This new leaf on my Syngonium Red Spot Tricolor has such a beautiful mix of white, pink, and green. Just had to show it off. These aren't the rarest in the world but wow do they produce gorgeous leaves
This girl has been struggling a bit until recently. When I bought it, it handled the shipping well and even took the repotting well. I should have probably kept it in a humidity dome for longer though, as the humidity in my house got to it. It usually is actually in the 50-60% range but can dip at times, which seems to be what got it. It has recovered well though and has shot out a beautiful new leaf that is keeping the variegation going very well. I'm getting so excited to see it grow into a bigger tree!
I just noticed this today as I was checking them for water. The shadow makes absolutely now sense for a bright directional light to be 10" away from it. I don't know if I'm just extra tired or what. I feel like it should have a pretty crisp outline. I traced those weird, dotted light rings to the leaf but can't figure what on the leaf is making them. Nothing seems to have these shapes in the leaves to be projecting such an odd silhouette. I'm sure someone will comment that it is something reasonable, but it has me tripping out. The last Pic is the plant that is casting the shadow. It's a 5w directional LED growlight projecting the light and this eas taken when very little sunlight was coming into the room. I feel like the devs were surprised by the odd plant choice and loaded in the shadow for it wrong.
My Philodendron Brasil grew a new almost perfectly heart shaped leaf. Just thought I would share. Excuse the rest of the plant, it's a big box store rescue so a lot of the leafs are pretty warped from the conditions it was in. All new growth is happy though
So I'm a bit frustrated with the shipping carrier for holding it so long but mostly it wasn't the best idea for me to order in the middle of a heatwave. That being said, after a stressful night, they are all recovering well and look beautiful. I'll give a little bit of a good, bad, and ugly review down below. I'll also give the name of the shop in the comments if asked for but this is not an advertisement for the shop and I am not affiliated with this shop in anyway. I can give it purely for referential reasons if you are in Northern California or Bayside area (otherwise, I encourage to shop local when possible). Onto the review:
The Good: I am absolutely in love with the Musa Flordia they sent. It is absolutely gorgeous and it held up to the shipping process so well. It is just showing the slightest bit of stress from the heat but otherwise I can not say more positive things about this one. It is pretty small, but I knew this going into it.
The White Monster (monstera with much more visible white showing), seems to be a legit white monster, even from the TC. I will see better in about 6 months to a year from now, but I have pretty good confidence that this is legit and it is a beautiful specimen. Not the craziest variegation, but still seems to be pretty high quality. I am also adoring this one.
All of the specimens purchased were highly rooted, with healthy roots, and generally seemed very healthy overall.
The Bad: The shop was a tiny bit late with the shipping, which is very minor. The more egregious thing was the minimal insulation and very little thought put into temperature and humidity management. I am very close in shipping terms to this seller, so it was on the road minimally (despite the carrier making me their absolute last stop on a super hot day, with a box that had LIVE PLANTS written very visibly on it). If it had been on the road more than a couple of days, I'm not sure it would have made it. If you are not local, their 2 day shipping is a must.
Also, slightly disappointed on the size of the Philodendron Orange Marmalade. I expected small but not quite as small as I got.
The Ugly: I'm fairly disappointed in the quality of the Alocasia BVG and the Mint Monstera, expression-wise. Their variegation doesn't express itself much in the cuttings they gave me. Not to a horrible degree, and given the price it makes a bit more sense. But the BVG was on the normal to slightly upper price range for similar TCs, so hoping for a bit better quality. That being said, I'm sure they will express it more as they age.
They both also faired the worse from shipping. That makes more sense for the BVG, but seeing how well its WM brother took it, it tells me the Mint is a slightly lower quality TC. So I'm a bit disappointed on that front.
I'm going to throw in a neutral here, which is that the Philodendron is pretty meh. Healthy but could not tell it's different from any other similar Philo. Now, it is very young, so I'm sure the color will come in more and it will be a nice specimen. This is very normal for the plant from what little I know about them, so this just gets chalked up to neither good or bad.
They faired decently as far as market prices go. Some I did well on, some not so well. Nothing unreasonably past market prices though. The Musa Florida was the biggest steal for me and probably the biggest win out of all of the plants.
Overall I have learned a bit more about shipping TCs. Thought I was more familiar since I've had full plants shipped, but this is a whole different ball game, as I am starting to learn. My biggest take was to time my shipments better. This would have been a much more positive experience if I had waited for Fall or Spring. If these go well, I will likely continue buying by TC, cutting, or corm, as it is exciting and a great way to get beautiful rare plants at prices I can actually afford. Thank you, r/rarehouseplants for being so accommodating with my last post and helping get hyped for TC care. Any recommendations would be appreciated, but admittedly what I'm currently doing seems to be working for them, so I likely won't switch it up unless I'm making any egregious errors.
I just ordered my first rare plants off of a local etsy shop! Alocasia Black Velvet Gold, Monstera White Monster, Monstera Mint (I bought one of each to test their white monsters to see if they are legit or actually mint), Musa Florida Banana Tree, and Philodenron Orange Marmalade. They aren't here yet so I just used the example photos they had as examples but they will be coming as starter plants. I will definitely update when they arrive to shout out the shop assuming they ship well and are what I ordered (seems like a legit shop so we should be good). I'm just so excited I couldn't wait. I got the taste for rare plants from a local nursery that I got some Tricolor Red Spot Syngoniums from. I'd love to eventually buy some plants straight from Thailand, but for now TC starters from local etsy shops will have to do.
Hey interior decorators of reddit,
I just wanted to show off my living room design that I am very proud of. I am by no stretch of the imagination an expert, but this is my amateur attempt and creating a peaceful space for myself. I love plants and forests so I decided to go with a minimalist, eclectic forest glade theme. Please tell me what you think but please be kind. This is my first design ever and like I said, I am an amateur. I'll leave the actual designing to the pros. What do you like and what do you see doing different? I probably don't have the funds or time to do anything else until next summer, but I wouldn't mind some tips.