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Peperomia sp. "Bill Baker" (Baker's Radiator Plant) – A very nice and unusual succulent plant somewhat reminiscent of a Aeonium that has thick leafy stems up to a foot tall topped by a 4 inch wide loose rosette of 2 inch long obovate recurving leaves that have a thick transparent water storing layer over the mid green tissue, giving the leaves a glossy polished surface. In early summer appear the 1- to 2-foot-tall branching inflorescences tipped with 4 inch long thin light green spadices that are both interesting and attractive.
Plant in morning sun to light shade and irrigate occasionally to regularly. This plant has been hardy for us outdoors in our shade house where it has experienced short duration temperatures down to 31° F. We have only grown this plant in a container so do not know how it would grow in the ground, but it makes an attractive container plant in the shade in a mild climate garden.
Peperomia sp. "Bill Baker" was first introduced by the International Succulent Introduction (ISI) program in 1993 as ISI 1993-47 Peperomia sp. from rooted cuttings from a plant the Huntington Botanical Gardens had as accession HBG 65483 that they received from Bill Baker of California Gardens Nursery. Baker had collected seed in 1989 from a plant growing in a Schinus molle riparian woodland 14km SW of Catamayo, at 1 km toward Vicente Protegenos from the highway between Catacocha and Loja, Ecuador. The name for the genus name comes from the Greek words 'peperi' meaning "pepper" and 'homoios' meaning "resembling" as the plants resemble the closely related true black pepper, Piper nigrum. We were fortunate to get this plant from John Bleck who "won" it at the Ganna Walska Lotusland Exceptional Plant Auction in 2013. Lotusland had received this plant from ISI in 1995.
The information displayed on this page about Peperomia sp. "Bill Baker" is based on the research we have conducted about it in our nursery library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include our own observations made about this plant as it grows in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant have performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we have received from others and welcome hearing from anyone with information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information that will aid others to better grow it.
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