new green on a few

of my houseplants: asparagus fern has sent out another new frond

Philodendron in the pot has quite a few new leaves. Which is nice, because it looks like the cutting on the angel tank is dying.

My lovely cyclamen died.

a few of the houseplants

Drop of water on my blue-green succulent after watering:

My kalanchoe are finally doing better, and I think I figured out why. I have to remember not to give it fish water during the cold months. Just straight plain tap.

New cyclamen is done flowering- but I love its patterned foliage.

Sansevieria has a new shoot growing!

new plant and 2nd sowing

seed packets came in the mail!

They actually arrived a few days ago, I have been catching up on posts here. Yesterday after setting up the coldframe house I was spurred to do more, sowed the following in trays: red russian kale, webb's wonder lettuce, leaf beet chard, slobolt lettuce, crisp mint lettuce, simpson elite lettuce and red marigolds (save from my plants last year).  I put the packet of leaf beet chard back in the jar with seeds I have yet to start, because probably those should be direct sown.

Also, I bought this beautiful cyclamen at local nursery when I went to get more soil-less seed starter mix. I don't know which I love more, the pretty patterned leaves, bright flowers or lovely scent- I still think they smell like nutmeg, my favorite spice, although nobody seems to agree with my impression so far.

I learned from the nursery man one reason my cyclamen might have died, before. They like it cool. As in 50-60° cool. So in summer I may have to house it in a basement room, or the heat will weaken its health at best.

some poor plants

have not made it since the move to a new house. I don't know why. My poinsettia died. The stems of my sansevieria are rotting. They keep falling over one by one, and when I lift are rotted out at the base. Cyclamen all died but that one might revive? so I have kept the pot. Creeping charlie is looking awful

Croton keeps dropping lower leaves, which turn kind of faded and orange-ish. I checked for spider mites, don't see signs of them. It does have newer foliage too but the leaf drop is far faster than the new growth so maybe this one will die too.

I had a casualty outside, too. Too many hot days I forgot to water the backyard plants. All the ferns died but one, and it doesn't look like it will last.

Bummer.

moving day: plants

All set out on the table by the door- but these are not going to new homes as in the past, they're going to my new home!

Plants in a box:

Closeup two of my favorites right now: poinsettia and arrowhead.

I'm still figuring out where these are best sited for light exposure, but for now they seem to be doing well.

houseplants

I wondered what was going on with my cyclamen. The flowers were all turning pale and wilting- pulled them out one by one. I thought maybe it was just done with the blooming period, but new buds are coming up, with new spicy scent. Round two!

The poinsettia is putting out new leaves faster than ever.

And my boston fern, which lives outside right now, has been busting out new growth as well.

I've moved this one over to my fiancé's house. It looks lovely on the front porch sitting in a pedestal type planter. Feels so very welcoming every time I approach the house.

gah

Guess who else is sick here (in addition to fish, now). Plants. Spider mites again. Noticed the pepper (in the back of this pic) I've been setting outside in daytime for sun, is suddenly looking peaky. No more dark glossy leaves. Pale, mottled, red specks wipe off undersides. I sprayed heavily with a bleach solution- 1 TB bleach in 1 gallon hot 95° water. I treated all the other plants that have been susceptible to this in the past, as well. That includes: poinsettia, cyclamen, parlor palms, schefflera, parsley.

And my avocado. Its oldest leaves very ragged, drying bits of edges but pale marks too which look suspicious. Just in case.

I'm upset have to deal with this again. No more plants outside here. Only the fern, which seems resistant to mites. Will keep a close eye on the plants I have in B yard on the deck- if it doesn't seem to be a problem over there I might move more plants...

cyclamen glory

I tried another photo, in front of a green-blue cloth background- but this makes the color so vivid it's almost too much!

There are still more and more buds emerging:

pretty

unfolding cyclamen bloom- the best plant in my house right now

pink nutmeg

So happy with the blooming cyclamen,

and its lovely scent

first bud!

buds galore

there will be nutmeg-scented flowers this year!

cyclamen

I am really pleased how nicely the Cyclamen has been growing. Anticipating nutmeg pink pinwheels in a few months!

cyclamen

This one is growing lots of new leaves in the center. I am hoping even more for spring flowers!

winter measures

The coldest time of year here always seems to be january and february. That's when I start blocking my windowpanes with cardboard and pulling the more tender plants off, overnights.

