This horror isn't just limited to succulents, no sir - it's all encompassing in the C&S World.

Here is a link that might be useful: Destruction Practice With These Echinocactus

Yes, it is a horror...and, yes, it's been going on a long time. As long as there are buyers (demand), there will be a supply. They are spray-painted. No, they don't live long, as normal succulents would. People planning weddings & events order them to match their color scheme. They don't intend to keep them. Guess they think it's better (cheaper?) than silk or plastic.

=) Chuckling at Paul's take on it!

Paul, Not sure plants have any sense of self but interesting, apt analogy. It sounds like you would assume the plants don't like it.

If this dye-injection thing isn't harmful to the plants, if they're likely to continue normal growth given acceptable care and conditions, I don't see any reason not to do it for the people who do like it. If they're trying to train people to buy these (for Valentine's day?) like Poinsettias for Christmas, that may create some ill will since a lot of people will recognize these as long-lived, carefree house plants, expecting them to not only live but to possibly also continue growing with the "new/unusual" appearance/coloring.

Karen- I actually didn't know that the single heart shaped hoya leaf wouldn't grow into a full plant. I saw one last week and contemplated buying it. So I thank you for saving me money! You can add one more to the number of people who, because of you, didn't throw their money away. :)

Only $9.99 each! These are without question spray painted.

This post was edited by noki on Thu, Jan 24, 13 at 22:05

Noki...why on earth would anyone dye tropical fish? That's disgusting! Plants are bad enough, but fish!!
Next it'll be birds, dogs and cats. Sheesh!

Karyn. I'm reading posts then replying. Each fish is injected?
Would you happen to know the type of fish, not that it matters, just curious.
Still, think it's disgusting.

Purple. Must agree with Paul about women wearing makeup. Humans have a choice, pets and plants do not.

Paul, there's nothing wrong w/women wearing makeup unless after applying, looks like it was spray painted. lol.
TV commercials hype makeup. Young girls are impressed..dark, red lipstick on a 13-yr-old is too much.

123. I can't find Karyn's comment about a Hoya 'Heart-shape/Kerrii,' leaf not growing into a full plant? I don't understand..Please explain.

Noki..'ve never seen painted/dyed succulents before. At first glance I thought they were flowers...Toni

Glass fish have dye injected in them. There's some they actually paint or dip...I didn't know about those. Pretty sickening, huh?

Do a google image search for "tattooed fish"--maybe thats next for the plants too.....

Hi Toni,

It's my comment about the Sweetheart Hoya leaves not growing into whole plants, the Jan 18th post, 3rd paragraph or close to that, pls. read it again.

Hi Toni,

It's my comment about the Sweetheart Hoya leaves not growing into whole plants, the Jan 18th post, 3rd paragraph or close to that, pls. read it again.

Actually, Karen, it was your post above on Jan 21st that has that comment. =)

(Tip: If you are on a laptop or PC, you should be able to press Control, then F -at same time- and put in words to search on the page.)

Plant detective and comment adjudicator is our RoRo.

ps - I watered your dichotoma for the last time in this country.

This post was edited by cactusmcharris on Wed, Jan 23, 13 at 16:10

Hee hee, thanks for watering MY plant, Jeff. I am preparing to mail out your plants soon (glad to say covering them saved 'em from the freeze)...and the all important CACTUS SHADES (for your arrival in this country)!

Last year, I think it was Colleen that alerted us to this spray painting phenomena. We found the company doing it (at that time), wrote to them, commented on their Facebook page how horrified we were at this practice &, of course, nothing came of it. As long as someone is buying, they will sell them...like the glufers, glued rocks, googly eyes glued on, etc. Sad, sad, sad!

Nooo, wasn't me, Rosemarie. :) I haven't seen these gross things in person.

Oops, sorry, Colleen. It was Rina's post. See below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Last year's post

Really the problem here...

Overpriced novelties (fake colors, useless pots, gimmicks) may have a better profit margin, so they reduce the amount of variety you can buy. Less choices.

Plus it is another way for stores/dealers to not care if the plants survive. A throwaway product.

Posted by hopefulauthor
"Paul, there's nothing wrong w/women wearing makeup unless after applying, looks like it was spray painted."

