Has anyone seen any around lately?

I've never seen one in my local nurseries. People occasionally share pictures of them on garden forums, but that's my only exposure to them. Etsy is showing some starter plants available on-line. Haven't looked elsewhere though.

I can't say I noticed it this year, but I do see it come up.

Must be on a long boat ride with the captain, I guess. The captain & Chenille.

I have never seen one in real life.

Ooh, I hope you get a chance sometime! The feather things really look fake.

Chenille Plant (Acalypha pendula)
Chenille Plant (Acalypha hispida)

purpleinopp said:Ooh, I hope you get a chance sometime! The feather things really look fake.

Chenille Plant (Acalypha pendula)
Chenille Plant (Acalypha hispida)

I have seen some chenille plant images, and also some close relatives of the chenille plant. But I have never seen the exact chenille plant in real life.

I hope you do. The first time I saw 1 was @ a Bot. garden.

I've seen them here this summer at Home Depot and a local garden center, not that that helps you but I remembered your inquiry and thought about you Tiffany. So they are available but maybe less fashionable in certain locals. I like them as well and have grown it as a houseplant in the past.

I am glad to hear she's out there somewhere, even if it's so far away. Thanks!

I usually see them with the premium annuals but this year I didn't see so many of those. Here was a display with Hypoestes I really liked back in 2019. My picture has some glare so it looked better in real life. I didn't get any and to tell you the truth, they didn't sell. They were still there in the fall but then this nursery always stayed stocked. They did fantastic pot combinations but they closed this location. The other locations are great too but this one was small and specialized more in those premium annuals and tropicals.

Beautiful display!

purpleinopp said:Beautiful display!

I have to agree!

It was so much fun to visit there.

My chenille patches are doing fine.
I took some that I potted up into town [last year] and planted next to someone's chicken coop...
The way that their yard produces Acalypha rhomboidea... I thought Acalypha pendula would be an easy item to introduce... Hasn't done much... not sure that it's even there anymore.

I could pot up more... Not sure what to tell you about growing conditions, though...

At my house Acalypha pendula is a perennial that grows in dry sand in fairly deep shade.

Hmm...! It never occurred to me to even check & see if it's hardy. That's beautiful!

Hey @purpleinopp,
I got a free one on Oct. 8th from a local nursery here in Marietta. I split it in two since it was badly roodbound. If it survives the winter indoors, I can send some your way in the spring.

Ron

Heythere, how fun is that?! Thank you so much for thinking of me. Best luck! ; )

they always have it in nurseries in South FL.
I rooted cuttings that i took at the pool deck in my building: they dug it out since , so it's a memory of things gone now :).
it is a new Xmas plant for me (at least in Miami :)): the catkins hang down in profusion like red-icicles of sort. I just love it!.
this a pic from a nursery : in ground standard tree approx 7' high .
this is in april 2021, but the catkins hang down year round and just as many in at Christmas time, since usually it's 75-80F .

The cuttings that i rooted in Miami i then transferred to NJ and kept them indoors .
they bloomed in part-sun west window, but catkins were never dense, so not very attractive. and it gets mites all the time, so spraying is a must. besides that it gets leggy and grows in a funny sparse fashion, it's a shrub not a tree after all.
so.. i took it back to FL and much more intense light in south window last spring finally made the difference in blooms: they were so dense that i had to stake it...and it was still bending!


the problem is that it produces a catkin at each leaf node and refuses to grow good leaves, so it never gets bigger! this pic above is after 3 years growth indoors in NJ: puny! and 2 out of 3 cuttings died (well, in 12oz tumbler, prolly is my fault..as i keep my plants in small-ish pots: no room left)

so i pruned it down and made 3 more 3" pots last aug and they all took and are blooming in NJ already (on the NE balcony with a few hours of morning sun).
so finally after 4! years i'll be able to make a good size basket out of them when i take them back to Miami. Just in time for Xmas. :)


so indoors it is rather hard to keep and not rewarding. as a patio plant in good light conditions it's a candy!