this blog

has kinda gone defunct, because I had various health problems and injuries one after another, and simply didn't plant a garden last season, or this. It's all weeds out there plus some self-seeded and perennial herbs, a few flowers. Borage, nicotiana. I still have the mints, the figs, the geraniums (for now). The chives died in the heat this week, but perhaps will revive with some watering. . . 

I don't know if I'll get the garden going again, but did want to make note of some changes.

One: we got a new cat!

two, actually-

The first one is quite a little beast. Sweet at times, but definitely has her own mind. And she likes to chomp on plants. Has eaten my big spider plant- all the foliage shorter, with shredded ends. Well, now I will be glad of all the babies to start new ones with! (I used to constantly give them away)

I had to give away and re-home a ton of houseplants that would make her sick (or outright kill her) if she nibbled on them. And I'm so glad I did, because she shows no signs of stopping. My Pilea peperomioides has bite marks in all the leaves. And the second cat we adopted, the tortie- she likes to dig in the dirt of my parlor palm. I'm sweeping up and replacing dirt in there all the time.

I kept only a few of the toxic plants- heartleaf philodendron, velvet philodendron, zebrina and pothos 'cebu blue'-

they are on very high shelves she can't reach, or hung from the ceiling.

It was difficult to part with so many, but many went to my brother-in-law's girlfriend, a woman just as passionate about plants, and when I visit her home I will see them thriving. The giant dracanea flowered again the week after she took it home!

Photos of our big schefflera, the only houseplant we'd named (Bob), right before I gave it away.

I had recently cut it back severely. There were plenty of new baby leaves growing

Some stem pieces I had cut and dipped in rooting hormone, the leaves all dropped off and I thought they were done for, but I pulled one out and after weeks and weeks, there were roots finally growing at the base of the cutting. So I was looking forward to see if those finally sprouted new leaves. Maybe they will and I will see someday.

I was most sad, to part with my angelwing begonias. These were cuttings I'd just started of the narrow-leaved one (forget the variety name at the moment)

And all my different coleus. They're planted outside in the front beds or in pots now, but I won't be bringing cuttings inside to keep over winter again. Toxic. I can't even name now, all the ones that are gone- but it was well over half my collection. Two-thirds or even three-quarters of it.

I do still have most of the semi-succulents, the creeping charlie (sweedish ivy), boston fern (shabby but regrowing), most of my african violets, and the zygo cactus. That's about it. For now.

Someone had just offered me cuttings of her zz plant, one I'd always wanted to have, but I had to decline. That one's toxic too. It's just not worth the risk. I know I'll never teach this cat not to chew on plants when she's bored (or antsy that dinner's not getting served fast enough). But we already love the kitties too much, they are more to me than plants right now.

indoor stuff

I forgot to mention, but over a month ago I got a few new houseplants from someone taking cuttings in the neighborhood. This is string of hearts plant. So small!

I've since cut it back to one leaf set on the single rooted stem, and pieced the rest out into three parts to root again in water.

This one I think is supposed to be 'Cebu blue' pothos. It's leaves aren't as elongated as I've seen in other pictures, so I'm not sure if that identity is correct?

Here's another not sure of anymore- this plant when my husband bought it for me, was labeled as a monstera deliciosa, or swiss cheese plant. Mine's doing better now it stays where there's more light. I thought the leaves would get a lot bigger, and have a more broad shape, but maybe it will do that when it matures.

I recently took a few cuttings of this begonia (which I can't remember the name of right now!) and cut back hard the 'black witchy' (or whatever it's called) one just visible behind it the upper right corner, kept most of that as cuttings for new plant 

My little 'frosty' begonia is doing better in its new location.

The pilea has gotten taller- I'm starting to think I should cut it back

No picture of my madagascar palm, which survived the winter in a warmer spot but didn't get enough light there, so the leaves are all very small (as short as the thorns!) Sad to say my crown of thorns plant is all dead. 

Upstairs, I noticed my goldfish plant has a few bare spots. Trimmed some stems that were growing crosswise each other, am trying to start them rooting in water. Before, I've just stuck the stems in the soil and they didn't seem to take. Maybe this will work better.

tank news

I'm glad in the angelfish tank, to see the pothos roots all extending down branching, healthy and fast-growing. Nitrates are remaining below 10 every time I test, now. Still doing the twice-weekly wc.

Sad that I lost one of the minnow fry- I only had two, in the ten gallon. Was doing a partial wc today and one accidentally got sucked up by the hose. Not a problem- small enough it didn't get any injury in trip to the bucket, but when I went to catch it, the little fish darted at last minute and got pinched against bucket side by frame of the net. Looked okay, but couldn't swim straight. Hanging at the surface, or spinning in circles head up. I think either its swim bladder or its brain got injured. 

Also sad that the best, close-up photos I ever get of these fish is when they're sick or hurt.

I watched it struggle for a while, (and the other one immediately hid, probably alarmed by the unusual movements). Then feeling very morose and guilty, I netted it (far too easy this time) and dropped in the big tank. Miss Beautiful had a quick snap. 

