purpleinopp said:
A parallel appeal is the tiny size of some of them. The HUGE popularity of mini gardens recently has taken hold of me, and I can't get enough tiny plants and mini gardens. This is good for someone who wants more plants, but their house isn't growing...

Your point makes perfect sense, Purple!

I like mini ones too Tiffany!! I don't care if they're in mini gardens or not, just the diminutive plants are cute to me!!

Caudiciforms and pachycaul trees are my plant passion.
I love the small Euphorbia caudex forming plants. But I enjoy growing most anything with a caudex. The pachycauls I have at this time are Bursera and Commiphoras. I don't keep them as small as some people do.
A lot of these two groups of plants can be slow in growing a magnificent fat body. But large specimens can be very pricy . So I generally start with young plants . That way I can purchase more during the year. But I do drool over many out of my price range.

I like caudiciforms and pachycaul trees too.
I bought 5 pachycaul trees last month.
I got Bursera fagaroides, Bursera microphylla, Operculacarya decaryi, Pachycormus discolor var. veatchiana, and Senna meridionalis.

I'm with Reine and Adam. I LOVE the fat plants. Adam, you have Bursera fagaroides!!!!?? Wow. That is a fabulous plant. Peeling bark like a birch on a caudiciform! So weird and cool. I found a very large specimen with a huge caudex and a little hollow right in the middle, like a bellybutton. It was $300. Very old plant, wild caught in Mexico probably 20 years ago. I also am drooling over a pair of Uncarina grandidieri, huge, beautiful...for $1200. If you haven't seen it, check it out http://www.rareflora.com/uncar...

I'll spend serious $$$ on plants because I don't spend it on anything else "non-essential"...but I do cut corners making my own soil mixes, propagating, recycling containers and materials. I seek out the other super-excited-about-plants people and trade goodies with them. Like Stush said, there are WAY worse things to be addicted to and blow your money on! Justified!

Cool link Kate! And I'm loving your avatar!! Lovely photo...I don't think I could justify spending so much on a plant, I'd fear losing it! As it is I have several cacti that I bought this past year, this is my first year wintering them over, I don't care if they bloom in the spring or not, I just want them to live!! So far they're looking good! I have only spray misted them, and even that, lightly...so unusual for me, I'm totally a tropical plant type person, bring on the water!!

Uncarina grandidieri is very easy from cuttings.....

Well, in my little world of justifications, I say to myself--those two Uncarinas have been growing happily for many years in a crappy plastic pot about 10 miles away from me...soooo....I'm gonna say they'll live! I have a large Old Man Palm that I fret over constantly, though. It would be a tragedy to lose him. I stuck Dancing Lady orchids in his beard, just to keep him happy.

On the topic of the thread, I also am a sucker for a good, spiraling shape. I've got my obsession with rosettes...echeverias, sempervivums, and actual spirals...cereus spiralis and aloe polyphylla. Irresistible!

So Kate its good you have that aloe then!
I too love spirals and rosette forms and propagating by a lead is awesome

Greg, if you had to pick one plant to keep out of your collection, what would you keep? In fact, what would everyone keep?

I would keep my Old Man Palm. Just cause I respect his age. He's seen more than me, I think. Plus he has orchids in his beard, so those are freebies ;)

I would keep this fuzzy Sempervivum 'Neptune' and hopefully it will give offsets soon because I only have this one rosette ...

That is adorable--I love the fuzzies!

And the Old Man isn't a succulent...so, let me try again. I would keep my Euphorbia aphylla. Irresistable.

I think that's almost impossible. I have a fern that I shared caring for way back in 1983. Sometimes she'd have it and sometimes I'd have it. For the past ten years I've had it, it hung down so long that I decided to get a 6 foot stake asks tie it up and now its doing amazing things.But it's not a succulent.
Probably one of my gasteraloes I have 4 and they're all really nice! (But this is only if you forced me!)

I don't think l could pick just one plant out of my collection of caudiciforms. If someone was forcing me too, I would scream, cry, beg, just have one big conniption fit For real. It would take a month of Sundays and I still would not be able come close to deciding. I would resort to hiding them I confess...I am a fat plant junkie. Have been since my first one, a Pachypodium saundersii. Received it for Mother's day, 1981.


Desperately needs a bigger pot. 1 gallon water jug for size comparison

Reine I know it's impossible! You're plants look great!

Not a succulent but a baby non the less it's my old fern standing upright in back of pot with another fern in front (poor photo but it gives an idea)

Lovely plants, Greg. I can see why you are very attached to them.

Thanks Reine!

I think the plant that brings back the most memories. Like one I had in childhood. Lost it and now I found one a few years ago and is just beautiful. Most don't like it but I do. It's name; PHILODENDRON FLORIDA BEAUTY. or fiddle leaf philo. Also once a plant dies for me, I sort of loose interest in it. Right now this past year I went Asclepiads crazy. I found some that has blooms like their cousins Hoyas'. And just as large. In the Caralluma family. Right now I have seedlings. Plants too expensive and shipping from out of country. So far so good.
Stush