LOVE PLANTS

SANSEVIERIA

2008-01-31T19:56:00.001-08:00

Sansevieria (mother-in-law's tongue) is a genus of about 70 species of flowering plants in the family Ruscaceae, native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Old World.

They are xerophytic herbaceous to shrubby succulent perennial plants with evergreen strap-shaped leaves, growing to 20 cm to 3 m tall, often forming dense clumps from a spreading rhizome or stolons. The flowers are greenish-white, produced on a simple or branched raceme 40-90 cm long. The fruit is a red or orange berry.

The genus was named in honor of Raimondo di Sangro (1710-1771), prince of San Severo in Italy. Spellings "Sanseveria" and "Sanseviera" are commonly seen as well, the confusion deriving from alternate spellings of the Italian place name.

In Africa, the leaves are used for fibre production; in some species, e.g. S. ehrenbergii, the plant's sap has antiseptic qualities, and the leaves are used for bandages in traditional first aid.

Several species are popular houseplants in temperate regions, with S. trifasciata the most widely sold; numerous cultivars are available.

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sansevieria).

ANTHURIUM

2008-01-31T01:08:00.000-08:00

Anthurium (Schott, 1829), is a large genus of about 600- 800 (possibly 1,000) species, belonging to the arum family (Araceae). It is the largest and probably the most complex genus of this family. Many species are undoubtedly not described yet and new ones are being found every year.

They grow in the most diverse habitats, mostly in wet tropical mountain forest of Central America and South America, but some in semi-arid environments. Most species occur in Panama, Colombia, Brazil, the Guiana Shield and Ecuador. According to the work of noted aroid botanist Dr. Tom Croat of the Missouri Botanical Garden, this genus is not found in Asia. It is solely a neotropical genus found in Mexico, Central America and the West Indies. http://www.aroid.org/genera/anthurium/abstrap1.htm Some species have been introduced into Asian rain forests, but are not endemic.

Anthurium grows in many forms, mostly evergreen, bushy or climbing epiphytes with roots that often hang from the canopy all the way to the floor of the rain forest. There are also many terrestrial forms as well as hemiepiphytic forms. A hemiepiphyte is a plant capable of beginning life as a seed and sending roots to the soil, or beginning as a terrestrial plant that climbs a tree and then sends roots back to the soil. They occur also as lithophytes. Some are only found in association with arboreal ant colonies or growing on rocks in midstream (such as A. amnicola).

The stems are short to elongate with a length between 15 and 30 cm. The simple leaves come in many shapes. Most leaves are to be found at the end of the stem. They can be spatulate, rounded, or obtuse at the apex. They may be erect or spreading in a rosette, with a length up to 40 cm. The upper surface is matted or semiglossy. The leaves are petiolate. In drier environments, the leaves can take a bird's-nest-shape rosette that enables the plant to collect falling debris, thus water and natural fertilizer. Terrestrials or epiphytes often have cordate leaves. Some grow as vines with rosettes of lanceolate leaves. Some species have many-lobed leaves.

The flowers are small (about 3 mm) and develop crowded in a spike on a fleshy axis and called a spadix, a characteristic of the arums. The flowers on the spadix are often divided sexually with a sterile band separating male from female flowers. This spadix can take on many forms (club-shaped, tapered, spiraled, and globe-shaped) and colors (white, green, purple, red, pink, or a combination).

The spadix is part of an inflorescence. The outer portion of the inflorescence is known as the spathe. Some people like to call the spathe a "flower", however it is simply a modified leaf. The spathe may be a single color (yellow, green, or white) or possibly multicolored including burgundy and red. That sometimes colorful, solitary spathe: a showy modified bract that can be somewhat leathery in texture. There are no flowers on the spathe as is sometimes thought. The flowers are found solely on the spadix. The spathe can vary in color from pale green to white, rose, orange or shiny red (such as A. andrenaum). The color changes between the bud stage and the anthesis, (the time the flower expands). Thus the color might change from pale green to reddish purple to reddish brown.

The flowers are hermaphrodite, containing male and female flowers. The fruits are usually berries with one to multiple seeds on an infructescence that may be pendant or erect depending on species.

The flowers of Anthurium give off a variety of fragrances, each attracting a variety of specific pollinators.

Several species are popular in the florist trade as pot plants or cut flowers and for interior decoration. They include forms such as A. crystallinum f peltifolium with its large, velvety, darkgreen leaves and silvery white venation. Most hybrids are based on A. andreanum or A. scherzerianum because of their colorful spathes.

