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View Full Version : Aglaonema anyone?


Tog Tan
03-10-2009, 02:52 PM
Aglaonema X Red Peacock
<a href=http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=13388><img src=http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=13379 border=0></a>

Aglaonema, family, Araceae, yes folks, this is the most colorful and showy member of the family. It is considered the Gem of SEA, specifically Thailand. Many, many $ have exchanged hands for prime plants. One of the first hybridizers sold 3 small plants which was given as a gift to the Sultan of Brunei for us$30,000 some 10 years ago. Then the craze started. Finally it shifted to Indonesia where the folks there got the fever and went to Bkk to sweep up the plants for sale in their plant market.

I have been collecting the species and hybrids for as long as I can remember and I am still doing it. I once went to that reputed hybridizer's nursery and saw a tiny 3inch hybrid which I fancied. Being a mutual friend he was willing to sell me that plant at a special price for 70,000b or us$2,000! Of course I didn't buy it.

If you are looking for a plant which comes in all shapes, sizes, forms and colors, this is the plant to go for. It is a hardy and vigorous grower and will start producing pups or off shoots under a year. They also grow readily from cuttings.

I just love them for their colors which seem to challenge the spectrum of the rainbow.

Hybrid X1, forget the Thai name, it will only twist and finally put your tongue beyond repair! :ha: This is a mini which is about 1ft tall. Super colors.
<a href=http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=13380><img src=http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=13380&size=1 border=0></a>

Hybrid X4. This another mini which is a beautiful Warm Pink.
<a href=http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=16050><img src=http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=16051 border=0></a>

Aglaonema assortment. This is a bunch of species and the White/Green hybrid forms at my nursery.
<a href=http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=16051><img src=http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=16052 border=0></a>

I hope these 4 pix will tempt you to find out more about this gorgeous little plant. You can see a couple more of them in my photo gallery.
Cheers! :ha:

Worm_Farmer
03-10-2009, 04:41 PM
Thats pretty cool, I like the 2nd one because it is so bright and the 3rd light pink looks like it might be a little more pleasing to the eye. But $2,000 USD for one plant,, WOW!!

Then again pups in less then a year sounds like you can recover this expense pretty quick.

How do they hold up in the cold?

damaclese
03-10-2009, 05:47 PM
Tog you are amazing in your creativity and ability to find and discus plants that keep us all starry eyed thanks id love to grow them but at 2000$US I'm afraid thats not going to happen and i need a new plant like i need a hole in my head LOL my water bill is already going to hit 100$US a month this summer but thanks for showing them to us!!!!

lorax
03-10-2009, 06:23 PM
GNAAAH. I'll have to make do with my hybrid Dieffs.

saltydad
03-10-2009, 08:39 PM
... my water bill is already going to hit 100$US a month this summer but thanks for showing them to us!!!!

When I had my lawn reseeded 2 seasons ago, my water bill went up to $900 for the quarter! Needless to say the grass is a lot browner from that point on.:ha:

Tog Tan
03-10-2009, 11:52 PM
GNAAAH. I'll have to make do with my hybrid Dieffs.
I used to like the Dieffies but because they grow so well here, they form arm sized, trunk-like stems and only have the leaves up top. With Aglaonemas, the leaves remain on the stem even though it is matured. The leaves are very long lasting and seldom shed. It's amazing. That's why they look so bushy all the time.

Tog you are amazing in your creativity and ability to find and discus plants that keep us all starry eyed thanks id love to grow them but at 2000$US I'm afraid thats not going to happen and i need a new plant like i need a hole in my head LOL my water bill is already going to hit 100$US a month this summer but thanks for showing them to us!!!!

Paulo, the high prices only apply to the prime prize winning plants. The crazy guys have competitions all the time and the prices of the winning plants are moronic. For most of the TC'd plantlets, for a 6 inch plt, the price is about $ 10. Selected rooted hybrids cost from $50 to $ 100. All the plants in the pix here are in this price range. The Red ones cost more as the Thais consider it a lucky color. I think luck for the seller! :ha:

The current trend are the compact minis. They don't grow beyond 18 in. In the past most of the hybrids were standard sized plants like the species which grow to over 3ft tall. I still have the old hybrids as they are very nice except that they get big. I feel these make ideal landscaping elements because of the bright colors. Collecting the species can be fun too.

Some of them have cool camouflaged colors like the A pumila here which is a very small guy and is rhizomatus.
<a href=http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=13398><img src=http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=13378 border=0></a>

Patty in Wisc
03-11-2009, 12:20 AM
Tog, I gotta say you amaze me with the beautiful & different plants you grow!
I thought it was only nanas you grew.

Tog Tan
03-11-2009, 08:54 AM
Tog, I gotta say you amaze me with the beautiful & different plants you grow!
I thought it was only nanas you grew.

Yo Patty,

I was all the time into collecting ornamental foliage plants before I went bananas after I joined you guys. I didn't know anything about 'naners when I got into the board except eating them! :ha::ha::ha:

Tropical Texan
03-12-2009, 10:51 PM
I have 2 of these wonderful plants.....one I found at an estate sale (first time I saw one with berries on it), I've had it for about 8 years now. The other is from my FIL's funeral...my MIL gave it to me along with other plants that she recieved duplicates of.

Mine are both A. commutatum varieties (? Key Largo & Calypso ?), although one kinda has the camoflage look of the A. pumila. They really are great houseplants, especially for low light areas (...like bathrooms -they like the humidity too). And yes, they multiply very well!

I really like the multi-colored ones in your photos...I wasn't aware that there were colored hybrids!! Those are sooo cool! Thanks for posting the pics!

damaclese
03-13-2009, 07:38 AM
When I had my lawn reseeded 2 seasons ago, my water bill went up to $900 for the quarter! Needless to say the grass is a lot browner from that point on.:ha:

900 wow that high I'm afraid as you all know from other post that we here in southern NV are victim of the souther Nevada water authority which in all its wisdom has decided to Reade the sounding three contys of Clark to pump the water out to us here in Vegas at a cost of 3 billion dollers a foolish and ridiculously exspesiv and in my opinion a ecologically irresponsible endeavor when all we would have to do to make are current water supply's last by baning all grass here in Las Vegas o and maybe tell the balagio that the 3 acer water feature out in front that evaporates 250,000 gal of water a day that they have to turn it off and if any one says gray water to me one more time I'm going to probably get arrested for thrashing out the nave!