I suspect you read my post too quickly, Toni. I never said there was anything wrong with women wearing makeup in general. My issue is with those women who:
Posted by paul_
" -- lacking any sense of aesthetics in the application of makeup "

Posted by hopefulauthor

Next it'll be birds, dogs and cats. Sheesh!

Since you brought it up ....

(*Have to admit, the panda chow made me laaaaaugh....)

Here is a link that might be useful: What kind of wild animal would you like your dog to be?

And just so that cat folk don't feel left out ......

Here is a link that might be useful: How to earn your cat's undying enmity

Ok, that's absolutely nuts. People have way too much time on their hands.

People used to pay for pet rocks too... like all fads, this too will pass. Has this discussion made anyone else think of the "painting the roses red" song from Alice in Wonderland?

The painted ones seem unlikely to survive to me. Seems like a good way for stores to avoid having to clearance plants though. If they look bad, just paint 'em...

If the dye doesn't make them die, it just seems like a fun experiment to me, like dyed hair. I don't seem to have the concern or time to put that stuff on myself, but it might be fun with plants. Not sure I understand the dyed ones, the effect on the health (like with the fish mentioned above. I searched and read more about that and agree, that's kind of gross.)

I wasn't trying to be controversial with the analogy above, I just have a pretty relaxed attitude about using plants for our amusement/enjoyment as each person sees fit, can afford, fit in their house, whatever. And we hold plants down and do all kinds of weird things to them, the primary one probably being putting them in a pot. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I'd never want to kill one of my plants or knowingly do so, but when experimenting or even in the propagation step, casualties are possible. Of course I wouldn't conduct weird experiments on a sentimental plant, but if I propagate something for the purpose of experiments and it doesn't work out, I don't feel bad about it, just informed and amused. And uhoh, I just bought a pack of googly eyes!

Our dog definitely thinks he's a male lion, napping on the plains, occasionally stretching, a few daily trips around the edges to monitor and inspect his territory, not a care in the world at the top of the food chain...

I was too late to post this myself. You guys beat me to it. While at Home Depot, look what I also saw. I almost bought into it until I looked a little closer. It does make you mad that they are deceiving you. I think it must be food coloring. Paint would kill them. I don't think it will wash out of the plant.
Stush

Hey, Stush. I can see the label on the display in your pic, which comes from these people and you can see the labels on the plants clearly in this article.

And why shouldn't we have blue Anthuriums if people want them? Cars aren't natural, but some of them are very pretty to me.

Can't find much out there to read about this, but it definitely seems to be temporary and not harmful to the plants. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound as easy as just putting food coloring in the water and pouring it in a plant's pot, so not possible to maintain or do at home. Like most fashion trends, Europeans are leading the way into this one.

Hey, Stush. I can see the label on the display in your pic, which comes from these people and you can see the labels on the plants clearly in this article.

And why shouldn't we have blue Anthuriums if people want them? Cars aren't natural, but some of them are very pretty to me.

Can't find much out there to read about this, but it definitely seems to be temporary and not harmful to the plants. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound as easy as just putting food coloring in the water and pouring it in a plant's pot, so not possible to maintain or do at home. Like most fashion trends, Europeans are leading the way into this one.

Urge to kill... rising...

Like them or not any marketing dept. still knows what appeals to some isn't going to be appealing to all.
Tie Dye Tee Shirts to Tie Dye Plants trends and fashion only change.

It's not a debate for questioning do we agree or disagree with the things we see, understanding we cant change things that are not in our control but we can change our view of the things we dont understand.

A question we can ask our selves is are we to criticize someone if they ask for advice on a plant that is not of it's natural color or do we re-assure them with our C&S or other plant cultivating knowledge with hopes to expand they're interest with them.

Look at the bright side what if they had planned to introduce C&S with odd placed odd shaped sizes of body piercings and tattoos.

And mrLike gives marketers their next "gimmick". LOL

LOL funny gimmick too, odder things have happened. Not to suggest we buy them and burn then like a religious evangelist group would do if they where Ozzie Ozbourne albums.

> It's not a debate for questioning do we agree or disagree with the things we see, understanding we cant change things that are not in our control but we can change our view of the things we dont understand.

I disagree. The person who came up with the idea of painting plants was objectively wrong to do so, the marketing departments that decided to sell them was objectively wrong to do so, and every person who buys one is objectively wrong to do so.

And by wrong I mean evil.

