Monday, March 10, 2008  Samurai in a Dress (Rhapis excelsa)  I
got one of these at the end of January, after admiring them at
work for a long time. The hold-up was money: Rhapis excelsa
grows so slowly that decent-sized specimens are usually pretty
pricey, and I had a hard time justifying the expense to myself
(they were priced at $30: I do get an employee discount, but
still). The good news is, I am weak, and didn't put up much of a
fight, so now I have this:  According to this site, a plant the
size of mine, in a six-inch pot, is probably about two years
old. This may not sound particularly old, but a similarly-sized
Syngonium podophyllum might be six months or less. If you could
produce four crops of Syngonium or one crop of Rhapis, then it's
only worth your time to do the Rhapis if you can get four times
as much money for it. And so. Other slow-growing plants, like
Aspidistra elatior and Zamioculcas zamiifolia, have similar
issues, and also tend to be expensive for their size.  I've
never seen anything es