agree on snapdragons ... they are full sun.. hot summer plants ... they are not houseplants ... and will probably have trouble blooming.. ON your desk ... [i presume you are not keeping them in your desk .. lol] ... in winter .... i suspect... you will also have a hard time... in Chi-town.. keeping them viable.. until they can go outdoors AFTER all possibility of frost is gone.. some time in mid to late MAY .... if you do get that far .... they will need to be hardened off to both temps and sunlight .... and will probably have to be cut back a few times .... which will make them both a more sturdy plant .... and increase blooms.. if you can get it that far .... they are .. if not bought in spring as transplants ..... sowed as seed in about march.. for planting in june .... look where a leaf meets the stem ... and you will see little buds ... it can.. be cut back.. just above any of those.. to make it more compact ... if you could add some supplemental light.. you might win the bloom game ... indoors ... ken

Hi Danbonsai. Don't believe everything the ecoterrorists want you to believe. That is sandfood, Pholisma sonorae as dephora mentioned. I am one of the offroaders who absolutely love the Southern California dune systems, including the Algadones which we refer to as glamis. Sandfood seems to thrive in the areas the ATVs recreate in with many of us believing the traffic helps to spread the seeds along with a milkvetch whose false endangerment claim shut down many thousands of acres. While we understand direct ATV traffic will damage the top of the plant, there is no denying the plants are still abundant in our Southern dunes and seem to appear more often in trafficked areas verses the closed areas. It is a really neat plant to see in person and one where we generally stop to show the younger kids on the ride.

The question isn't addressed to anyone in particular- just anyone who knows if Milkweed pods can be distinguished from each other. If your pod came from Asclepias tuberosa, for example, that's a species that's native to many parts of the U.S. and Canada, so it might be appropriate for your garden... http://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=ASTU Virginia

This is the first picture from that post. It looks sort of Carissa macrocarpa-esque: there are several strange cultivars with which I'm not familiar. Does it have any thorns? Milky sap if a leaf is broken?