I also try to remember to mist the houseplants- this is better than overwatering to counteract dryness, and helps against spider mites too. Some plants don't like this- jade, geranium, cyclamen (can get crown rot), african violet (will get mold on leaves), creeping charlie. Poinsettia and pothos- sometimes. The ones that definitely need it: schefflera, coleus, spider plants, dracanea, palms, croton, avocado, and especially the fern. That big beauty still gets special treatment- I often carry it into the bathroom during bath or shower time. The croton was showing signs of spider mites- two leaves dropped before I noticed- so I've moved it away from the window base to sit next to my avocado, where I see it more and won't forget to mist. Plus it won't spread mites to all the other plants here further from the group.

rosy

Cyclamen likes the colder weather. On days when the sun isn't too bright, I put it in the windowsill. I have fewer crowns now (some died off when it was repotted a while ago) but what is left rosy pink stems and healthy dark patterned leaves- so pretty.

telling seasons

by the houseplants. A few of them are actually at their best during fall and winter here. The poinsettia is looking lovely, leaves growing fast, visibly larger every day.

Cyclamen continues to grow new foliage with vigor as well. I don't know if I should hope for flowers again in spring, but I do.

cyclamen

Finally, this lovely plant is recovering. New growth looks nice, bold color. I had shoved it into a corner to forget about, thought it was another goner. But it recovered- some of the crowns died out- now there's only three. I never did get any bloom last year. Hopeful again. I think it likes the cooler weather.

potted up

These are the plants I moved into regular pots. Most of them were moving out of SIPs, the two African violets in the front needed to get divided. I'm done using SIP planters simply for the fact that I want to feed my plants the vermicompost! And top-dressing won't really work if the plants are wicking water from below; the nutrients won't get washed down through the soil (I've already seen this happening with my regularly potted plants; when I water them the extra that flushes out drain holes is a rich golden brown color, not clear- worm tea!). I guess I could remove them from the planters, mix up new soil with the worm compost, and replace. But that seems like too much work and stress on the plants, even if it's only once or twice a year. So into new pots they go.

I didn't have enough medium-sized pots, so cut the tops off a few large ones, removed a strip, cut the rim in half, slotted it back together. This really isn't one of my best ideas, it doesn't hold together and if you forget and pick up the pot by the rim not the bottom, it comes apart again (I did that once, luckily it was with an outside plant so the soil mess not too bad to clean up, and the plant didn't get damaged, but it was hard to fit back together with the plant in there). I guess I could hold it together with staples next time. Or just pony up and go buy more pots. For some reason I have lots of little two- and four-inch ones, and lots of larger gallon size, but nothing in between.

I have some concern that I might kill the plants with kindness- some vermicompost or worm castings can be very strong and you can't give them too much. I don't think my product is as finely processed by the worm to be called castings; it still has bits of roughage in it. So for the most part I mixed things by thirds: one third the old potting soil a plant came out of, one third new commercial mix (on the lower right) and one third my vermicompost (lower left).

I'm still putting broken shards in the bottom of my pots for drainage. Year before last I had quite a few pots on the balcony without shards and found when I upended them that the ones with shards had done far better- the ones without had soggy, rotting bottoms. Garlics, in particular, suffered from this omission.

I have too many African Violets, now. I'd give some away, but none of the children have started flowering yet, so they're not as attractive. I do love their reddish-pink stems and soft leaves though.

Dividing:

This one I had to cut the stem in half. The part that ended up without roots has been a bit sad ever since, but if a leaf petiole alone can root into a new plant, surely the stem can as well?

I removed lower (yellowing anyways) leaves so it doesn't have as much stress on the plant while growing new roots (no roots = can't support a ton of leaves)

This Violet came out of an SIP, the root mass and soil held funny shape of the bottle end when I first took it out.

I am happy how well this Spider Plant has grown. You can see the roots all growing through the plastic sides.

They like to be a bit crowded I've learned, so it did not move into a much bigger container.

Its long leaves trail down so much I set it up on a pedestal (drinking glass) so they don't get damaged.

Lately I've been wondering about my Cyclamen. No spicy pink flowers yet, foliage has been growing but very slowly. I remember in past years it always bloomed in spring. I've noticed the seasonal markers outside- blinking fireflies, buzzing of cicadas, now the stifling summer heat- shouldn't there have been nutmeg- scented flowers by now?

It was only after looking at the above photo I realized some of the leaves have that dreaded curl again. Inspected it for mites, but no sign of them. Not sure why it looks unhappy. Maybe it will do better in a pot again? I hope so.

The one plant I regretting moving out of its SIP was my Pothos. This sturdy uncomplaning plant has done wonderful, even set up on top of a bookshelf on the farthest wall from the window. Nothing else will thrive there so far from the light (except the Sansevieria).

It still surprises me to see how quickly the Coleus cuttings make new roots:

Last to get shuffled was the Arrowhead. This one was a bit droopy after its transplant; I propped up the stems a little.

The only plant not pictured is the miniature Geranium. For some reason I didn't bother to photograph that one. My kid joined me at the table, she gave her plants some top-dressing and repotted a few. She has a small cactus, a geranium and baby spider plant, one african violet and a few jades (crassula)- all offspring of my own plants except the cactus. Here she's showing off the roots her jade cutting grew.