Yeach, I saw those too. Did not turn me on. I prefer to grow the natural.

Happy planting for those who love them.

I agree with the last blog comment on there: "The people who do this to plants should be flogged."

Hi Rosemarie
Do they have any in rainbow, we could make a fortune in California and New York. LOL

Richard

I have yet to see these. The worst was when I was in an Asian store. There were succulents (the xxxxl form of semps, dont know the specie/plant name) that were literally painted gold and silver. Some of the paint cracked off and you could see the actual leafs underneath. Who the heck buys that stuff? It looked so bad. The store itself is big , very clean and good looking, but the floral department was just a joke.

Believe it or not, I saw someone's blog, where they had planted one of each color (spaced far apart, thinking they would fill in, like a ground cover). Then they read the part where it said they would grow with white or yellow spines. They were bummed!

I agree, Colleen!

Yeah, Richard, we could rake in the dough with a rainbow-colored one here & there! Hee hee!

NT, we posted one of those silver jobbers in an earlier post. Actually, that particular one was a bronze art piece molded from a real plant (we found out later). There are folks who like to plan weddings & use these-they color coordinate everything. These are not usually people who KEEP/Grow plants. Why don't they just go buy plastic?

Even my grocery store has Haworthia painted red now...I hope this fad dies a quick death, as I am sure some of these plants will...

Christopher

I still say... comes down to a complete lack of taste.

I am just curious is it sprayed on or a dye that they are fed...kinda like the bright blue and purple orchids they carry now at Lowe's!!!

I believe the cactus have an uptake of dyed water. The succulents are spray painted, or so it seems. I've seen pix of some peeling. Here are the pix I took the other day. See if you can determine what they're doing. Seems the bodies below the spines are always green.

You should be able to click the pic for larger view. Once at PB, maybe click again for even larger.

{{gwi:585990}}
{{gwi:585991}}

That is sad, to dye and paint plants. I am also tired of seeing blue phalanopsis, this is NOT NATURAL!

These are painted Aloe, possibly A. marlothii, looking totally disgusting. You can see some of the paint on the surface of the soil...

Christopher

Oh My GOSH, Christopher! That IS disgusting!! :O

Oh, gosh, doing that to an Aloe is almost worse...that looks so HORRIBLE.

Oh man, this thread is just grossing me out. Barfaroni! Kosmic Krud! Kosmic Katastrophe! Why?... Whyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!???

We have the same things in France : http://www.cactuspro.com/forum/read.php?1,515645,515765

Sorry to say, here 2 years later, it is still going strong at the big box stores. People buy them...so making them continue the practices. I haven't seen the sparkly ones yet & the googly eyes seem to have disappeared, but painted ones abound! Yuck!

So sorry the practice made its way all the way to you in France, Laurent! :( :O

Lol bad taste is universal. There are even echeverias painted like the french flag : http://www.pariscotejardin.fr/2014/07/echeveria-cocorico/echeveria-teintee-tricolore-salon-du-vegetal-angers-2014/

You know these idiots who market the stuff don't tell the buyers that these are painted. It's so stupid to impose garish idiotic trends on what is naturally so beautiful untouched. Same mindless buyers I liken to those that buy rhino horn without a care to the actual living thing it ruins.

Many people like plants that look like plastic toys and it's the same about animals : http://www.google.fr/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fi60.servimg.com%2Fu%2Ff60%2F13%2F50%2F42%2F18%2Falbino10.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hdwalls.xyz%2Fimages%2Falbino-boas&h=588&w=783&tbnid=i40W9EPgkilNsM%3A&zoom=1&docid=eJcP64qTd1WLuM&ei=O1FUVcDwIYHbUNq9gJAK&tbm=isch&iact=rc&uact=3&dur=499&page=4&start=52&ndsp=18&ved=0COcBEK0DMEA

Gag me with a meet hook... People get what they deserve if they keep buying it. @ Laurent, And here I thought the French had good taste and wouldn't stoop to things like this.

I have nothing but good things with this Kosmic plant. I just repotted them, fed them miracle grow and now there almost 24 in high and still brightly colored as they were when I bought them. I put them in full sun and water them once a week and they are thriving beautifully. There beautiful when they get bigger. I have many cactus and succulents and I live in Ohio.

never paint aloe no no

IF you want colored flowers and you want it safe for the plant, food coloring works wonderfully. Start from a cutting not a seed

But why???

Isn't what Mother Nature gives us most beautiful???

Theresa, it begs the question, do you have a pic (to show us) of this 24 inch high, painted plant?

I agree, their natural beauty is plenty good for me!

