Have you seen Steven Spielberg movie (2002 sci-fi) - Minority Report starred by Tom Cruise & Collin Farrell? Its a futuristic movie about a psychic where her thoughts can be observed and their images manipulated - Tom Cruise and his crew arrest killers before they've had a chance to commit murder.
The twist begins when he is framed as a murderer but wait.. a crime which he didn't commit yet?
Ok..Ok.. where does gardening got to with this?
There was a scene where Tom goes to a gardeners house where the gardener tends all the carnivorous plants in her greenhouse- and that seemed to be interesting to note when it comes to hybrid plants, plants that guard at your gate, plants that cues and plays with your hand...
This is a short script a scene in the greenhouse:
Dr. Iris Henimen:
"It's funny how all living organisms are alike... "
[she starts crushing a mutated plant]
"when the chips are down,
when the pressure is on,
every creature on the face of the Earth
is interested in one thing and one thing only."
[as she continue to crush harder, the plant scars her palm]
"Its own survival. "
You can click here to see the portion of the movie:
Minority Report Part 7
That reminds me of this Creeping Fig (Ficus Repens).
When I purchased it - it was all so docile and tame, and you can see it showing its colour - no, not the variegated white and green - the part where it shed its innocent whites and starts crawling on the walls.
This is how it looked like earlier when I first bought it: Click Here
I'm not saying that's bad, it just what nature would do when its left alone, creating its own environment when left alone.
And the moral of the story: Its all about Survival.
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Does any of your plants wants to tell you: Leave me alone!
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Well this one does, I dare not transfer this, the last time I did that - the whole plant dried up and dead. So this happened to be surviving in the pockets of other main plants. Somehow, it does serve as a good ground cover.
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Click below for more information about this plant:
Red Flame Ivy (Hemigraphis Alternata)
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This is one of my rescued plants,
Aluminium Plant. (Pilea Cadierei) Also known as Watermelon Plant.
I consider this as one of the difficult plants to cultivate. The whole this is just one plant and you tell me how on earth am I going to propagate this more?
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Basic factor:
1) Requires light shade to full shade. (Does not tolerate direct sun without burning of the leaves)
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2) Requires a sandy well-drained soil with regular watering.
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3) Propagated by cuttings or division.
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4) Considered as a poisonous plant. (all parts of the plant)
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12 comments:
Hi James, sorry I didn't watch that movie. But I must say that that creeping fig is cute looking. Its leaves variegated or non, are all attractive. Do you intend to have them grown all over the wall? This variety would definitely make the wall look more interesting with white and light green colours all over. The popular dark green type is monotonous as compared with this one.
Are you sure Pilea cadierei is poisonous? Everything I've found said it wasn't.
How lovely of that Aluminum plant! I always love the plant with variegated foliage. It should be very pretty if the creeping fig climbing all over the wall.
Totally know what you mean about "leave me alone". I often want to transplant the plant from the small pot to a large and pretty container, and only then found out they don't really appreciate my efforts. They were just fine snuggling in the original small pot!
Stephanie - Yes, I intend it to grow on my wall but they are very slow. Hopefully they manage to cover some surface wall by this year, I suspect they may not able to survive too long on the original pot.
I agree with you on the green monotone ones, but even then, they still look exclusive.
Mr.Subjunctive - I don't know if this helps,
do check on these sites on the poisonous plants:
"Poisonous Plants of North Carolina,"
by Dr. Alice B. Russell, Department of Horticultural Science
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/poison/Pileaca.htm
Dave's Garden:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/54482/
Some websites mentioned that this plants pose a low risk of poisoning children and may be considered for use in the home.
http://www.safekid.org/plants.htm
To me, its better to be safe than sorry, if the plant has a reputation of having poisonous substance, its better to note it than ignore it.
Ami - It does take awhile to collect all the varigated types, but its worth it.
And more than anything, those "Touch me nots" are beautiful but difficult to propagate.
I'm surprised. Even a low toxicity is a lot more than what I'd heard before, but it looks like you're right.
yes, plants are really smart! You have a great collection of foliage.
James, I love the Ficus repens. I saw it a lot when I was in S'pore. The variegated form is beautiful, but I can see it reverts to plain green occasionally. I have the same problem with the variegated Ivy 'Goldheart'
I have seen some of my neighbours growing the ficus fig on their walls too. Funny how they like to crawl on the wall, making a natural design. Does it flowers?
Yea, plants love to be left alone, except for water and occasional fertilizer. ~bangchik
Here we go to all this "trouble" to cultivate plants and gardens, not always remembering that each plant will survive just fine on its own if it's planted in the right conditions.
Yup, I have a few which shouts 'Leave me alone!' They surely will die when transfered elsewhere ... hmmmmm!
Thank you everybody for your lovely comments.
Belle - Creeping fig do flower but the flower is not very visible as its a fig species - the flower eventually turn out to be a fig shaped fruit (more like a pear)
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