Anthurium digitatum - detail

Anthurium digitatum - habit

Flamingo Lily (Anthurium andreanum)

Pink anthurium, grown indoors

[edit] Species

For a full list, see List of Anthurium species

Such a large genus cannot be described by a few general terms. Schott, in his book "Prodromus Systematis Aroidearum" (1860), grouped the then known 183 species in 28 sections. In 1905 Engler revised these sections into 18 sections. In 1983 Croat & Sheffer came up with the following sections :

Belolonchium, Calomystrium, Cardiolonchium, Chamaerepium, Cordatopunctatum, Dactylophyllium, Decurrentia, Digitinervium, Gymnopodium, Leptanthurium, Pachyneurium, Polyphyllium, Polyneurium, Porphyrochitonium, Schizoplacium, Semaeophyllium, Tetraspermium, Urospadix, Xialophyllium.

Anthurium can also be called "Flamingo Flower" or "Boy Flower".

(source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthurium).

ADENIUM

2008-01-31T01:07:00.001-08:00

Adenium is a genus of flowering plants in the family Apocynaceae, containing a single species, Adenium obesum, also known as Sabi Star, Kudu or Desert-rose. It is native to tropical and subtropical eastern and southern Africa and Arabia.

Close-up of a flower

It is an evergreen succulent shrub in tropical climates and semi-deciduous to deciduous in colder climates, is also dependant on the particular species. Growing to 1-3 m in height, with pachycaul stems and a stout, swollen basal caudex. The leaves are spirally arranged, clustered toward the tips of the shoots, simple entire, leathery in texture, 5-15 cm long and 1-8 cm broad. The flowers are tubular, 2-5 cm long, with the outer portion 4-6 cm diameter with five petals, resembling those of other related genera such as Plumeria and Nerium. The flowers tend to red and pink, often with a whitish blush outward of the throat.
(Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adenium).

Prepare plants before joining the contest

2008-01-31T00:57:00.000-08:00

How to prepare and maintain plants before joining the contest?

Usually we prepare and maintain plants at least 3-4 months before contest begin. Here below are things we have to focus based on my experiences.

1. Flower preparation, (20% points)

- Flowers have to be bloom all as much as they can. The trick I did is to reduce watering for a week and then use the flower liquid fertilizer watering instead. One more thing, flowers should be fresh and not yellow or almost fall down. Flowers should fully bloom in bunch forms on the top of each branch or also bloom circularly balance all of trunk (This depend on hybrid bloom characters). The advantaged plant for this item is RCN, you know well.

2. Caudex, Trunk and Branch (30%)

This part is pretty higher score especially with symmetrically balance.
- The main middle stem is to be short and bigger than other sided branches. The main stem is also surrounded with the side branches like Crown and Pagoda (Depending on natural plant form or hybrid). For example, PMK is monument or tower style and consist of many bunches of flowers on the top. PNW is muscular form with distributed flowers around branch. RCN, ha ha ha, flowers bloom every branch even around stems come from buds.
For Thai Socotranum will treated differently eg; Golden Crown: Big base root and caudex, short trunk, 2 branch layers from main stems and also many branches paralleled with the earth; Petch Ban Na: Higher trunk with big main stem decorated with side branches.
- Branches must not be cut or trained to make them differently from natural form but it’s fine if the wound is dry for long or almost the same as their mother skin.
- Branch joints are also important, more joints more score. Mostly from RCN or Black Arabicum especially RCN plant sown from seeds harvested from mother plant will be clearly seen.

3. Leaves (10%)

- The color of leaves should be healthy, fresh green, no yellow and no burnt from disease or insecticide. The leaves can also represent the hybrid origination. More TRUE hybrid close to mother plant you will be get more score. Some mixed hybrid is good as well especially PNW mixed with RCN or RCN+PMK. Mostly I like to use PNW or mixed PNW to put in the contest because she is very easy to maintain the Dwarf and Contest form: Muscular branch and big flat caudex.

4. Root Section (10%)

- Caudex skin should be bright or shining , no wound, scratch or sun burnt. Putting more chemical fertilizer can make the caudex skin not fresh, please be careful using it.
- The condition of caudex and root must be healthy and succulent, not wrinkle or soft .
- Root should be spread out like spider, flat base style and strong. This different between Thai Socotranum and Arabicum because Thai Socotranum we like to show the root and caudex so mostly contest players like to lift it up as much as they can from the media and make it looks like “Mountain” style unlike Arabicums.

