small swap

My little kalanchoe is getting too big for its tiny pot, and my poor strawberry begonia seems dwarfed-

so I switched 'em

Here's the kalanchoe before it went in. Actually two individual plants, and there's another just sprouting in the large jade pot too. Maybe I'll finally get a healthy one to grow larger. I've been careful to give it only tap or rainwater (as with all my succulents now)

Still don't know about the strawberry begonia. I'm giving it lean water for now, too. Seems to do worse when the leaves get a bit wet- going to water from below and see if that helps.

semi succulents

Small kalanchoe, the only one I have left, filling its tiny pot now

Birds-nest sansevieria doing okay. Lower leaves don't look great, but newer ones seem fine so I hope it's just adjusting.

My youngest charlie is the healthiest one. The mid-sized pot I have in my room, the leaves on outer edges of vines are normal darker hue now that I moved it away from the window light. The oldest pot, in the front room, looks awful and I'm probably going to throw it out.

My thanksgiving cactus bloomed! just in time for the holiday.

Starting to bud:

Fully opened a week later:

plant pictures-

I potted up the bright 'pinched' coleus cuttings

and my zebrina cuttings- which had roots just emerging. Put them in two different locations with indirect light, to see where they do better- one is in my room.

Here's some of the citronella geranium cuttings- one under a cloche, the other not- behind them the osteospermum cuttings- a few got moldy and I pulled them out.

another pot of geranium cuttings outside under glass- with the vine pieces- but they're already dying

the one I stuck in the parent pot wilted at first, but has since perked up-

Little tabletop near front room window is full of other cuttings in jars-

and the dwarf sansevieria, which I just repotted-

Potted up the one baby kalanchoe in one of the smallest pots I have- in a succulent mix

Also repotted the peace lily

and moved some plants around in the house. Aglaonema, pothos, peace lily and heart leaf philodendron now all sit below the window tank

I patched together this photo of it to try and make appear more as my eye sees (the top of tank not so washed out). One of the parlor palms is now to the right of this tank- it switched places with the avocado.

The front room becoming an indoor garden.

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!

indoor plants

I did a count, just for the fun of it. My living room with the large sliding door has thirty pots of plants. Front room has seven, dining room twelve, bedroom upstairs nine. Basement window has four. That's sixty-two plants in the house! (Counting containers, not individuals). Of course, many of these will move out onto the deck once warmer weather comes.

Here's some pics. The main window spot. Coleus exhibition limelight, unnamed blue-green succulent, kalanchoe, baby jade of some kind, unknown leaf, thanksgiving cactus starts, zebrina draping over the background, sweet potato peeking up from below.

Something's amiss with kalanchoe- lower leaves are yellowing, argh.

Every time I look at the blue-green succulent, it seems to have grown a bit more!

the zebrina is happy in this spot-

but where its stems get hit by direct light they are washed out and discolored

I have another small pot of its cuttings in a different room corner, not as happy. Leaves are pale, dull color, a bit curled. Not sure why. Going to move its location.

Creeping charlie scion on the same table likes the low light, though. This is the one I recently potted up.

Also on this table is a spider plant I butchered. It was looking so pale and droopy in my bedroom window, I thought it needs less light and moved it down here, drastically cut off all its pale hanging sad foliage. To my surprise it is reviving- new leaves!

The older spider plant is doing really well in its new spot, too- I finally figured out what I've done wrong by this plant all along. They need to avoid any direct sunlight. This one is standing taller, leaves have better color. Only one of the three individuals in this pot is still a bit pale.

Goldfish plant continues to look great suspended in the window. It even has a few new leaves.

Smaller pot of medinilla velvet philodendron also looks very nice, on the high corner of my bookshelf. The larger pot of it, on the mantle in the living room, is starting to grow back, but I didn't get a photo of it.

others are great

Not all the houseplants in my winter sun spot are doing poorly. Cuban oregano cheers me with its bright glow.

