the coleus

I potted up all my cuttings. More than I'd planned on, took the ones off the aquarium and put them in pots too (changed my mind on that). I liked the look of this handful of the 'witchy' cuttings in a jar, with all the growing roots visible,

but those got potted too.

(Parent plant looking good still)

My favorites are in the kitchen window

and almost every other too

Lots of these 'gay delight' as well

Disappointingly, the 'exhibition limelight' that used to make such big leaves, is puny this year

and the crazy 'rodeo drive' cuttings faltered as well (half of them got mold and I removed lots of icky leaves/stems)

Not pictured but doing fine: the 'kiwi fern'. Have been pinched, and growing new leaves already. Since houseplants, here's a few more: 

I took cuttings from the pot of arrowhead

and put them in a jar of water to start more stems

and now that it looks nicely recovered, here's a photo of my shiny begonia

sweet po and syngonium

Pinched a few anemic-looking leaves off my smaller pot of decorative sweet potato vine. Caught a whitefly. Looked for more, flattened a few with my thumb.

Then inspected the larger plant. Crap. It had lots of whitefly, aphids and at least one tiny leafhopper. I doused that one with soapy water solution.

Pinched back my arrowhead plant. I haven't done this before, but do prefer the bushy habit and it's starting to grow longer stems- I thought before this was it going leggy from not enough light. 

On the contrary, it's just following its natural inclination to becoming a vine. Cut some of the lengthier stems and stuck them in water to root.

houseplant work

I did some potting up.

First the parlor palms. More because I wanted to try giving them potassium via wood ash rather than they strictly needed larger size pots yet. As they like to be rootbound. I sifted some wood ash from my fire pit and mixed it into the new potting soil. Looks like I've done better than I'd suspected at watering them more sparingly- the soil was so dry it just fell out of the roots when I exposed them!

Next was the chives. They were very rootbound. I had no idea. When I loosened the root mass, it was twice as long as the pot's height!

I trimmed the roots, 

added new soil and hope to see new growth soon.

My plain spider plant was ready to move up-

roots growing out of the drainage holes

Room to grow now-

Could have potted up its baby but I like seeing it here

My brighter crassula moved up one size too.

That's the older jade plant on its left, arrowhead syngonium on its right, and purple undersides of tradescantia zebrina in the background.

Thanksgiving cactus isn't looking happy. Some leaves turning pale. Light? Watering? I don't think this one needs a larger pot size yet but I put a layer of fresh soil on top, and moved it out of direct light

Well, that was fun! Some are still waiting- my second creeping charlie, several of the african violets, asparagus fern and the sansevieria need to move up too. Maybe even the large corn plant. Another day!

green inside-

Snow, ice and cold outdoors. Inside some new growth is sprouting. My figs have a lot of fat buds

and what looks like nascent fruits forming. I don't remember them starting fruit so early before? Will have to begin setting them outside on warmer days (next week maybe).

Not new, but in the same space down there by the large cool basement window, my citronella and lemon geranium are doing fantastic

and the new (reddish) leaves on bay laurel have almost reached the height of the older stems.

I have been somewhat concerned about my palms. The newer leaves have kept their green, and a younger shoot is growing in the center- but they always seem kinda poorly. Learned something in a book I just read about tropical plants. Palms need higher levels of potassium, and that deficiency shows as browned leaf tips and yellowing. Maybe these brown tips aren't from dryness or over-watering like I had assumed. The parlor palms need larger pots soon, so I will mix some ash in with their new potting soil and top-dress to give them a potassium boost, see if that helps.

Smaller jade that I trimmed lately, has new leaves sprouting

Pot of chives has looked sad since the last time I cut it to eat. Guess I overdid it. However one new leaf has come up! Will refresh the potting soil soon and see if it does better, or start new seed.

One more violet cutting is growing! Can't see the leaf nubbins yet but I see the signs of soil pushing up. Here it's sitting on my plant shelf in the living room- surrounded by lettuce and collards seedlings, spider plant, coleus cuttings, arrowhead, tradescantia zebrina and crassula.

green wave-

or, my second generation of coleus cuttings this winter.

They were all getting very topheavy, so I took and kept the best cuttings in jars- this one is the 'crazy rodeo drive' which turns very plain green and tame when grown indoors. It's actually made a nice houseplant for the winter.

I've now got twice as many than in all these pictures. New cuttings in the windowsill, older plants below-

New cuttings on the little table, older plants below. Some of the companion plants: jade, spider plant, Tradescantia zebrina, arrowhead, madagascar palm.

There will be plenty for spring! It was kind of amusing when I was done with the task, to carry all the discard pieces out and leave a heap on the compost pile. When I look back, there's bright green and splash of color on top of the dull compost bin in the dull, wet yard. 

in the house

Recently I repotted my arrowhead

and the crazy 'rodeo drive' coleus. It's the first time I kept one all season as an indoor plant.

Compare to the foliage on the two outside (trimmed this bit off the porch plant):

This one in the shade of upended coldframe has gotten leggy- I moved it to a brighter spot.

For some reason I haven't become fond of the aglaonema. It keeps getting pale leaves that drop off- I thought bugs and sprayed, maybe overwatering? It also needs a larger pot but I haven't got around to it. 

However! It's flowering. 

Looks like the flower spathe my anubias used to make in the aquarium.

Nearby- the plants that live under my window tank- they don't usually get shown off here. The creeping charlie is doing well now

Heartleaf philodendron has a few new leaves

Peace lily hasn't filled in much yet, but does look better than has in the past

Of all the plants I got at the library swap, this begonia is now my favorite. It got tall enough I finally pinched off the uppermost shoot to make it branch out. Also needs repotting...