What's the cultivar name going to be?

String of Hearts - Pink

            The trend for Strings of Things has been hard to detect.  For commercial houseplant growers who are paying attention and believe that there is demand here, the problem is limited plant material --- major propagators don’t have much available.

            String of Peas has a chance.  There are cuttings available from succulent propagators.  For others like String of Bananas, String of Beads or the elusive String of Dolphins, you are on your own to maintain your own stock plants.

            String of Hearts, the green version, is sought after but difficult to grow enough.

            With all these difficulties, why worry about the pink version of String of Hearts?

            It is a sturdy plant but grows exceeding slow due to pink variegation.  It’s going to be worth the effort, so we need a good name.

            Having found no established cultivar name, I declare that it should be ‘Pretty Pink’.

            Pretty has the double meaning of “mostly”, “pretty-much” and Pretty as in “beautiful”, “good-looking”.

            I propose Ceropegia woodii ‘Pretty Pink’.

Ceropegia woodii 'Pretty Pink'

What's the trend in houseplants?

Primulina 'Loki' living on the windowsill

            I was invited to give a talk to the Indoor Plant Society in Philadelphia, Saturday.  I had agreed to do this, thinking that I will learn more from them, then they from me.

            My talks are a ‘Show ‘n Tell’ about my plants.  So, ‘Mini’ plants for miniature gardens and your windowsill.

            The group of knowledgeable houseplant lovers had brought well-grown plants for their own ‘Show ‘n Tell’.

            To survey the crowd, I asked:  ‘How many grow plants at the windowsill? ----all hands up.  ‘How many have a miniature garden?  --- 2-3 hands.

            This confirms my impression that even though we sell ‘Mini’ plants for miniature gardens, almost nobody does that.  Our small plants are moving into houses to live on a windowsill.