Palm Decor

I couldn't have spent so much time lately blogging about palms, without including these shots of a shelter at Waimea Valley Botanical Garden.
 

Massive palm fronds (my guess is from the classic Cocos nucifera or coconut) were used to wrap the posts of this lovely but simple shelter.

It's hard not to look at this and begin fantasizing about my future home in one of the more remote corners of Oahu or the Big Island. Such a nice way to decorate and bring the palms inside.  

Musa

A quick note to any regular readers: Sorry about my no-show yesterday.  I took a snow day.  Second, wow!: this is a snowy season.  All the more reason we should wish we were all on a tropical island right now.  Eating bananas. 

So, with banana daiquiris and sandy beaches on the mind, today's post is on the banana, or Musa.  Now, I won't dare assign a species name to this plant.  Most bananas (or plantains) are derivative from M. acuminata or M. balbisiana.  So much so that cultivar names are as specific as one can hope to be when deriving the nomenclature of a banana. 

The genus is fascinating, however.  Though it can get quite tall, it is not a tree.  Instead, Musa is always a herbaceous stalk.  More specifically, the "trunk" of banana trees is actually a set of fused petioles, or a pseudostem.  It's also considered by many to be an annual -- after flowering the stalk will die and a new stalk (or pseudostem) grows in its place. 

The leaves are, obviously, enormous.  When I was a kid in Malaysia, I remember we would go to a restaurant where, in lieu of plates, our food was served on the thick, leathery banana leaves that were abundant in the region.  (In fact, Musa is best suspected to be native to Southeast Asia, though with most tropical plants, tracing back its ancestry is difficult.)

 

Schlumbergera

While the genus name Schlumbergera is probably unfamiliar, you may have recognized this plan as Christmas cactus.  I'm loath to assign a species name as Schlumbergera is often hybridized among its species and with similar genera such as Epiphyllum or Rhipsalis.  While this plant did indeed bloom during Christmas, there are also Thanksgiving and Easter cacti, too.  

The flat, lobed leaves with tiny hairs that appear around the flower buds.  Though these plants are native to the forests of Brazil, they are epiphytes and occupy the higher reaches of the canopy.  Here water quickly sheets away and the plant's succulent nature is a method of preserving water.  The hairs around the flower bud are likely adaptations for the plant to trap moisture around the developing flower. 

These are relatively easy to grow - this is from a cutting of my grandmother's cactus.  Obviously, the flower is triggered not in response to changes in temperature, but to changes in light.  As the days get shorter the plant begins to flower.  In the jungle, these flowers open and close each day.

Pothos

Here's another painfully common houseplant, Epipremnum aureum or pothos.  It is not a Philodendron (Philodendrons are never as common as you think as many indoor plants are accidentally called this). 

 

 This plant is native to southeast asia and is a rapidly growing vine.  It will send out adventitious roots, looking for opportunities to anchor into nearby forest trees.  It doesn't quite have that available in an apartment, so you'll have to support it with wire or nails. 

Honestly, I'm not quite sure what to do with it. I guess we'll route it around the kitchen next.  It always reminds me of the scene in Desk Set where Spencer Tracy first meets Katherine Hepburn. 

Chlorophytum comosum

Most people surely know Chlorophytum comosum by its common name, spider plant.  It's another ubiquitous houseplant that is hard to kill.  This one is a green specimen, though the variegated variety is far more popular (students who know me, know I'll chose against variegation almost every time).  

Spider plant is easy to propagate because the plant sends out long stolons on which leaves sprout.  Where nodes would normally occur, adventitious roots develop.  These "babies" can be placed in soil and root quite easily. 

Chlorophytum literally means "green plant" which makes this the most boring etymology story, ever.

Sanseviera trifasciata

I mentioned Sanseviera trifasciata a few weeks ago, when blogging about somali hemp.  It's indeed an insanely popular houseplant.   

 

It's not a particular favorite of mine.  Frankly, it's kinda ugly.  But this thing survived 5 different New York City apartments.  In my first apartment - a north-facing basement unit - this was the only thing that didn't up and die instantly.  It declined steadily to the point that it only had one sad leaf remaining, but when I moved into a 5th floor walk-up (also north-facing), it rebounded.

 

After a few years there, I moved to the Lower East Side.  Second floor unit.  South facing, but the large building across the street blocked any light.  The plant began to wither once again.  This was the site of the infamous apartment fire so soon enough I moved the plant again.  This time to a fourth floor walk-up with east and west light and no big buildings blocking it.

Last year the plant was tested once again.  I moved all my plants to DC in January when my lease expired in NY.  My brother and I packed the truck as fast as we could, hoping to hit the road before the snow started.  No luck.  We spent 9 hours driving from NYC to DC.  I wrapped the plants in plastic bags before we left (and even crammed a few in the cab of the truck) but many perished in the trip.  This one, ever the trooper, was nonplussed.  Now in my new apartment (2nd floor, south light) it's doing quite well, as you can see by the small leaf sprouting above.  I should probably divide it, but the poor thing has been through enough.

