Neofinetia falcata Ryokusaihou - variegated bean leaf

[AnonYMouse]

*shiver*

I hate, hate, HATE earwigs. They creep me out. Makes me want to go get myself a reptile to nosh on them!

[Joyorchid]

They chew on my gladiolas outside, but they don't hurt my orchids. I have found a couple on the phals. They are super creepy though.

[paph-neo nut]

Jafar, I love your verigated bean leaf. It is just so cute. Best of luck with it. I‘ll be looking forward to following its progress.

[Jayfar]

Originally Posted by Jayfar

I probably should probe into the moss a bit, but since it's very fresh moss, I pretty much trust that Seed Engei sold me a plant with healthy roots. If I were to kill this one, I would probably throw myself into the compost pile with it.

Originally Posted by Pilot

New moss is always a good sign and what I'm about to say should in no way diminish Satomi or her plants; I speak only of my experience. However, I received a fugaku from her that is truly beautiful but the plant had next-to-no roots. I didn't bother to email or call her out on it-- neos do weird things and in the end, even with nearly no roots, you can always get them to make more if you baby them enough.

So with that said, and this is just me, I'd look.

Did a little probing and the shorter roots I can see without completely undoing the mound look clean and healthy. I'm not going to completely unmound/remound; the existing mound is so well done and I verified from below that the mound has a nice big hollow space.

Yesterday they all needed watering, so I included a dose of KelpMax to help give everybody one last good burst of root growth before winter.

[Leafmite]

What a beauty! Flowers for that one will just be a bonus as the leaves are already so fabulous!

---------- Post added at 01:08 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:05 AM ----------

My pitcher plant loves earwigs but I am not fond of them. They really destroy flowers.

[Jayfar]

Originally Posted by Leafmite

What a beauty! Flowers for that one will just be a bonus as the leaves are already so fabulous!

Thanks! You know it never even occurred to me that it might eventually flower.

---------- Post added at 01:20 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:09 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Call_Me_Bob

Wow Jay, you've always gotta be better than everyone else don't you?! I'm just gonna go into a corner and cry because I'm jealous!, then I'll plot my cunning scheme to steal it. You'll be so occupied with all the other neo-ninjas coming for it, that you won't notice me! I'm in love with this plant! It's so tiny and SO CUTE!!

Yep, I'm getting to be a bit of a show-off. But honestly, I felt the need to have at least a couple trophy plants among my otherwise fairly pedestrian collection and it's a worthy substitute for the unattainable kinkirin I've had on my wishlist. I'd consider leaving it to you in my will, but I'm afraid that might result in my untimely demise in a mysterious accident.

Originally Posted by Call_Me_Bob

As far as a pot goes you should buy #34!

Hmmm, that would go with it nicely. I hadn't looked over New World's selection of pots for a while. He really does have a great selection.

---------- Post added at 01:29 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:20 AM ----------

Originally Posted by rangiku

It's beautiful, Jay. Ganbatte kudasai! Please post monthly photos so we can live vicariously through you.

Thanks, I'll try to update periodically with photos, but I suspect it will be like watching grass grow in very slow motion. With any luck, that new leaf may partially emerge before winter.

[Island Girl]

Wow! That is sooo beautiful! I'm totally jealous! I can't wait to see the flowers either, but if that was in my collection, I'd be ok even if it didn't flower!

As for why you decided against leaving this beautiful Neo to Not-Bob in your will... Lol, I had a good laugh over that one! Thanks.

[MattWoelfsen]

Just out of curiosity, Jayfar, how was this plant packed and boxed? I noticed on one of your pictures, the tag wasn't the usual print out tag like some of the tags they use with their more common offerings. Recently I received a couple of plants that had hand written information.

[Jayfar]

Originally Posted by MattWoelfsen

Just out of curiosity, Jayfar, how was this plant packed and boxed? I noticed on one of your pictures, the tag wasn't the usual print out tag like some of the tags they use with their more common offerings. Recently I received a couple of plants that had hand written information.

6x6x6 box with handle with care and perishable stickers (really should have been live plants sticker). The plant was wrapped in newspaper and box filled with styro peanuts. Moss was ever so slightly damp on arrival.

Interesting that the manifest attached to the box had no signature required checkbox checked, but the actual tracking showed Direct Signature Required. A bit of searching on the fedex site revealed that Direct Signature Required is automatically applied to shipments with declared value over 500. The downside of that is that the fedex tracking site disabled the ability for me to set delivery options. I usually redirect to the big fedex center located a less than 10 minute bus ride away and thus am able to pick up the first thing in the morning, even though standard 2-day results in afternoon or evening delivery (residential addresses as late at 8pm).

Fortunately, when I gave Satomi my delivery address (having noticed my paypal address didn't include my apartment number), I fumble-fingered the last digit of my zip code. This resulted in a delivery exception, which in this case was a good thing. When I called fedex to correct the zip, I also confirmed it was at the local fedex center and had them put it on hold. Result is that I was able to grab the package in the morning, rather than waiting for a delivery as late as 8pm. When I had called fedex the previous day that option wasn't available for my package, possibly because of the Direct Signature requirement.

To make a short story long, when I arrived at fedex they didn't find it among the holds, but their computer showed the address correction. It's possible that the hold option was still disallowed for the package, but for whatever reason it was set to go out on a truck. The folks at fedex locally are always super-helpful though and they searched until they found it for me.

Seriously, I can't say enough good things about the people working counter at my local fedex. They greet their regular customers by name and often don't even need the tracking number to grab my package(s).

[Joyorchid]

Originally Posted by Jayfar

Seriously, I can't say enough good things about the people working counter at my local fedex. They greet their regular customers by name and often don't even need the tracking number to grab my package(s).

That just means you have ordered entirely too many neos, and you must send the excess to me immediately.