There is a 'blue' Nopal cactus that grows in México, in the sierra madre in the state of Durango. The coloring comes from the minerals in the soil. If you take them to a different environment, eventually they

will turn green.

It crazy to see how closed minded and judgie everyone was 6 years ago. Talking about how dare we change the color of a natural plant and oh ya we should sell rainbow plants to people in CA or NY hahaha… why ? … are you saying that because we have all kinds of beautiful people here in CA and we are all inclusive that you think you can make money off of selling us rainbow plants? I sure hope years down the line, all of you have grown as people and have learned that it isnt nice to judge people for liking a painted plant or assuming that all gay people want a rainbow plant. At the end of the day, we are all just unique and like different things. That is what makes life so interestung and special.

It was 9 yrs ago I started this post, HU. I think you missed the point! Generally, those who collect & grow plants (like those who frequented this group at the time) were complaining that there were some who would paint live plants to sell (& sometimes not explain they were painted). I don’t think we need to be open- minded to get that this practice is not good for live plants. They could paint plastic plants if that‘s what floats their boat. Not judgey…just common sense. We wanted live plants, not dead ones. Instead, you chose to zero in on one comment about rainbow plants. A little touchy, are you? Maybe you need to be a bit more open-minded while reading, to get the big picture.

HU-332846853, welcome to the site. If you joined just to say that, why? If you read the discussion, you'll find none of that. Nobody said anything like that. If that is what they meant, that is what they would have said. Nobody thinks that way but the accusations are made. Please don't bring that stuff in here or try to read nonexistent stuff between imaginary lines. Please don't project ugly things onto others. Yes, of course, everyone is special, unique, beautiful, and as valuable as the next. Only the people trying to find the 'ism in everyone else have these thoughts in their minds.

I still don't want painted plants because they are not healthy. And they will turn beautiful rainbow colors in the sun, which is, no argument, beautiful.

Dang, I used to be active here 9 years ago. I'm just sad I sold all my plants. Had an aloe that wouldnt fit through doors it was soo big, got tired of bringing all of them in and out during spring/fall. Now I only do semps.

Also, just about everyone said the same thing, painting/colouring plants that effects them negativity is not good. Food colouring or any other way is fine. This forum (whatever it is now) is about plants, we all love plants and don't like it when we see them being abused to look pretty (glueing flowers on cacti).

Jasmine, you're the poster previously known as Rosemarie?

Yes, indeed, Jeff! It wouldn't let me comment as me, so I made an incognito (but no more) profile.

Ooh, it's so good to "see" you, Rosemarie/Jasmine!

Roro is back! I wondered where you’ve been.

tj

Good to see you too, Tiffany! Long time! I made some changes in my profile, but no telling if it worked…or if I’ll figure out how to get back here again.

Hey there, TJ! I quit coming here years ago. Went to Facebook-started a plant group there. Handed over the reins to someone a year & a half ago -& working to get off there.

I’m surprised you guys remember me!! I

started back to work a few yrs ago. Not much time for the garden now.

I’m not really ”back”. I get notified if there’s a comment on my post. Didn‘t think there were any still in cyberspace! LOL

: ) You know how the internet is. If you want to find it, you probably can't, but if you don't think it's there or even hope it isn't, it definitely is.

I am not on FB anymore either. Been FB free for 4 years now. People there didn't seem to want to really talk about plants, just blurting second-hand bytes quickly thumb-typed on a phone.

Rosemarie, welcome back! You've been missed here and elsewhere.

I still don't like those plants. I remember you Rosemarie. I have cut down on the "collection" too. The Ice storm in the woods and building a house out of my shop killed off a lot of them. Scale and mealies could not be reacted to due to lack of focus and many plants succombed due to my fore ever ongoing building projects. Now I look back and some I morn but mostly I am happy to have an abreviated ammount of pots.

Yes, Tiffany, FB can be somewhat like commercials.

Thanks, Jeff!

Hi Mara! Sounds like you had quite the building project. I’m whittling down those plants that succumbed to my neglect & the rest are in triage.

Yes, and I am too old for planing and laying down a recycled oak floor among other things but I did. I truely miss some of the big favorite aloes that died, especially my aloe capitata var quartziticola that was 2' large and forming a trunk. Now I can't find them anywhere. I would give away all those ubiquitous small hybrid aloes that all seem to look alike.

I hate painted plants because they did it solely to deceive you. Variegated plants sell for twice the price (sometimes even higher) than normal. I almost bought one years ago but then noticed next to it a blue one and then purple then I knew it was fake. Most plants under good care will out grow the paint or dye used but I am sure they will be upset seeing plain green.

And people who love rainbow colors do so to make a statement. Leave it at that. It was God's promise not to flood the earth again.

Deception is terrible!