I got this in a 3 inch pot back at the beginning of 2010. It's now about 18" wide and 12" tall. Baby plant or not, I planted it right out on the hot dry slope, watered it daily for a week, and then forgot about it. It has prospered without any further effort on my part. I've read that Cotyledon are quite toxic to goats and sheep, so don't feed these to your ovines.
I have another Cotyledon that I got at a picture frame store. Yes, a picture frame store. The guy had a friend who sold succulents, so he bought a bunch and planted some around his store and sold off the extras. The frame store Cotyledon filled a 5 gallon pot. I planted it about 3 feet (1 m) away from 'Happy Dancing Girl', While 'Happy Dancing Girl' thrived, Frame Store Cotyledon bloomed and then declined. I see since we got our October rain it appears to be coming back.
I went up on the slope to examine it...all the stems that bloomed have died. New stems have grown from the base of the old, dead ones. Do Cotyledon stems die after bloom, like Aeoniums? Or is the frame store plant the unhappy version of 'Dancing Girl'?
These two plants Happy and Frame Store, seem to be identical, and possibly might be Cotyledon orbiculata var. oblonga 'Flavida', or something along those lines. The 'Happy Dancing Girl' name is a kind of marketing tool used by Proven Winners--their line of succulents, some hybrids, some plain old regular species--all get jazzy trade-marked names. Marketing. Sigh. For example, they've trademarked a new name for Agave bovicornuta: 'Reggae Time'TM. Agave geminiflora is 'Rasta Man'TM. Deep sigh.
A dumbed-down culture that cannot appreciate botanical names and the scientific reasoning behind the names, mixed with modern capitalism and perky, cheerful style. Nothing against Proven Winners--they produce some wonderful plants--but...a plant is a miracle of nature, millions of years of evolutionary refinement. Must this be reduced to mere...product?
I cannot agree more with cute names and our dumbed-down culture. No wonder people do not know how to pick plants for their climate, since they don't know geography, either. But they do know how many tattoos Bristol Palin or Paris Hilton have, I bet...
ReplyDeleteFunny names like 'Rasta Man' seem OK if they leave the botanical name. I know YuccaDo.com does that, but I have'nt looked @ Proven Winners.
i'm pretty dumbed down when it comes to botanical names (but vow to work on that!), but i love the name "happy dancing girl"! the touch of purple on the end of the teal is beautiful!
ReplyDeleteJanine, I agree, it is a sweet name, and I do love those purple tips.
ReplyDeleteDesert you made me laugh when you said "they don't know geography, either". All too true! Up until 2008, my sister, when telling people she lived in Alaska, would often get a response that went something like, "Oh, so you're Canadian!"