Salad burnet has grown back healthy young stems after I pulled out a bunch that looked pale. Tarragon I've been eating. Well, lithops still looks to be on death's door. But the rest are fine. On the floor (top to bottom, left to right): ice plant (before I moved it), curry plant, jade, mini geranium tree, salad burnet, chives, lithops, tarragon, cuban oregano, sweet potato vine.

On the little shelf, back to front: zebrina (wandering jew), mini geranium, and underneath the geranium's leaves are the younger succulents I've been trying to start-

the pretty one I think isn't ponytail, kalanchoe- not visible echeveria and two others I don't know the names of... . . .

thanksgiving cactus cuttings and more!

I was at my grandmother's house this weekend. She has one of those Schlumbergera cacti and when I visited it was in gorgeous bloom- all pink. The color I have been looking for. (I had one that bloomed white but I gave it to a friend months ago, because I don't really care for white flowers). Grandma kindly gave me a few pieces to bring home and start my own.

Tucked into the soil. I'm delighted to see how this one will grow!

Related plant news: weeks ago I brought home a leaf pinched off my friend's echeveria to try and restart one for myself. After I gave her an echeveria started from the saved pieces of my wedding arrangement three years ago, mine all died, bah. Of the two leaf pieces I brought home, one shriveled. But this one is growing roots! (I know because I tugged it up to see).

Kalanchoe babies are bigger- need to give the biggest one its own pot soon. Grandma had a larger one with thick central stem- I hope I can keep mine that healthy, still not sure why they always falter on me once they reach a certain size.

 Here's the little blue-green ones- grown quite a bit. Need to find the name.

I've had this one triangular succulent leaf stuck in the dirt for a long time- couldn't locate the original post on it unfortunately. It never grew any, so I don't usually make note of it, but it hasn't died either, so I kept just watering it intermittently.

Then last week I had to dump it out of the pot because ants had taken up housekeeping. Found somewhat to my surprise it actually has roots. Decided to give it a better chance- maybe all this time it's had enough nutrients to grow roots, but not quite enough to grow new foliage?

I refreshed the soil, with crushed eggshells for drainage, and moved it to a slightly brighter location. Let's see what it does.

semi- and succulents, old and new

A few small cuttings and plantlets I got from a friend of the family. I don't know their names, unfortunately. This one has round, flat leaves shaped like my 'ice plant' but a grassy green. It looks like another crassula of some kind.

and these tiny baby plants had grown from leaves that fell on the lady's table. The leaves had actually withered away, and the baby plants were holding themselves up with fine root hairs spread on the tabletop in her sunroom, between trailing stems. Lovely pale blue-green.

Not new- but replacing old. My kalanchoes had grown large enough to sport lots of babies on the leaf margins- and then started looking sickly, just like before. This time I simply cut them down (you can see the trimmed-off stems in here) and planted some of their largest babies.

I threw out the ponytail palm. After a summer languishing outside, it just didn't look like it would recover. Also tossed the string-of-pearls, it looked dead. Bummer. The first set of cuttings off my zebrina plant went into its pot:

I don't know what to do with my lithops anymore. It does not look good. It keeps sprouting new leaf pairs without any of them getting healthy. It's in the brightest window spot I have, yet still looks leggy and needy.

My oldest geranium, the one that's kind-of a bonsai, got its serious trim of the year:

Here's the best of its tops, which I stuck in a small pot to root

Older scion of it is still outside, obviously it loves the sun

Scented geranium is unhappy. I don't know if it was the switch to indoors, or I brought an insect pest in on it? Leaves keep yellowing and dropping. I'm trying to change its watering routine. Think it's too damp. Might move it into a smaller pot. Discouraged as I liked this plant.

Cuban oregano is looking pretty good.

Creeping charlie is glorious.

I am trying to save my elephant bush plant. It got hit really hard with some insect, outside on the porch this summer. It looks terrible. I'm taking cuttings of the few stems with decent-looking leaves, to see if I can restart it, but don't dare bring it inside yet to spread more ill...