So, I took this picture to my Facebook page and got twenty comments, none of which answered my question: WHAT IS THIS THING? My roommate brought it home after receiving it as a tip (he's a cable guy). He says the woman he got it from told him the exact name of it, but he forgot it.

I'm very very new to houseplants, but I feel like this is a succulent? It's almost like an aloe plant (the spines along the edges, the way the leaves sprout in the rosette shape or whatever), but the leaves are way thinner and more pliable than any aloe I've seen in pictures. I tried googling, but I don't know the proper terms needed for good identification.

I don't think the white stripes are normal, either (they rub off) which is why I've suddenly taken such an interest in finding out what it was.. I want to make sure it's healthy. SO I BRING IT TO YOU! Because when in doubt, ask plants.

Hooray! It has been identified and I was wrong pretty much all across the board. Thanks so much for your help, I'm useless at identifying plants. My poor, poor inherited flower garden proves that :P You guys are the coolest.

( Picture below~ sorry for the size! )

And while I'm here, does anyone have any experience with clavate tortoise beetles? I planted my tomatoes, and the leaves of my better boys are being absolutely mauled by these crappy little bugs (literally, I thought they were bird poop at first!). Searching has told me they aren't usually harmful, but I continue to find at least three on each tomato plant, munching all the leaves away :(

Hey, guys.

1. My husband and I were out of state for a few days and when we got back, one of my Sweet Williams (http://www.gardensablaze.com/Biennials/BiennialSwWilliam.htm) was uprooted. It was a small plant. I have one other Sweet Williams that is larger and that was left alone and is fine.

I am really upset about this. The Sweet William that was uprooted was doing great. It had flowers on it (not as much as the larger one--that has about 15 or so blooms on it now), but it had around 4 or 5.

The weird thing about this is it was uprooted and laying where it was planted, but I did not see the hole or the part that was "dug up," so I'm really confused. If a squirrel dug it up, it's not like it would have covered up the hole, right? Has anyone had a squirrel uproot their plants before? I doubt a bird could do it or a cat or anything... I automatically thought a person/neighbor could have done it, but my husband and I don't really know anyone in our neighborhood and they don't know us, so there'd be no reason for someone to do that. I don't think it was windy while we were gone, but even so, I doubt the wind could actually uproot a plant.

What do you think is the most probable cause of my Sweet Williams being uprooted?



2. And not related to the above question -- What causes roots of flowers/plants to unbury themselves? I have a few plants where some of the roots seem to be coming out of the ground. The plant itself is fine, but why would some of its roots be coming to the surface? Is this a bad thing? What does it mean exactly for the plant?


Thanks so much!

Wanted to share some of my carnivorous plants pics. Mostly nepenthes (tropical pitcher plants) since those are my favorites. I keep some of my nepenths as house plants, some outdoors and some in terrariums.



First is the Nepenthes bicalcarata. The fanged nepenthes. This is a true lowlander needing warm nights.



Sarracenia Dana's Delight.

( More nepenthes and Sarracenias )

Cross posted to ljcps - Livejournal Carnivorous Plant Society. If you like carnivores please stop by. We are just coming out of a long "dormancy period" and could use the activity.
.

We received this plant last week for my Dad's memorial service. It did not come with a card identifying the plant or how to care for it.



Can anyone help with the identification? It does not have any flowers, just green leaves.

Thanks!

Hi.

I got some Shrub Roses today and a Lily of the Valley and plan to plant them soon in a plant box on my deck that is around 4 by 2 feet and about 3 feet deep.

I read that Shrub Roses make good plant neighbors, but that Lily of the Valley are really aggressive in growing. I don't know if that means they are NOT friendly to other plants planted beside them or what.

Anyone know about these two plants and know if they would be okay together or no?

Thanks!

Hey there.

I have a question about my Coreopsis Sunfire. I have a couple of them. I planted them last summer and was told that in winter they stay green. Of course, that didn't happen, so I thought they died. They stayed green until late in the winter (probably because of the mild winter we've had). I was messing around in the garden yesterday and noticed that there is green growing up underneath where the dead stalks are. Is this normal? Is it now growing back since it's been so warm out?

When I bought them, I wish the lady would have told me this happens and not that they stay green all winter. Because I had no idea. I was about ready to pull them out and plant something else. :-\

Anyone here have Coreopsis Sunfire or Coreopsis and can tell me what to expect with these plants? I know what to expect in the summer, but I had no idea what to expect during the winter. And also, now that they seem to be growing back underneath the dead stalks, I am not sure what to do. Should I cut the dead stalks/plant down with scissors or...?

I have googled around, but can't find the answers I'm looking for.

Thanks!!!

My boyfriend bought me this plant for Valentines day, but he forgot what it was called, and the directions he got on how to take care of it were really vague. So a name would be great so I could figure out what I should be doing with it (it is my first ever plant, sadly enough). Thanks so much! Oh, it is from a market in Mexico City.

Anyone know what this might be?

Hi everybody, your Maintainer, here.

Lately I've been pretty busy as far as my interaction with the community namesake.

I've finished my coursework for the Master Gardener program and now I'm in my volunteer phase, seeking out 40 hours of approved volunteer work so I can gain my certification and become an official Master Gardener. So far it's going swell.

