Friday, March 13, 2009

Spring Fever With Houseplants

Here's a new houseplant, it was an impulse buy on a trip to Kmart a few weeks ago. I thought it looked like a dieffenbachia, or perhaps an aglaonema....

....I really dig the variegation on the leaves...
....and the white stem coloration that extends into the midrib on the leaves.Unfortunatley, the tag that was in the pot revealed very non-specific information. "Assorted Foliage"! Hrumph!
So I did a search for the growers, "Costa Farms", and found a very colorful website. I emailed them and got a very speedy reply from a nice gentleman who suggested I email a picture for a positive ID. Well I did, and it turns out this is Dieffenbachia 'Sparkles'...cool! So if you ever run across some "assorted foliage" from Costa Farms but you must know exactly what you have, never fear-the friendly "plant geeks" at Costa Farms will hook you up! Thanks Mike!

12 comments:

Unknown said...

I like that houseplant. I'm sure Speedy would think it was rather tasty too. I got some dirt ready for seeds today. I think we're all sitting around just waiting for spring to make it's grand appearance.

Bob said...

Glad they called you back at Costa. I'd been happy to ID it for you if they did not respond. The white stem really adds don't ya think. Keep a good eye on it. Sometimes the spider mites really dig diffenbachias.

All the best to you, BOB

Tatyana@MySecretGarden said...

It's a very good idea, thanks! So many times it's saying "Tropical plant" and you go guess what exactly you bought!

troutbirder said...

Now Lisa is a detective as well. Do you handle geneology research as I'm stuck for the moment?

lisa said...

Cinj-Yea, I have to keep many of my houseplants in a room out of kittycat reach, especially this one. It's poisonous! I'm gearing up for my indoor seed starting and some winter sowing over the next couple weeks, spring is trying to appear here with temps in the 40's today. I know we'll get more cold though, last year I had 3" of snow on April 16th!

Bob-Thank you! The white stem was what really caught my eye, so different! Thank you for the advice, I definately don't need any spider mites!

Tatyana-I really find the lack of specific info rather maddening, but it was nice to deal with such a friendly and responsive company. Rare these days for sure.

Troutbirder-I wish I could help, but my eyes glaze over after 3 or 4 great-whoevers! :(

meemsnyc said...

I love those kinds of plants. They are very hardy!

EAL said...

I've seen a lot of labels like that in the boxes. It amazes me too how some of the tropical plant families produce such dramatically different-looking cultivars

lisa said...

Meemsnyc-I hope it'll be hardy for me! I think it may be a smaller cultivar, but if it gets big like a regular dumb cane with the white stems, that would be waaay cool!

EAL-Right? I really enjoy the new plants they come out with, it sure eliminates any "boredom factor".

Monica the Garden Faerie said...

I like houseplants in other people's houses, but I don't seem to want a lot in my own house. I don't know why. I love the mushroom in the background of the first photo!

lisa said...

Maybe you get enough of a "plant fix" from the greenery outdoors....my winter is too long I think. I got the mushroom as a set of three from The Lakeside Collection, and I put them outdoors in the summer. I tried to find the link to them on the website, but I couldn't find them (they were in the most recent catalog I got though).

chuck b. said...

I was going to say my only houseplant is an aglaonema, but then I remembered we have a terrarium now with two tillandsias.

Dieffenbachia are amazingly poisonous. Just sayin'.

lisa said...

Thanks Chuck, I keep the dieffenbachia in a separate room that the kitties can only enter under constant supervision when I'm there...as much for the plant's safety as theirs! ;-)