some moved indoors

Tidied up my stevia plant. Lots of browned leaf tips. I thought at first from cold, but it's uneven- not all the foliage affected, not even every leaf on each stem. Plus curling, so I suspect an insect, tiny can't see it. Aphids maybe. I sprayed with soapy water a few days ago.

This morning found more of the leaves that hadn't been damaged before, dried up and curled. Trimmed those off and this time dunked all the stems and leaves entire in a bowl of soapy water held potside. Hope that does the trick. If not, of course I'm facing my yearly problem of bringing unseen pests inside to my resident houseplants. Stevia is now sitting by the glass sliding door, next to the jade and aloe.

Scented geranium here too. Looking fuller already.

Other geraniums are still outside. I put them under the edge of the table when several days of rainstorms expected, didn't want them to get hit with too much deluge. (The rain has tapered off now).

My chives are very happy with the extra rainfall though!

Chocolate mint next to the chives pot is looking better now, too.

green indoors

Undecided where to plant the persian shield yet, so it's still on plant bench-

This coleus is so attractive I haven't put it outdoors yet but keep it inside to admire. It's so velvety.

I really do think my new strawberry begonia will do fine-

Potted up the new group of young aloe veras. And promptly trimmed a leaf to use on a burn (steam from the kitchen kettle hit my thumb). A few small rocks in there on top of the soil just to keep the aloes propped up, they were falling over.

Tiny new leaves blushing green all over my jade!

plant swap!

I was delighted to attend the spring plant (and seed) swap at my local library (not hosted by the library, it's an individual group). I missed it in the fall, and last spring due to covid. This is what I took to give away- pink turtlehead, echinacea, a sprig of lavendar-

some coleus (the best ones leftover from the first set of cuttings I grew out) and one cilantro

A brandywine tomato, and a jade I've been growing for a while- one lady in particular was very happy to get the jade, and asked me how I grew it "so big!" so I showed her how I pinch them to encourage branching. Also, some packets of seed I'll never grow (sweet corn) and of saved seed I have so much of- cilantro, parsley, sage, echinacea, marigolds.

And here's what I got! The idea is you can take as many plants as you brought (though nobody checks, it's an honor system). I took twenty plants plus the seed packets, and didn't bring home quite as much- but some I'm so glad of that I don't mind. To start- a bunch of stonecrop. 

Creeping jenny

Yarrow

This one wasn't marked but I am pretty sure it's artemesia, or dusty miller- which would be nice because the ones I dug out of someone's yard and moved the year before all died on me, and the wormwood I'm trying to grow from seed hasn't sprouted at all.

Salvia lyrata- I kind I hadn't seen before

A sad-looking ostrich fern. There were many more, nicer ones- but other people got them first! (Behind it you can see the row of new geraniums, which I just moved up into larger pots yesterday)

A group of aloe vera pups, and a variegated spider plant- happy to have these because I used to have these plants but they died. I think I'm doing better by the plain-colored spider plant I have now, and with semi-succulents in general, so hope these do well!

Strawberry begonia. Again. The one I got year before, died. I mentioned that to another attendee at the plant swap and she said with surprise: "how did you kill it? they grow back outside!" It's usually grown as a perennial groundcover. Well, I got four clumps of it- one I'm going to try to keep as a houseplant again (because I do find it attractive) and the others put outside like everyone else does.

Not a great picture, because I'd already stuck it in the greenhouse, but this is spider lily, or spiderwort- scientific name tradescantia virginiana. I remarked on it when I saw the tag- yes, it's a native plant but what struck me is that it's related to tradescantia zebrina- or the wandering jew. They look nothing alike.

Most of the plants I got, had obviously just been dug out of the ground, a lot weren't in pots but just bare root. A bit wilting, and it was a warm day plus I am not sure yet where I will locate them all. So I put the bare root ones in pots with a bit of soil, and put most on the floor in my little greenhouse, to get some humidity and recover a bit from their shock. Except for the spider plant, aloe, and one strawberry begonia of course, which I kept inside. And this- my prize: 

It's a crown of thorns plant! Three cuttings, to be exact. I was so thrilled to see this I snatched it up immediately.

Years ago visiting a friend of my husband, I saw a large specimen of this plant in their living room window. I'd never seen one before and it was so striking. Wanted one ever since but never seen it anywhere for sale- in person that is. So I am delighted to have acquired this one, it was worth the whole swap to me. A bit concerned I might not have enough sun exposure for it (nearly all my windows are indirect light, the one window with direct light is always crowded)- but the lady who brought it said she puts hers outside for summers, and just overwinters it indoors. I'm certainly going to read up on it!

inside plants

Pink african violet has been blooming steadily for months now.

purple one in the bedroom, too

My little thanksgiving cactus is growing!

Blue-green succulent is starting to overflow its little pot.

And wow, this one that revived from years of doing nothing, has grown stupendously. The leaves on the left, against the pot edge, are the newer ones. I'm going to move it up soon!

