What are we all up to this weekend? I’m removing the fake grass from our front garden, like the party animal that I am.
A few things I’ve been thinking about this week:
Monstera Burle Marx Flame
I have an upcoming post on all the different variations/cultivars you can get of Monstera deliciosa, and I assumed that Monstera Burle Marx Flame was one, because it’s not in the list of wild Monstera and it…looks like one. A fancy one, but still pretty similar.
Turns out no, it’s APPARENTLY a cultivated dupe of the Monstera Dilacerata, created in a lab by hybridising Monstera dilacerate and Philodendron insulare.
This is a bit fishy. For one thing, you can’t cross Philodendron and Monstera. It would be like a cat breeding with a dog. I googled Philodendron insulare anyway and nothing came up. INTERESTING. Like…was it just a typo???
So is it just a Monstera dilacerata?
Naturally I googled Monstera dilacerata and it’s not even a freaking Monstera. It is, as ever, an Epipremnum pinnatum variant. Also NOT the same as a Burle Marx Flame.
Back to square one.
(All I wanted to know was whether I needed it in my article, yet here I am down ANOTHER Monstera rabbit hole)
ANYWAY
A bit more digging around and it turns out no one really knows what it is. Because there’s only one, and it was found in Robert Burle Marx’s personal collection. All other specimens are descended from this plant.
It hasn’t actually been classified. Some people believe that the Burl Marx Flame is a juvenile version of M. deliciosa var. sierrana, but they tend to get laughed out of the room.
A Burle Marx Fantasy is different. Don’t waste time because you accidentally got them mixed up. They have the same mysterious history though. Was Burle Marx just making plants?
New propagations
I have another upcoming article on how often you need to change the water in propagation pots. I have three Rhaphidophora Tetrasperma cuttings, and I’m changing the water of one daily, one weekly, and one never.
Imagine if it makes no difference. I’d wasted, er, about half an hour of my life. Still, that’s a decent nap.
I’m also trying out the rooting-with-a-Pothos thing to see if it makes a difference.
New soil/repotting the babies
The babies have all grown up!
They’re all growing SO QUICKLY that plus the warm weather meant that they were drying out super quickly, thus the repot. I’m using clear orchid pots because they were the right size and i like looking at roots!
So many new leaves on everyone apart from the Ficus Audrey. No shame intended (I don’t think she reads this blog) but when all your plants are growing but one, it’s difficult to not be all ‘what’s wrong with you??’. Ficus are just slower! I mean, they grow into huge trees tht will be extremely impressive one day, so there is NO RUSH
This week’s house plant tour
This week I loved this Spring House Plant Tour from Heather’s Plant Boutique. She has a really nice mix of ‘normal’ plants and rare ones, and it’s just really slow and gentle to watch.
Plant chores this week
Taking care of my propagations. I have to many at the moment, but I want to get them rooted now so they have a nice long growing season.
The Philodendron brasil cuttings that I took in February to research this article on what substrate roots plants fastest still aren’t quite ready to go back in with their mum, BUT they’ve all gone into fertiliser water because *spoilers* it was fastest to root (though not fastest to root and then start growing).
I also need to get back into the routine of spraying my moss poles. I have no idea why I struggle so much with remembering to do this.
Have a great week!
