Olbrich Botanical Gardens Part 1

So like I mentioned in my last post, back in May I went with my family to Madison, Wisconsin and we went to the Olbrich Botanical Gardens. They are enormous and have both indoor and outdoor gardens, so I've broken up all the pictures into several posts. This post is some of the indoor plants!

 So I'm pretty sure this is a hibiscus. I took a photo because of the crazy double bloom! I'd never seen a flower like this before.

 I also forget what species this is, but I thought the flower looked cool, especially with the hot pink bits sticking out above the reddish orange puffs.

 I know this is either a bromeliad or an orchid. I'm thinking orchid, maybe a dendrobium? Either way the flowers are pretty.

 I thought this flower was pretty interesting because of the tips poking out like wheel spokes.

 This is the Chenille Plant! I really like these. They are very soft and do feel like a chenille sweater. I always sneak a little touch even though you probably aren't supposed to. My local nursery had some of these a couple of weeks ago. I'd like to get one someday but I'm on a plant no-buy right now.

 Another very neat flower. I thought the way they clustered was cool.

 This is an orchid, although I don't remember what kind. It's a big flower.

 This flower is so cute and dainty!

 This is the flower on a succulent, I think it's a Kalanchoe. The leaves are fuzzy and they're covered with these little purple flowers.

 This isn't the clearest picture, but it is a flower on a Rhipsalis. I have a Rhipsalis but it's never flowered, and I'd never seen one flower before.

 Here's what looks like a close relative of a Rhipsalis. It's a Hetiora from Brazil.

 Like the label says, this is a Taffeta plant. They look and feel kind of like taffeta! It's hard to tell from a picture but the leaves are almost metallic looking in the sunshine.

 Here's the ceiling of the geodesic dome that comprises the indoor portion of the gardens. You can see all the palm and banana plants in this picture.

 Here's a flowering Epiphyllum! I have three different kinds of these but none of them have flowered yet. Epiphyllum are tropical cacti.

 In the indoor gardens there were quail! They were moving around a lot so it was hard to take a picture of them. They are so cute! When I was in elementary school we tried hatching quail eggs as a class project but none of them ever hatched. I've always liked quail since then even though our experiment didn't work.

 Here's another pretty flower!

 There's always a waterfall in the geodesic domes! And you can see that Epiphyllum on the left.

 Here's another picture of the quail! They are actually pretty small.

 Every time I see a pineapple growing, I have to giggle a bit. They just look so goofy popping out of the top of a bromeliad. They're adorable when they're that tiny though!

 Here's some pitchers from a Nepenthes. This is another plant I would love to grow, but I don't have an area with enough humidity for them.

This is a really weird orchid. Apparently it's in the genus Gongora. Those huge bottoms are so different from other orchids. 

That's the first part of the Olbrich Botanical Gardens! Next time I'll finish up the indoor portion, which includes more orchids, tillandsias, and some carnivorous plants. Then we'll move on to the outdoor gardens!

2104 Aloe Collection

Here is my Aloe collection. I also have two big old Aloe vera plants that I didn't take pictures of. 

 This little beauty is an Aloe aristata. It is dark green with that slight red blush from the high light. It is really pretty and has stayed in this rosette form.

 This is Aloe buhrii. I bought it randomly on a whim. It is growing some more leaves so it will be interesting to see how it grows.

 Here is Aloe juvenna. I almost killed it last winter but I was smart this year and brought it away from the window before it got too cold. It's still very small but it is a neat little plant.

Lastly is Aloe vaombe. This is another plant that I bought randomly and don't know a whole lot about. It's grown some new leaves recently so it seems happy and I'm looking forward to seeing it grow.

2014: Agave Collection

This year could definitely be the year of the Agave. I tripled my collection! I really am getting into these guys, although they are very pointy and can be a pain to repot. 

 This is Agave americana. Yep, the Century Plant that blooms rarely and can get huge. I hope that mine will flourish and someday get to be one of those huge ones.

 This one is called Agave shawii. It is very spiny! The spines are kind of a reddish brown color.

 This is a closeup of the leaves on my Agave striata. These hurt a lot when they poke you! I've accidentally done it a few times and wow, these are sharp.

 This is what the whole Agave striata looks like. It's a fairly small plant right now but it has been making lots of new leaves.

 This is a closeup of some Agave stricta var. rubra that I have grown from seed. They are just a little over a year old now. The plant in the foreground is showing off the red color very nicely.

 Here's the entire pot of Agave stricta. Next month I'm going to repot them nicely because they're sprawling around a bit and looking silly.

 This is Agave titanopsis. Its spines are brown as opposed to the rest of the leaves. It's not as sharp and pokey as some of these other species I have.

And lastly, this is Agave victoriae-reginae var. compacta. As you can see, it has made lots of pups but they don't have the white coloring yet that the main plant does. This is a really pretty Agave which is what attracted me to it in the first place.

2014: Adromischus Collection

Since it's the end of the year, I thought it would be a good idea to photograph all of my indoor plants to see their progress over the past year and to properly catalogue them. So the next series of posts will be focused on my indoor collection. My plan is to group them by genus; if I only have one plant in a genus I'll either post it alone or with a group of similar plants. This post is about Adromischus.

 This is Adromischus cristatus. The leaves feel kind of puffy, like little pillows. This plant flowered shortly after I bought it, and you can see that it is making a pup on one side.

 This is Adromischus mariane. It is mottled brown and grey for the most part. It also flowered profusely this year, and then started growing new leaves, which are greener. It has kind of gotten floppier as it has grown.

 I know this is an Adromischus but I have forgotten the species. It also flowered once this year.

This is the very first Adromischus I bought, and I have also forgotten its species name. It has never flowered for me. However, it has grown quite a lot since I bought it and is continuously making new leaves. It's currently in a pot with a sedum hybrid but I will probably move it into its own pot soon.

Winter is officially here

Well it snowed here last weekend, so winter is definitely here. My outdoor garden is completely done. For now I am restricted to only indoor gardening. There isn't a whole lot going on, so here are some random pictures of some of my indoor plants.

These are some of my most recent cactus acquisitions. There's a Rebutia, a Mammillaria, a Ferocactus, and a few others. Next time I'll post some of my Agave and Aloe species and my indoor light set up for my larger plants that I just put up.

I keep buying succulents

I'm actually a few succulent posts behind! I just keep buying them. Succulents are my favorite kind of plants-I can grow them year round indoors and there are so many kinds. Lots of them are just plain weird and I love weird plants. 

 So this guy is a weird Adromischus that I found. I think the tag says it's an Adromischus mariane. I thought it was just interesting because it's brown and white. It makes little white-yellow flowers.

 This is my first Ferocactus! Ferocactus macrodiscus. I think Ferocactus is such a cool genus because they all look like they can kick your butt. I bought this one because of the red and yellow spines.

 This is an Aeonium arboreum. Hopefully you can see the reddish tinges on the leaves. Those appeared after living under grow lights for a little while! I like Aeoniums and I'm hoping to get a Swartzkopf eventually.

 Here's another crazy Adromischus-this one is A. cristata. I obviously bought it for the cristate puffy leaves. It's very soft to the touch too. It has been flowering as well recently and makes tiny little white flowers.

Here's my second Agave. This is Agave striata. I just liked it for some reason. I'm starting to get into Agaves so expect to see more!