Let me introduce myself

From: CDANIELLE <cdanielle at prodigy.net> on 1997.07.14 at 01:04:45(938) Hi all, I was going to lurk in the shadows for a while and see what kind of group this is but either nobody's talking or I'm not getting most of the e-mail going out from this list. I'm not sure this is the list for me; I'm not a botanist, plants are just a hobby for me. I've been pretty scattered with this hobby, I've got a vege garden, flower beds, pond plants, and lots of houseplants. I'm trying to focus more on my house plants and not neglect them this summer because they get me through the winters. I've discovered many of my favorite houseplants are aroids. Most of them are fairly common but my absolute favorites are my Alocasias. They are pretty hard to come by around here ( Springfield OR). The main reason I subscribed to this list is that I have lots of questions about Alocasia. All the literature I have read about them says that they don't make good house plants because they need greenhouse conditions to survive. Well, I bought my first one, A. micholitziana, 1.5 years ago and it's thriving. More recently I bought A. sanderiana, A. 'Black widow,' A. and a variegated A. micholitziana Freydyk. I'm wondering if A. michilitziana might be more adapted to house conditions and that's why it has done so well. So far the other ones are doing fine, but with what I have read I get the feeling I should slow down on buying them util I see how the others do in my house. I bought A.'Black Widow' six months ago and since then it has flowered three times. It's just now putting out it's first leaf since I bought it. Can this plant self polinate? If the seeds could be viable, how do I germinate them? My A. saderiana which is labled 'African mask' does not look like the ones I have seen labled A. sanderiana 'Kris plant.' It has a leaf shaped more like my A. micholitziana which I have also seen labled as 'African mask,' only the A. sanderiana lvs are much larger and have the same colors as the 'Kris plant'. Could someone set me strait on these things? Does anyone know of a good book with descriptions of the various species within the Alocasia genus? I have more questions but I will wait to see if anyone has answers for these. Hope to get some email from Aroid-L, Gabe Thomas +More cdanielle@prodigy.net

From: "Uncle Olga's Steel Underwear Parlor" <hermine at endangeredspecies.com> on 1997.07.14 at 02:11:01(941) At 08:04 PM 7/13/97 -0500, CDANIELLE wrote: >Hi all, >I was going to lurk in the shadows for a while and see what kind of >group this is but either nobody's talking or I'm not getting most of the >e-mail going out from this list. I'm not sure this is the list for me; >I'm not a botanist, plants are just a hobby for me. I've been pretty >scattered with this hobby, I've got a vege garden, flower beds, pond >plants, and lots of houseplants. I'm trying to focus more on my house >plants and not neglect them this summer because they get me through the >winters. I've discovered many of my favorite houseplants are aroids. >Most of them are fairly common but my absolute favorites are my >Alocasias. They are pretty hard to come by around here ( Springfield >OR). The main reason I subscribed to this list is that I have lots of >questions about Alocasia. All the literature I have read about them says >that they don't make good house plants because they need greenhouse >conditions to survive. Well, I bought my first one, A. micholitziana, >1.5 years ago and it's thriving. More recently I bought A. sanderiana, >A. 'Black widow,' A. and a variegated A. micholitziana Freydyk. I'm >wondering if A. michilitziana might be more adapted to house conditions >and that's why it has done so well. So far the other ones are doing >fine, but with what I have read I get the feeling I should slow down on >buying them util I see how the others do in my house. I bought A.'Black >Widow' six months ago and since then it has flowered three times. It's >just now putting out it's first leaf since I bought it. Can this plant >self polinate? If the seeds could be viable, how do I germinate them? My >A. saderiana which is labled 'African mask' does not look like the ones >I have seen labled A. sanderiana 'Kris plant.' It has a leaf shaped more >like my A. micholitziana which I have also seen labled as 'African >mask,' only the A. sanderiana lvs are much larger and have the same >colors as the 'Kris plant'. Could someone set me strait on these things? >Does anyone know of a good book with descriptions of the various species >within the Alocasia genus? I have more questions but I will wait to see >if anyone has answers for these. > >Hope to get some email from Aroid-L, >Gabe Thomas >cdanielle@prodigy.net > > If aroids do not make good houseplants i volunteer to commit cyber sepukku as soon as i am java-enabled. So called Pothos is one and so is Philodendron and Monstera. so they dont get 5 storeys tall, OK, I will give you that. but that does not mean they don't thrive. I grew those arrowhead shaped things you are talking about in Boston with some kind of care as to low temps and so forth, and they did very nicely indeed. Alocasias with fancy leaf shapes are often misnamed and are very variable particularly from juvenile to adult stage. the hard ones to grow come from cloud forst conditons, where cool mists roll in at night and I dont know what happens during the day. i am not the aroid specialists that many are here, but i am a person wh grew them under very urban conditions and found them entirely rewrding. yes they get bigger andmmore lush in a greenhouse. what doesnt? i am here only to cheer you onward in your quest! hermine +More you want to grow something indestructable for which there is no list? SANSEVIERIA. now there's a houseplant! Hermine >

From: "Robert Wagner" <robwagner at robwagner.seanet.com> on 1997.07.19 at 02:30:43(965) Hello, Gabe! Welcome to the list. It's been quiet lately, but it's a friendly list. Most of the members seem to be amateurs, but there are a few botanists lurking so watch your taxonomy! I'm sorry that I know almost nothing about Alocasias, except that they look handsome in the gardens of my southern correspondents. They are not uncommon as garden plants in and around New Orleans. As houseplants they would be practically impossible for me. I do grow a lot of subtropical plants outdoors. I haven't been cocky enough to try Alocasia macrorhiza but I can tell you that Colocasias are actually root hardy up here in Seattle (with excellent drainage), tho not really practical since they need more heat to thrive than we can give them. A possible exception may be C. antiquorum 'Illustris', which seems to be thriving in my garden. It arrived as a small plant with just a leaf or 2 last year, and this year it already looks fairly impressive. With your slightly hotter summers and brighter sunshine they would probably grow better for you than for me. Not an aroid, but a very tropical-looking plant that is completely root-hardy here is Musa basjoo, the Japanese Textile Banana. Many Gingers are hardy up here (strangely, including some quite tropical ones from places like Indonesia and Thailand) and some of the big Himalayan Hedychiums look impossibly tropical with their big strappy leaves, cane-like stems, and orchid-like blossoms. Just in case you wanted something that would look good next to the Taro. Maybe one of the southern contingency can answer your Alocasia questions. Robert

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