Is that a variegated form of Aech. chantinii 'Black'

Its Black magic

Very nice colors junglegal. What the heck is a "ramble"? Is that an East Coast version of a "Bungle in the Jungle"? Lot of good stuff there??

The ramble is a huge sale that Fairchild Gardens in Miami hosts. All proceeds I believe go to the gardens. They were selling plants, books & antiques. It was quite the event! I was a little let down by the plant selection. It seemed to me that our sales here in Tampa/St. Pete out matched them. A lot of the same vendors were there that I see up this way. Never the less, I found a few gems & really enjoyed touring the gardens.

I was there! Yesterday! We just got back to Gainesville. Did you see the palm vendor with the red sealing wax palm in the 20 gal container for $925?
I bought a Picasso's Paintbrush croton, a Verschaffeltia splendida palm, a Praying Hands Banana, a nice little unidentified species of sanseveria, and this bromeliad, which Bob Smoley had labeled as a DYCKIA but it can;t be...it has to be an Orthophytum but which one?
{{gwi:511662}}

Hey Bihai,
Good shopping ! your big clump with nice blooming is Orthophytum vagans.

I had thought that was probably vagans but it didn't exactly look like the vagans I already have, or like photos of straight vagans I have seen

Bihai, that's a huge clump! Nice score m'dear.

Yeah, I saw those Red Sealing palms...about choked when I saw the price. Did you see them growing in the pond?
http://www.fairchildgarden.org/palmguide/image.php?image=2001-0334B_2004110365481
I never knew they would thrive like that!
I ended up getting Ae Lil Harv, & a pretty red neo.Tag was labeled neo takemorax concentrica carcharodon. I also picked up a croton 'dreadlocks', montgomery palm & bambusa vulgaris wamin. All in all a fun day!! Wish I would have known you were there!

Hi Bihai...now thats what I call an Ortho! Great buy !
I still haven't acquired one as yet,tho I thought I did,but it turned out to be O.saxicola,on arrival.
I saw one at a K-Mart in Ocala around 1995,that was about the size of yours,but was too big to carry on the plane,what with all the other stuff we had to carry home.
A missed opportunity,as you don't find many that size and that good looking. You done goood !
Bob

That is an impressive clump of O. vagans, Bihai. If you grow it in full sun the whole plant will be red whether it's blooming or not, which may be why it looks a little different.

Junglegal, I'm trying to decipher your Neo. tag. Michael's got one called 'Takemura concentrica' x carcharodon, which I used to have. It's more dark purplish than red, though. He's also got one listed as 'Takemura concentrica' x carcharodon x carolinae red, which would presumeably be the former plant crossed with carolinae (although it should have parentheses around the first part to indicate that). I would assume that cross would be redder, although I haven't actually seen it.

Actually there is no such thing as "Takemura concentrica", so the first part probably refers to the plant he has listed as 'Takemura' x concentrica. It isn't clear whether this refers to 'Takemura Grande' or 'Takemura Princeps', but it's got to be one or the other since there is no cv. just called 'Takemura'. Something's been lost in translation, as it often is. Proper notation is so important!

Yeah, I know that doesn't clear it up much, but at least you can be sure it's not "takemorax"! ;-)

This O. vagans is in a 3 gallon container and draping over every side. It was $18 from Bob Smoley. He had it labeled as a "Dyckia species". I just had to laff. He comes to our Gainesville sales too in March, he always has really nice stuff (even if he has some mislabeled)
I took a photo of my husband and daughter by the pond in front of those C. rendas and put it up over on the palm forum. Those were mere babes compared to the $925 container that guy had for sale. I knew that they could be grown as pond plants, Garret Uemura (I probably just butchered his name) who used to be a big guy on a pond forum I was on for a bit (He's from Hawaii, Lisa but I forget where) had some growing in his ponds that I have seen photos of. I read you could do that but am too chicken to try it, so I planted the 4 I have. Mine aren't even showing color yet but they are a really GREAT size for the $10 I paid for them. ALready clustering nicely. Probably the best thing I saw was a rather large specimen of Kerridoxa elegans that the same palm vendor had. I know now exactly what I can look forward to with mine. It was really pretty even though it was a bit beat up...he said they have to haul it about in an open truck.

I only found that one guy who had any okay broms this time, since Tropiflora decided not to come (they were at something at Selby instead) he seemed to be South American (?) he had an accent anyway, he was real nice, he had a lot of stuff and I kinda picked through most of it but didn't see anything I really wanted. He had a David Shigii hybrid but it was really beat up, and he had a lot of Billbergias but mostly Hallelujah and some others that I already have. He had a lot of neos but again I had a lot fo them and many were small.

I was very enamored of the crotons at that display. They had several I wanted but I know I really don;t have a ton of room for them, so I just came away with the Picasso's Paintbrush.

I also saw the Russians from the unmentionable nursery there with their Jade Vines, both Green and Red. They wanted $75 for a gallon container with maybe a single lead 3-5 feet of vine! I have been TRADING vines at least 6-7 times that size. I almost, ALMOST popped for the Red Mucuna bennettii, since mine died about 2.5 years ago, but decided I would just have to do without it.

My friend wanted a new heliconia so we popped over to the TropicalParadise display and Joseph Fondeur was there...we yakked with him a bit and my friend bought a nice Caribaea that he had collected himself and named H. caribaea cv "Fondeur".

I saw a lady there when we were ready to leave with a little one gallon container of Peachy Pink she had bought from him....she paid about $30-35 for it and I SWEAR my hand to God I have better looking one gallon PP's for TRADE than he was selling for that price. But then again he did have some nicer blooming 3-5 gals for about $60.

I was really looking for some Jewel Orchids...I was hoping to get some Ludisia discolor ALBA and maybe some Goodyeras but no one had any for sale.

I saw a rather small container of Anthurium faustinomirandae, the container was small but the plant had already started with some pretty large leaves...they wanted $150 for it! I just laughed to myself...I will wait for my $10 one to attain that size even if I have to wait 5 years.

It was a great way to spend the day even if the plants weren't exactly bargains. Then we went back and had a cookout, guitar jam, drank way too much wine and had to drive back yesterday hung over.

Im confused what Neo tag Lisa?

Ok now I see why Im confused
Michaels Bromeliads and Mikes Broms are two different and seperate brom sellers. Which explains the plant tag. The plant didnt come from Michaels

It doesn't really matter where it was from, hdd. Junglegal said she had a Neo. whose tag said "takemorax concentrica carcharodon", and I was just trying to make some sense of it based on hybrids that I know exist. I could be completely wrong about what it is, but the name as it is stated doesn't make any sense.

I've seen Cyrtostachys grown as an aquatic plant, Bihai, but I'd be a little afraid to try it too, especially with a pricey specimen. The ones in pots in the ponds at Ala Moana Shopping Center appear to be doing well though. We have a couple of good-sized clumps in the ground, but none in water. Another plant that can be grown as an aquatic is Calathea lutea. A lot of people don't know that, but it can take as much water as Papyrus. So can most of the Etlingeras.

Oh I know about those Etlingeras! They are the water hogs of my greenhouse. I also grow variegated crinum asiaticums as pond plants sometimes (while they are still small) it gives them a chance to develop a really killer root system and put on bulk before they get planted out in the yard.

maybe the tag was mis-spelled takemora x concentrica carcharodon

Here is a link that might be useful: makes some sense

That looks like an Orthophytum to me

Here is a link that might be useful: http://s139.photobucket.com/albums/q300/Johnalewis74_photos/