Monstera deliciousa

I was inspired by last week's posts, many of which featured indoor plants, to share some of the species I have at home.  First up is Monstera deliciosa or swiss cheese plants.  Though most people know this plant by its genus.

Monstera is actually a vine which explains whey I have several stakes propping this plant up.  In the wild it can scramble up hillsides and along the trunks of large trees.

 

Though it's native to Central America, I saw it everyhwere in Hawaii - in planned landscapes or growing along the sides of highways, vining up trees.  The plant is even somewhat iconic in Hawaii.  Below it's incorporated in a mural in the library of the Four Seasons Lodge at Koele.

And many would recognize its leaf used in patterns for Hawaiian quilts, like this one below:

However, it's not to be confused with split leaf Philodendron, or Philodendron pertusum, which looks quite similar.  In this shot, it's P. pertusum growing next to the Alpinia.

Green Wall Resources

All this talk about green walls has made it painfully evident to me that I do *not* know my houseplants well enough.  The only book I even have about houseplants is a copy of Taylor's Guide to Houseplants with a 1987 copyright on it. It's a handy book, but not as comprehensive as I'd like.

A brief browse through Amazon and a few resources seemed to be best-reviewed. What about you, dear reader?  Do you have any indoor plant book recommendations?

I'd love readers' suggestions on good books for houseplants.  More on what I actually *do* know when it comes to indoor plants next week. 

More on Longwood Garden's Green Wall

Below, Philodendron scandens and Asparagus setaceus.

Below, Selaginella (spike moss) and a mystery plant.  Anyone recognize what's on the bottom?

Philodendron scandens. 

 

Below, Pteris ensiformis (brake fern) and perhaps Hoya?

Rabbit's foot fern (Davallia). 

 

And again, perhaps this is Hoya?  Any other suggestions?

Check out a great account on the development of the wall on Longwood Garden's blog. 

More on the David Rubenstein Atrium

I think the best visual effect of the green wall is the painterly grouping of different species of plants - the broad strokes of alternating color and texture can be striking.  This shot below is of the east side's wall.  This wall seems to be doing a bit more successfully than the one on the west side - the plantings are thicker - and I'm not sure if that's because there's less traffic in and out of the atrium on this side (and thus fewer drafts of winter wind), the lighting is stronger, or the species selection is better. 

Below is a shot of the west side wall and you can see the points of juncture between the plant and wall.  The system seems quite similar to Patrick Blanc's famous walls (more about him and his walls later this week), though it's hard to know what's going on underneath the matting (without getting kicked out of the space, that is).

Above, from bottom center clockwise to the right: one lone croton (Codiaeum variegatum), song of India (Pleomele reflexa), Boston ferns (Nephrolepis exaltata), and philodendron (Philodendron selloum).  I'm curious to see how the wall fares; I would have thought plants like Philodendron, which is native to shady tropical jungles, would have different light and moisture requirements than Pleomele which is native to India.  Surely though, this has all been worked out.

Above, peace lily (Spathiphyllum), boston fern, song of India and croton.  The other observation is the difference in plant habit.  Upright plants like song of India reveal more of the matting than a fuller plant with pendulous leaves, like the ferns.

Lincoln Center David Rubenstein Atrium

So, as I threatened last week, I did indeed make it to the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center.  The atrium is a ticketing center for Lincoln Center and was designed by Tod Williams and Billie Tsien. The actual green wall installation is by Plant Wall Design, a company based in both New York and France.    

 

Above is the west entry of the Atrium - the space cuts through a narrow block between Columbus Avenue and Broadway.  Two green walls greet visitors as they enter the doors.  This one - on the west side - begins about 18" above ground level.  The peace lilies (Spathiphyllum) are planted horizontally in this planter. 

Grow-lights are sited on the other side of the Atrium.  More on this in posts to come. 

This above photo is shamefully out of focus, but I'm including it to show the absence of GFIs in the floor.  I saw a few instances where laptops were plugged into outlets several feet away.  It seems utterly crazy to me -- a new installation that's so wanting in tech support, so to speak.

 

Here we're on the east side of the Atrium, looking west.  This wall begins only about 6-9" above the ground level.  On the left, you see the descending metal rods that comprise a water feature.  

Water drips down into the lighted canisters on the left and bubblers circulate water on the right. To me, the shot below tells a story most designers can relate to.  I can understand the impulse for the fountain to be offset from the wall behind it by several feet.  It makes sense, as it breaks up the tunnel effect and adds some much-needed asymmetry to a long, narrow space. 

And then what happens?  Operations (or a similar entity) plops down a trash can in the corner!  And I get it -- it's a natural space to nestle in a trash bin.  But I hate that when I stopped to take this picture, a garbage can is muddying up the design.  I'm very curious if this was discussed before construction documents were complete.  It illustrates perfectly how important it is that, as designers, we anticipate every aspect of the daily life of the design and test our concepts against that.