Plants for Cubicles?

Frank of Earth asks: "Our company recently moved to a new location and I was lucky enough to get a cube with a window. Now that I actually can benefit from sunshine, I thought it would be cool to grow something in a potted container. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a lot of information on growing plants in your cube. Most of the indoor plant growing topics I found are related to illegal types of plant growing you do in your closet. What types of plants make good cube plants with a geek flare? Rather than just growing a boring spider plant, I would like to grow something cool like a fruit or vegetable. If you've had experience growing something unique, please post your thoughts!" What kind of plant would you grow in your cubicle?

Comments

Get an Amarilys

[Pig Hogger]

They look strange (perfect for a geek) and the three huge flowers, then they pop-out, are a huge gratification.

Plus the time it takes to grow will make everyone wonder what's going on, and before long, everyone will pay you a visit everyday to see how it's doing.

And when it finally blooms, everyone will congratulate you for a job well done!

Re:Get an Amarilys

[white1827]

Amarillys only bloom once a year near christmas. The rest of the year they are an ungly bulb half sticking out of dirt. Although that could be an interesting conversation piece in it's own right.

woot!

[Frank of Earth]

/. accepted my story idea!

Thankfully I didn't use any links to my homepage-- that would have been really stupid and costly [ignore the links in my signature!]

Cactii

[Loacher]

I would recommend a cactus.

They require little care (water once a week during the warm months, none at all during the cold months, fertilize once a year), so they can survive vacations and weekends unattended.

Cactii come in all kinds of strange, unique geeky forms, and several produce weird looking edible fruit.

Look up epiphyllum catus, beautifull flowers, and fruit that tastes like passionfruit (smell before eating, goes bad very fast).

Most mammillarias produce small red edible fruits, and some have very interesting shapes. Look up mamillaria elongata cristate, or Mammillaria bocasana 'Fred', one of my favourites.

If you like really weird shapes, look up Euphorbias, I specially like my Euphorbia obesa cristate.

Note: Cristate means a Crested fromd of the plant. They usually look like brains.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia!

[panker]

A Chia Head would be interesting in a cubicle. And it would be the source of lots of discussion. Or, how about an underwater plant? Or one of those dirtless air plants? Or some wheatgrass.

I grow mold all the time, but nobody seems to be interested or impressed.

Word of Warning

[RedHat Rocky]

Watch for nasty visitors your plant may introduce or attract to your workplace.

A coworker once had a plant in his cube, it became infested with some kind of mite. These mites then migrated through the halls to some other plants, can't recall if they killed the plants or what the deal was. Caused quite the stir, plants at desks were banned from then on.