Also, I recently transplanted a hundred some odd pachysandras. They're really popular around here (maybe they're really popular everywhere). If anybody wants to know, they're pretty easy to transplant. I was going to go in with cutters and being really ginger and perfectionist, but the property owner assured me that it's a graceless and quick task, and they were right.

You can pretty much reach in and tear the rhisomes apart with your bare hands, with pachysandras, and they will survive as long as it's not a strenuous environment (with pests or other threats). And you don't have to necessarily have any third of the plant surviving as root structure -- many of the transplants had just a curl of rhisome and two or three tiny hairs of root, and survived with the rhisome buried under a half inch of really nice soil/mulch mix. Granted, it was a really rich mix. The soil had gone grey and needed to be revitalized. The resulting spongy, almost gelatin-wiggly soil is their perfect new home. They weren't in a whole week before we had two days of torrential rainfall, and I was worried they were going to get washed out. Nope, they made it.

And, lastly, I looked around first to make sure there wasn't something already like it, and then did something I've wanted to do for awhile (like, four whole days), which is make this community a FaceBook group. There is already a "Gardening" group with a few hundred members, and they're active, but they seem pretty focused on what fits in the garden. As you know, here at Plants, we're more interested in aaaallll of the plants.

So here's The "Plants!" Group at Facebook!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/244164592269868

[edit: Wow, did I jump the gun on that! There are, as it turns out, at least two facebook groups called "plants" that fulfill more or less exactly what we do, here. But, there isn't one just for this LJ community, so I narrowed our group focus (by changing the name from "Plants!" to "LiveJournal ~Plants!").

One thing I found out is that FaceBook changed the way groups work. You can't just join-up willy-nilly, you have to be added either by an admin or existing group members. So when you click "ask to join", it may be upwards of a day or so before somebody notices and clicks whatever it is to let you in.]

Anyways, so if you felt like FaceBook chatting with members of the LJ community or whatever good the FaceBook group might serve, now you can :) (?)

Hello all! I was wondering if someone could give me the name of this plant...

( Picture and info here )

Hey all, can you help me ID these plants? My neighbor left them when she moved. The first four pics are all of the same plant, I just separated the new buds into different pots. (Buds is not even the right word but I can't think of it). The last one is a different plant. I feel like they are Aloe? But I want to make sure before I use them.
Thanks!
( Pictures )

anybody want to get rid of any babies of indoor house plants? i live in pennsylvania can work something out for the shipping.

Greetings.

I grew up in the good old Northeastern U.S. of A. where I used the Newcomb's Wildflower Guide with great success. Unfortunately (or fortunately rather), I have relocated to northern Idaho where the Newcomb's guide does me no good. I'm having trouble deciding on a good field guide to wildflowers of the northwest or mountain west. I'd like something as thorough and systematic as the Newcomb's Guide, if such a beast exists. Otherwise, what would be the best field guide to have?

Hi!
Here are the photos of our cacti flowers of April 2011
Have you got many cacti plants? Do you enjoy their flowers?

«Pseudolobivia»	«Rebutia Ребуция»
«Echinopsis subdenudata»	«Echinopsis subdenudata»
«Mammillaria guelzowiana»	«Lobivia leucoviolacea»

Hey, first-time poster and...I will probably wind up lurking from here on out (because I love nature), but I was pointed here because I happened to find a mystery plant.

I was walking my dog when I saw a plant on the side of the road that I'd never seen in the area before. There were no others of its kind nearby, and I've walked that way many times but never noticed it.

I didn't have a camera with me at the time so I picked one of the flowers and brought it home.

And then I thought better of it and went back to take more pictures.

My mom says she's seen that kind of plant before but couldn't name it. All I (and anyone else I've shown it to) can think is that it's some kind of lily. Two guesses are Asiatic Lily and Siroi Lily but they're just guesses...

Things you can't see from photos are: The pink at the base did not fade when the picked flower wilted, and the flower (fresh) had either a very slight or no scent. Also the location is Houston, Texas. Harris County, to be exact. Not sure how much more specific I could get.

Anyone know what this thing is?

(Also, I apologize if things like this aren't allowed. If they're not, just let me know and I'll delete this entry.)

Pic: http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/7740/lendinh.jpg

Contact: 14/8/1 Do Thua Luong, Tan Quy, Tan Phu, Ho Chi Minh city, Viet Nam
Mail: nguyentrangkimngan88@yahoo.com

Link More: (Update: 1/5/2011)
http://www.mediafire.com/?x930ldn11kuup3b

Here is my little collection of cacti with flowers, all the shots have been done in this 2010 year.

Do you have cactus with flowers?

This is a collection of cacti of one of Saint-Petersburg Cacti Club members. Enjoy!

All these cacti are kept on the simple balcony and during the snowy frosty winter the special heating system keeps the temperature not higher and not lower but exactly +10 degrees!

Do you grow cacti too?

Here's your maintainer in front of a big juniper bush in South-Western Michigan.



p.s. Let me know if this image breaks or if any of you in the community need anything this Fall -- I'm going to be busy with classes and Michigan Nature Conservancy, and would prefer to get LJ/~plants stuff done this weekend or next.