there. thanks!

Yeah, for some reason they've had a hard time unloading those: they had them priced at $5 for months this summer, and nobody wanted them. Normally, in this situation, the plant would start to die and they'd put it on the clearance cart and be done with it, but they're Yuccas, so they didn't die, so they just kept getting moved around. There were still at least three of them last weekend when I was there last. Couldn't promise that there are any there still, but I'll e-mail you their phone number and maybe you can convince them to hold some back for you or something. If there are in fact still any left.

I would like michelia alba and/or foveolata. A kumquat. Bird's egg pelargonium, Mrs. J.J. Knight.

Trachelosperum jasmoides and Myrtus communis -- saw these both in bloom in Italy and fell in love.

Oh, and a couple of south- or east-facing bay windows and a cool sunroom/greenhouse.

(If I had these, more "essentials" would probably come to mind, such as a mimosa tree and daphne odora and several chinese cymbidiums.)

From Asiatica I would buy anemone thalactroides shoaf's double, jeffersonia dubia, and lilium japonicum variegatum. I would need a better outdoor garden to showcase these jewels.

Mr. Sub,
I know the price for the trevisia is unbelieveable. I do have to say I mail order from Logees and even travel there a couple of times a year to get a break from winter in their greenhouses. Every plant I receive from them is ready to transplant into the next size up, so though the pots are small, the plants generally are ready to be moved up. The trevisia I got, I bought in person from Logee's, it was in a 2.5 inch pot but the plant itself was about 10" tall.
But like you say, it's not cheap. And the shipping is almost 9 dollars to I believe.

Matt,
Regrettably, I missed the Titan Arum blooming at the Conservatory but I'm sure it was quite a sight!

Just one? Medinilla magnifica.

If I get two, Pedilanthus 'Jurassic Park 2'. Sometimes, I can't help myself.

Then just about anything in the Acanthus family.

Pageysgirl.. if you're interested in a D. draco, go to www.worldplants.com I have 2 dracos, the second was bought from worldplants..it was about 7" tall, but I notice he's now selling them in 2 gallon pots for 10.00..His plants are really nice and healthy..good sizes, too. Toni

Hi
What an interesting thread. Two things in particular caught my eye as they have always been on my "maybe"
Raffflesia mainly because Tetrastigma grows like a weed for me so I'm 3/4 on the right track ??lol
Have recently read that a reliable "infection" method has been developed in Indonesia but the method is carefully kept secret. To my knowledge no one in the west has accomplished this?? Any sources of knowledge on this?? I assume the flowering is fatal to the Tetrastigma and how do you know when you've had a successful innoculation?? Also I'm speculating that this requires around 25 years to develop?? Would certainly be a fantastic project!!! I have never grown any type of parasitic plant on purpose lol.
Living in s. florida there are hundreds of sources for all kinds of "houseplants" and have often found that after I found that coveted plant it tries to eat the house or dies before my eyes ,is eaten by a squirrel etc.,etc.lol
I did recently get a Nypa fruiticans ,an aquatic palm and it's really not so great in person lol.
Another that I've wanted for a long time is Lassia spinosa,unicorn flower, a weed in se Asia lol Only place I've seen them listed was Asiatica
One more thing there is Trevesia burckii a relative of
palmata that has white edged leaves!! Now that's a plant o inspire lust !!! garya

No question: BAT PLANT! Tacca chantrieri: http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/potd/2007/07/tacca_chantrieri_1.php
It's possible as a houseplant, but I know in my heart I just don't have the conditions for it. Right now I'm on a quest just to SEE one in person. (and hug it before security comes to take me away.)
I live in Mass, just an hour and a half from famed LOGEE'S. I went with an equally houseplant-crazed friend just last week and we couldn't believe the prices. I work at a small, independent greenhouse, and while I can understand big price tags on truly rare plants, paying 12 bucks for a 2.5" potted rex begonia is absurd!!!

missmary, if you are anywhere near noonans/nunans (not sure of the spelling) on route 97 in groveland/georgetown they had bat plants in the green house in bloom last year this time. they may have them again. They've ordered special plants for me in the past, their prices vary but the quality is wonderful. I know the prices at logees are high, but they have things that I just can't find anywhere!