I suppose one could argue that it is little different from cut flowers... they buy them, put them on a table and say "oh, it's preeeeety", then it dies... throw away buy another. Instead of getting the consumer to buy one $3-4 plant once, they get the consumer to buy the painted plant twice, for twice the price. Good for profit margins.

The whole issue here is being deceived. I am into Sansevieria plants. (Snake plants) A variegated one sells for $60 and a plain one for $6. What's the difference? Well I like the variegated one and hope to see it get more and more variegated with age. What if some one was painting stripes on them and selling them on eBay and you are not getting what you wanted. Some one might want a pretty blue plant and a nice red one and what the hay, a yellow one. Next year they have all the same green ones. That is not nice to do. Not the same as food coloring stuff people know it false colored. Shame on them.

I sidetracked off a friend's Facebook page (as often happens) to see a page about a succulent business here in town. They had lots of cute sux in heart dishes (which I like). BUT...I scrolled down a bit & found THIS (Gasp!) silver, spray-painted, carunculated Echeveria:

{{gwi:471596}}
Ewww, icky poo, yuck!!

I decided not to "like" their page, and noted my horror.

Rose there is an award for finding grandma's lost antique broach AT LAST it has been found.

Oh GOODY! I'm waiting, Mr. Like...where is my reward? Ha ha ha!

I have to agree with you, Stush. Wes, what Stush mentioned is a valid point. Aesthetics aside, it is purely deceitful.

I have run into numerous people who do not realized that the blue phals are dyed. They buy the plant thinking that it will continue to flower blue through the plants life -- not knowing that it will later produce plain white blooms. Though perhaps the marketers have recently ponied up and changed their plant tags to inform buyers of the truth (and I would not be at all surprised if they have not done so), but I do know when the plants first came out they said nothing of the kind. This is false advertising. There is no excuse.

I have not had the displeasure of seeing these painted travesties in person (counting myself lucky there), but I do wonder if the tags on these succulents make it clear that the plants have been painted. If the tags are clear on the subject, then so be it -- the buyer knows what they are getting. If not, then these vendors are bilking customers. (And we all know you cannot simply ASSUME John Q Public will know that the plants "had to have been painted".)

@Rosie: I wonder if that echi with survive its ordeal. Maybe this spring I'll take my paints over to Howard's. He always has plants to get rid of. I can do rainbow colors or paint googly eyes on them.

We can wish for that info to be on a dyed or painted plant label Paul but I dont think it would be printed on them anytime soon. To date and by law I think it's only consumable foods that require a complete list all ingredients by name and nutritional values.

Even if every painted plant consumer where to read such a label it's likely result could be the same as you and I warning many others Don't eat at MacDonald's because the food doesn't taste that great.

Eat at fast foods or not, buy painted plants or not someone is still going to do it no matter what another persons view is.

Regarding the folks that buy these atrocities - makes me think of Seinfeld when he said, "Whooooo are these people ??"

What's next? Aeoniums have a lot of petals, is it time to turn those into rainbow colored pinwheels ?? How about tie dying succulents to reach even yet another audience?

It's like one of my neighbors - instead of seeing the multitude of shapes, COLORS, sizes, textures etc etc with all the succulents and [a few] cactus in my yard, she says to me 'but there are no flowers, i think you need to plant something with more flowers.'

Ok, I'll get on that right away.

Then I look over at her yard and it's essentially barren. Yeah, and I'm the one that needs to plant flowers ;-) ;-)

Maybe I should go buy her those horrible red and purple succulents [from johnsonsmo8's initial post] to get her going - oh wait, they don't have flowers.

"It's like one of my neighbors - instead of seeing the multitude of shapes, COLORS, sizes, textures etc etc with all the succulents and [a few] cactus in my yard, she says to me 'but there are no flowers, i think you need to plant something with more flowers.'"

I've heard many similar rather stupid comments... I consider them kinda rude but whatever, I suppose you should ignore them.

The mindset is... the only reason to bother to grow anything is to make pretty flowers to impress others. That is what they consider the point of gardening, make it pretty to impress the neighbors and visitors. Other than that, working in the yard is stupid. A houseplant is thought of like a basic house decoration, no more.

