Who doesn’t love a new way to buy plants? Every second Friday night rare plant specialist Living Edge Nursery hosts an online plant sale. Pictures of some 20-30 plants are posted one by one on the nursery’s Instagram account and the first person to reply “Sold” gets the plant. Plants are mailed out the Tuesday after the sale. It’s not an auction, more a first-in, best-dressed scenario.
Begonia sizemoreae.Credit:Robin Powell
And plant collectors are particularly well-dressed with this lot. You could pick up the rare hoya missing from your collection, an ornamental oxalis that looks like a purple butterfly, or the highly treasured half-moon, green and white monstera.
The men behind Living Edge are David Fripp and Blake Jolley, and I travelled up to Peats Ridge, just north of Sydney, to meet them and check out the living catalogue in the greenhouses above their spectacular garden.
In the first, among the figs, hoyas, ferns and anthuriums, my eye is drawn to Begonia sizemoreae, a relatively recent find in the highlands of Vietnam (named for plant explorer Mary Sizemore). The leaf is large, bobbled (the correct term is bullate, meaning lumpily irregular as if covered with blisters), with a lime green spiral curling through a burgundy background.
What makes this a standout are the long soft hairs that edge the leaf and stems. It wants well-drained soil, would rather be drier than wetter, needs bright light indoors or on a verandah and is generally forgiving.
Begonias are increasingly popular in the sales and quick to go whenever they are put up are the sinningias. The one you might know from this mostly Brazilian genus is gloxinia, which is sometimes to be found in garden centres sold as a flowering indoor plant.
Philodendron illsemanii.Credit:Robin Powell
The drawcard of most of the Sinningia family is the caudex (an above-ground stem/tuber/rootstock), which develops over a few years into something that looks like a rock in some species and a twisted and fissured old olive trunk in others.
Emerging from the gnarly caudex of Sinningia bullata are crinkly leaves completely covered on the underside in thick, soft white wool. As if that weren’t enough, there are orange flowers in spring. Once the flowers are done the plant can look straggly so is best cut right back. It will quickly take off again and produce a new dome of leaves.
Both of these are charming, unusual, easy to grow and not likely to dent the wallet. But for the truly rare and highly desirable, be prepared to fork out. Hitting the highs of plant fashion at the moment is variegated Philodendron illsemanii. Each leaf is a different combination of white and green, some splotched, some half-half, and some completely speckled. This is an Instagram darling, so just watch ‘sold’ flash up as soon as it is posted, despite the several thousand dollars price tag!
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