So now just one. It's only a few months old and I'm still leery to put it in the 33L with the adults. Sometimes, particularly when he hasn't eaten in a while (although I feel like I feed him well), Tucker now doggedly pursues a white cloud around and around the tank.

I'm pretty sure he's trying to catch and eat one. They're too quick and agile, but I don't know if this younger one could evade him.

angels update 10

It seems this might resolve on its own, the mouth fungus. I've kept to my new cleaning schedule and maybe it's helping. Or having less stress, fewer aggressive fish in the tank is. Perhaps her immune system is finally fighting it off. Shirley's improved another margin.

The bruising under skin and odd behavior isn't any better, though. My family has started to notice: "Mom, why is your fish acting weird?" My husband has seen them wildly thrashing the pelvic fins, and today I was in the other room, replied "I don't know, what are they doing?" Ten-year-old told me that Miss Beautiful was at an odd angle, nose up, and the other fish was picking at her. Dread in my heart. This is just what I saw going on with my prior paradise fishes before they died . . . 

Well, for the little help it will give in keeping nitrates low, most of the pothos vines I cut have sprouted roots long enough to reach.

So I've put them on the back of the tank- the stem sits on the rim lip, and the roots just touch the water through gap behind the skirt.

One didn't grow much yet and is still in the cutting tray.

angels update 4

All the fish in the tank are eager for food, this morning. Nobody looks stressed. I checked water parameters twice since treatment ended- yesterday after doing the water change -37% because that's how much bucket space I had (the instructions recommended 25%). Ammonia and nitrite, zero. Nitrates 30-35 ppm.

The fishes are improved, but only partly. The golden sisters still have pale patches on their pectoral and tail fins, but much smaller, almost completely gone. The still have red streaks on edge of body below dorsal and on caudal peduncle, but it does look a bit less. Not sure if Precious has patches on the body, too- or was there a smudge on the glass

Shirley still has white on her lip. I think it's gotten smaller, but it's really hard to tell.

I got a good look at the kuhlis, which all came out to eat this morning. They're plump and active, but very red around the gills and pectoral fin area. I'm kinda surprised the biofilter doesn't seem to be affected- so guessing the kuhlis are irritated from the medication. Water is still kinda foamy, so going to do another wc today. Larger, if I can (my extra bucket is holding the substrate I was soaking, need to find another container for that). 

Trying to decide what to do. My options:

Just do extra wc daily, maybe with aquarium salt

Do another treatment round of Erythromycin 

Switch to Kanaplex, or maybe Fungus Guard (if I can find it)

Any of the above, but moving the two affected angels into the QT instead of treating the main tank again (which is going to start getting expensive here if I have to go buy more Erythromycin, etc)

On another note- in spite of not actually being planted yet, my aponogeton bolivianus is doing fine. Two of the smaller leaves melted, but the largest ones haven't, 

and it's sprouting new ones!

I'm going to put pothos on the back of the tank, again, to help take up nitrates. Took cuttings from one of my houseplants. Put them in a shallow tray of water so the roots will go down horiztonal from the stem (more or less).

even greener

Just about three weeks since I put the new light on the 55. It's definitely brighter, and also closer to the tank floor, and the plants are growing much faster.

Hornwort thicket on the short end is a dense wall now, I actually had to thin some out today.

The robust vals americana are growing wider leaves- and lovely to see the texture where the light shines through

Leopard vals continue to do better than ever, too. Lots of new foliage- although some rather pale-

and baby vals are coming up on runners outside of the planter baskets!

These have come up under the driftwood-

Most of the trimmed anubias rhizomes have new leaves sprouting-

Downside to all this spectacular growth, is the lower buce leaves have spots of BBA again. I'll move them to dimmer areas of the tank. 

Also pulled the pothos that was growing hydroponically on back of the tank. In case it's competing with the vals for nutrients. If they continue looking pale, I'll give root tabs.

some houseplant notes

Potted up one of my smaller african violets- from its small paper cup 

 into a regular pot

Took a cutting from the pothos in a sub-irrigated planter, added it to the pot with the one that came from the angelfish tank, and braided cord around the pot to hang it. Thicker on the line from the pole hook to where it divides to go around the pot, idea is maybe the vine will climb the braid and then I can train it to grow along the pole. Always wanted to have a pothos vine climbing around near the ceiling, never had it work before.

It's immediate neighbor is the tradescantia zebrina- I stuck all the rooted cuttings into the pot so it looks a lot fuller now-

and the new stems grew upright this much in just a week

Also removed two small bits of creeping charlie from a regular pot and added them to the hanging one

which got a new string as it was crooked before

It looks better now. Seems to prefer hanging. Stays a lot drier I've noticed.

Aglaonema has gotten leggy. I moved it to a different spot, guessing it needs more light.

Finally, my two parlor palms weren't doing so great again. I suspected spider mites and sprayed them twice for that over the past month. Older leaves have drying tips but the younger ones appear fresh green entirely, so I hope they're doing better.