So if you work in the yard, or have a houseplant, and if it's not cliched "pretty flowers"... you are doing it wrong! What is wrong with you, you are wasting your time! You could be sitting and doing nothing!(which is largely what they did)

I've been asked why I was growing green beans instead of pretty flowers, they didn't understand why I was going to the trouble like I was too clueless to plant flowers. I told them I like to pick and eat the green beans... they couldn't imagine why I would do that?

This post was edited by noki on Sun, Jan 27, 13 at 20:43

Laura & Johnson...I Googled dyed fish and yes, it's disgusting. I'd bet there are many people who find dyed, 'living' fish attractive.
Whomever started this 'fad' should be injected him/herself with polka-dot coloring.

Karen..I can't find your Hoya thread. Was it posted on C&S forum or elsewhere?

Paul..I still don't understand what you mean regarding makeup. lol
Your typed, Toni. I never said there was anything wrong with women wearing makeup in general. My issue is with those women who:
Posted by paul_
" -- lacking any sense of aesthetics in the application of makeup "

What do you mean 'lacking sense of aesthetics?' The way I take it...wearing any makeup, dying hair, etc is, I'd guess, pretentious??? To a degree, at the least.

I didn't see the Panda Chow or cat pics...will view after submitting. Probably get violently ill afterwards.. :)

MrLike...piercings and tats. lol

Where have you guys seen blue Anthuriums and Philodendrons? lol. Toni

Toni~
Paul was getting at the ones who 'cake' it on!
Tammy Fae Baker? look? lol..

or end up looking like clowns.

My dad always told us girls, less is more. ;-)
Meaning the less makeup we wore, the better we looked. To this day, I think of that every time I put it on.

oh.. and I too find all these painted plants scary! And deceiving!

I like to hang around lowes and point out the glued on flowers and talk them into to another brand. he he...

Paul~ I did get a huge kick out of the Panda painted dog though! Thanks for the laughs!
A friend has a chow, but considering I'm the only person the dog wont eat, I don't think I could paint her, but the thought crossed my mind. lol..

JoJo

That's my photo, I think. Where did it end up? That's not a real plant, it's a metal plant made by an artist. There was a show at the Huntington of various cacti/succulents cast in metals.

{{gwi:471597}}

Here is a link that might be useful: blog post on steel plants

This is just beautiful, I thought so when the pic was first posted. I'm not a fan of that kind of Ech myself, but somehow, the silver version really looks fabulous to me. I just think it's beautifully sculpted if it really is sculpted (rather than painted on).

Hoover Boo...nice blog you have. :) Originally, I saw your pic posted to the Facebook page of Succulently Urban. They gave no explanation of the photo, only that it was "courtesy of" your blog (pieceofeden). I had gone to your blog in search of the pic, but could not find it (not knowing where to search or what to call it).

Now that I have seen that post on your blog...it explains a lot! I believe they are using real plants & dipping them (chromed steel you say), much like folks used to bronze baby shoes. Or cast in metal, as you say ~using real plants for the casting (as you noted it even having the cut on the leaf).

Thank you for solving this mystery for me, hoovb!

Thanks, Rosemarie. Yes that is solid cast metal not a plant inside there. I was wondering if the artist used a computer-aided fabrication machine (can't remember what the name for those things is) of some sort that "reads" the original and duplicates. Tricky or impossible to cast such a complex structure via traditional methods without assembling individual pieces.

They have come to Aurora, I was out shopping and decided to see what they were offering at Meijer's in the way of succulents and cacti.
How sad, one of them actually were peeling. It reminds me of nail polish and how it peels off when it is on thick.

Here is the one that was peeling. It really looks like they dip these poor plants in paint. ):

I just ran across this post. I thought I'd add this to the collection. At a Home Depot in San Carlos, CA:

Here is a link that might be useful: Why we don't need fakes...

The horror!! I found some this weekend at WM. makes me so sad:(

I see these all the time at our Home Depot. Thankfully I have never seen them anywhere else. It's just stupid. A lame marketing idea.

I work weekends at WM and sometimes work in Garden Center. I opened a box of plants, and seen these painted succulents. At first, I got excited. I had never seen anything like them. And then about 10 seconds later, I realized it was paint. What a let down.

Here's what I found most disturbing. On my return visit to Home Depot today (compare to Apr. 3 picture), this is what I found: most had been SOLD.

This means they are now in peoples' homes (or worse, at work...).