5. Misc part (5%)

- Pot (pot should be matched with plant style), for instance, chubby and short plant should be used shallow and wide pot.
- Plant should be positioned in the center of pot
- Media should be clean and no grass covered with media.

(Source : http://siamadenium.blogspot.com)

Flower

2008-01-30T22:53:00.000-08:00

A flower, also known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Magnoliophyta, also called angiosperms). The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds. The process begins with pollination, is followed by fertilization, leading to the formation and dispersal of the seeds. For the higher plants, seeds are the next generation, and serve as the primary means by which individuals of a species are dispersed across the landscape. The grouping of flowers on a plant are called the inflorescence.

In addition to serving as the reproductive organs of flowering plants, flowers have long been admired and used by humans, mainly to beautify their environment but also as a source of food.

Flower specialization and pollination

Each flower has a specific design which best encourages the transfer of its pollen. Cleistogamous flowers are self pollinated, after which, they may or may not open. Many Viola and some Salvia species are known to have these types of flowers.

Entomophilous flowers attract and use insects, bats, birds or other animals to transfer pollen from one flower to the next. Flowers commonly have glands called nectaries on their various parts that attract these animals. Some flowers have patterns, called nectar guides, that show pollinators where to look for nectar. Flowers also attract pollinators by scent and color. Still other flowers use mimicry to attract pollinators. Some species of orchids, for example, produce flowers resembling female bees in color, shape, and scent. Flowers are also specialized in shape and have an arrangement of the stamens that ensures that pollen grains are transferred to the bodies of the pollinator when it lands in search of its attractant (such as nectar, pollen, or a mate). In pursuing this attractant from many flowers of the same species, the pollinator transfers pollen to the stigmas—arranged with equally pointed precision—of all of the flowers it visits.

Anemophilous flowers use the wind to move pollen from one flower to the next, examples include the grasses, Birch trees, Ragweed and Maples. They have no need to attract pollinators and therefore tend not to be "showy" flowers. Male and female reproductive organs are generally found in separate flowers, the male flowers having a number of long filaments terminating in exposed stamens, and the female flowers having long, feather-like stigmas. Whereas the pollen of entomophilous flowers tends to be large-grained, sticky, and rich in protein (another "reward" for pollinators), anemophilous flower pollen is usually small-grained, very light, and of little nutritional value to insects.

Usage

Flowers are beloved for their various fragrances

In modern times, people have sought ways to cultivate, buy, wear, or otherwise be around flowers and blooming plants, partly because of their agreeable appearance and smell. Around the world, people use flowers for a wide range of events and functions that, cumulatively, encompass one's lifetime:

For new births or Christenings
As a corsage or boutonniere to be worn at social functions or for holidays
As tokens of love or esteem
For wedding flowers for the bridal party, and decorations for the hall
As brightening decorations within the home
As a gift of remembrance for bon voyage parties, welcome home parties, and "thinking of you" gifts
For funeral flowers and expressions of sympathy for the grieving

People therefore grow flowers around their homes, dedicate entire parts of their living space to flower gardens, pick wildflowers, or buy flowers from florists who depend on an entire network of commercial growers and shippers to support their trade.

Flowers provide less food than other major plants parts (seeds, fruits, roots, stems and leaves) but they provide several important foods and spices. Flower vegetables include broccoli, cauliflower and artichoke. The most expensive spice, saffron, consists of dried stigmas of a crocus. Other flower spices are cloves and capers. Hops flowers are used to flavor beer. Marigold flowers are fed to chickens to give their egg yolks a golden yellow color, which consumers find more desirable. Dandelion flowers are often made into wine. Bee Pollen, pollen collected from bees, is considered a health food by some people. Honey consists of bee-processed flower nectar and is often named for the type of flower, e.g. orange blossom honey, clover honey and tupelo honey.

Hundreds of fresh flowers are edible but few are widely marketed as food. They are often used to add color and flavor to salads. Squash flowers are dipped in breadcrumbs and fried. Edible flowers include nasturtium, chrysanthemum, carnation, cattail, honeysuckle, chicory, cornflower, Canna, and sunflower. Some edible flowers are sometimes candied such as daisy and rose (you may also come across a candied pansy).

Flowers can also be made into herbal teas. Dried flowers such as chrysanthemum, rose, jasmine, camomile are infused into tea both for their fragrance and medical properties. Sometimes, they are also mixed with tea leaves for the added fragrance.

(source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flower).