Sansevieria is also doing a lot better- its younger leaves on the left here, are grown to the same height as the older foliage now. I've been watering it more regularly, it seems to do better with that.

Tarragon on the other hand, bleh. It's got mites again. I cut it down to soil level (ate in a chicken soup) and doused heavily with soap. If it doesn't revive, I'll toss it and buy a new one in spring. Local nursery had some really healthy-looking tarragon this year. Maybe I just need to start over with it.

some notes

Came across info on growing potatoes, realized my failure last year probably wasn't all due to bugs. Potatoes are a cool-weather crop. When I bought my slips, I picked varieties that sounded good, not thinking about my season. I may have planted them too late, I definitely didn't choose a variety that would do better in the heat, and I should have tried growing them in fall. Heat stress may have made them succumb to the insects faster.

Some of my plants have died: all the rosemary I tried to start. Not surprised. My aloe vera. I had moved it into a sunnier spot, but it was out of view on the opposite side of a shelf. Forgot to water or pay attention to it. All droopy and brown. Tossed on the compost. My third group of creeping charlie cuttings. I didn't change the water often enough and the stems got moldy. The older plant in our front room is looking a bit pale, I've moved it back from the window. The one in my upstairs bedroom is doing very nicely. Its stems are reddish, unlike the others. Does this have to do with the light exposure? It gets the same water.

On a good note, it looks like the bugs are vanquished on my rue cuttings. I check it every few days, have several more times dabbed off the tiny bugs. Last time I only found two, and then none. My stevia has come through the winter fine! It has more new leaves and they remain healthy.

I started another small tray of sweet basil, since I have so few.

I had to lower the water level in the 20H. Two shrimps got into the fry box. They were hidden in the subwassertang, picking super speed at stuff to eat. I noticed their waste first- lots of it. Netted the shrimp out, siphoned out their mess. They must have crawled over the top. I made sure the water level is at least a quarter inch below, and they haven't got in again yet. My little cories have definitely doubled in size now. Will take pictures soon.

what I do for a burn

A week ago bumped my knuckle on the edge of a very hot pan while making dinner. Ran water on it and then cut a fat leaf tip off my aloe vera (which doesn't look so great but I keep it just for this). I sliced segments lengthwise and held on the burn for a while, then when it didn't hurt so much, took a new piece of aloe and just kept it by where I was sitting. When the gel on my skin started to dry and pain came back, I would slice the end off the piece of aloe and rub freshly cut succulent over the burn again. Over and over, all evening. It's very soothing.

Sounds tedious, but next day there was no pain at all. A few days later, can't even tell there was a burn. It never blistered and won't have a scar.

a new one

I was at someone's house picking up a bike for my kid- and admired a plant in their front yard. It spreads- she warned me- so she was happy to let me dig out a clump of it from the corner where it was going over the edging. I brought it home on a too-warm day- there were no cool, cloudy ones anytime soon (this was several weeks ago- still catching up to myself here)- and did the best I could for its chances.

I brought it home in a bucket with several inches of water, misted it with water, and put a soaked towel over it, all to try and hold in some humidity. Planted it in the front by the peony. It looks nothing so nice as this now- has severely wilted.

It had a great big long taproot, but she said it grows so vigorously, I thought I could take cuttings. I did that right away- thinking a severe trim would also help the main plant (having less foliage for the roots to support while it recovers).

I put some of those in a jar of water-

still near all these other guys indoors (kalanchoe, echeveria leaves, cuban oregano, aloe vera)

and the rest stuck into a pot of soil.

These in the pot outside have done the best- for the first few days I kept it heavily watered and moved constantly to stay in the shade (here near peppers, coleus 'kiwi fern' and boston fern)

It has a lovely palest blue-green color.

Very soft, fragile foliage. I think it might be the plant my mother called dusty miller- except hers was white. I think this is the variant called 'silver lace'. If the potted cuttings root well, I can separate them out in fall to have a dozen new plants.

potting up

It seemed a little early to pot up my coleus cuttings, but some of the stems were getting moldy in their jars. Nice white roots though.

So I went ahead and put them all in dirt.

Standby pink coleus- wish I knew its name.

This is the lime-and-orange one.

'Kiwi' coleus. I've trimmed off all the older growth from the summer outside- new leaves don't have that sickly-looking white film on them.

I cut all these in half, so I could try potting up the bases

where tiny foliage had grown out under water. (There were roots grown from nodes above these baby leaves, base of the bigger cuttings.)

Tiny ones in the pot.

Also potted up my other stems of sweet potato vine.

It's dwarfed by the other pot of sweet po' vine with the notched leaves.

Last of all, I separated the pot of kalanchoe. The biggest one is by itself now.

Babies are in two pots.

You can see the size difference when they are side by side. I don't know what I will do with so many kalanchoe- not enough sun space for them all to grow up, but it's fun to keep them going for now.

Soon I will have to do something with my aloe vera, too. One is getting too large for its pot and starting to fall sideways; at the same time it has produced a pup. Like before, I will save the offspring and sell the parent...