A big pitcher plant to go in the greenhouse I'd "have to" buy to keep it alive. (And a big blooming sharry baby to cure my impatience:) CJ

I am always on the lookout for sansevierias and I also seem to be collecting different jades. The weird thing about my current plant buying is that I pretty much limit myself to buying from our grocery store. I go to green houses and look and never seem to find a plant that I just have to get. But...if something weird shows up at the Piggly Wiggly I will buy it. My last find was a balfour something something cane. It's an aralia I think and it was $3.99.

I miss Piggly Wiggly :) Aren't they the same as Winn Dixie? They used to have some nice plants. The best plant I got was a hibiscus marked down to $.50 from them.

I don't want something extremely out of range. I want an amazing 3-4 jade tree with an enormous trunk similar to the pic below.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/28983/

Copy and paste this link to go to this image. I would love a "tree" like this. The pic says its only 6 yrs old too!

There are lots of cool plants I'd love to own, but I'm SO out of room. I guess I'd need the greenhouse first, along with a large trust fund to pay to heat it to 70 degrees in the winter.

I do have my eye on some phalaenopsis orchids with striped variegated borders on the leaves, and several with speckled leaves. Once I settle in the latest batch of orchids, I imagine they will be next.

I get a vicarious thrill for the huge plants by tending them for other people professionally.

koicool1
I too would love to have a Jade that size, it's beautiful. Does it take a certain type of Jade to get that big or is it that large from sunlight and the life of the plant?

shanna

It would be all the plants that help with indoor air quality because I think our house is poison. We're always tired & sick in it. It's dry. And it's always dusty.

Nepenthes hamata

http://brutalablommor.se/hamata.htm

or Nepenthes edwardsiana

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Nepenthes_edwardsiana_entire_ASR_052007_tambu.jpg

I love the spiderplants, because it have plenty of babies, and it's durable, good for the air inside the house, and not as toxic as some other plants. plus, you'll never need to buy another plant.

Soleirolia soleirolii in the two varieties you can't get around here: golden and variegated. Wordplants carries the golden and used to carry the variegated, but quit because it's so much hassle to keep it variegated, but said they'd propogate some for me anyway if I really wanted it. Well...my house payment comes first.

Verdant Croft

Shanna5,

As far as I know any jade can get to be that large. Pruning, more than adequate lighting, and perhaps fertilizer(not quite sure if one should fertilize succulents? If someone knows I would like to be shared the info.) I think pruning has a lot to do with it, because if it is only allowed to grow up then it will put all of it's energy to growing as tall as it can.
Love the tree forms of jades more than the bushy forms!

Tons of fun, I grew one indoors under a fluorescent light. Just grows and grows, putting out new large leaves one after another. High maintenance, though. Before I gave it away it was drinking 1/2 gallon water each day in a 10 inch pot!

#2 would be golden pothos. As you can see, I like fast-growing plants.

koicool1, cacti and succulents can be fertilized with a half strength fertilizer every other week during the growing season. Almost any brand will do, though some would recommend a special cacti & succulent fertilizer with calcium and magnesium content.

I've been on a tear lately, getting all sorts of plants I've wanted:

neon pothos
variegated philodendron chordatum
'black gold' sansevieria
a lithops
wandering jew- i didn't know how 'retro' these plants look. these and the sans make me feel i'm back in the forties.

i have to start getting selective, because i'm running out of room. if i had all the space in the world, I'd get:

monstera delisiosa

african mask plant- i find these guys stunning, but just no room!

I would like to get a fern of some type, but i don't know which would do best in my office.

Too many plant to name -- mostly orchids.

2 nonorchids:

{{gwi:69965}}

{{gwi:69966}}

I want another Strongylodon macrobotrys "Jade Vine"
I have bought and killed this plant before, but want to get another and try again.
I would also like another Monstera variegata (the white and green one), I lost my last one but still have a solid green Monstera and Monstera 'Aurea' (gold and green).