on lean water

Another new tactic this year- I am trying to use only meltwater from snow and ice outside, or collected rainwater, for my succulents and tender plants. Some of them really don't like tapwater. Like the spider plant. I think it's the flouride content. Others- the succulents- do poorly with the rich nitrate content in the aquarium wastewater I use. Most of them seem to be doing better now! 

My blue-green "ponytail" plant- I trimmed and replanted in the same pot most of the trailing stems, and it looks much nicer now. Wow, how it's grown.

Zygo (thanksgiving) cactus is still small, but has doubled in size again:

Still don't know the actual name of this pale green one in the crassula family. It frequently had leaves that withered and dropped, before I started using the meltwater.

Surprise! I still have a remnant of the echeveria- two small plantlets- I keep them very dry now. The one in red pot sharing space with some babies of the blue-green 'ponytail' which fell there of their own accord.

Madagascar palm the only one that doesn't look happy yet. Too much draft? Not enough warmth? (it's near a door so there's some draft). Not sure. I might give up on this one soon.

Other plants that I usually give lean water now too, or mixed with just a small portion of tankwater: creeping charlies, sansevieria, peace lilly- which has grown a lot!

and now even has new baby shoots emerging-

and my spider plants- no more burned leaf tips! This pot has several offspring from

my original plain spider plant- still vigorous and with new baby offshoots growing all the time

some progress-

My little madagascar palm definitely has more leaves, but they're also getting some leaf-tip burn. Less water still, I think.

Thanksgiving cactus buds are getting pinker!

Little bird-nest sansevieria is in a low level out-of-the-way spot so I wasn't sure for a while how it's doing- but definitely has grown more

and it's even got new foliage crown sprouting

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.

some repotted

Day of the plant swap I potted some up that needed it more urgently- the baby strawberry begonia

I'd actually just read about this plant for the first time last week, and thought how I'd like one- obviously it must do okay outside because the clump I pulled the baby off of, was growing at the base of some pink turtlehead- but I plan to keep it as a houseplant. (It's not a real begonia, btw. It's Saxifraga Stolonifera and funny enough, one of the other common names is wandering jew! also called strawberry geranium, creeping rockfoil and mother-of-thousands)

The baby spider plants I just barely pushed into some soil. Going to have them share a pot until larger.

I found that tying their runners together overhead holds them in place just fine (as long as they don't get bumped).

I cut the vine thing into a few pieces to try and root.

Put the angelwing begonia cutting into water.

Left the dwarf sansev and peace lily alone for now. They need repotting too, but I'd rather do so in spring. My jade, zebrina, parlor palms, creeping charlies and maybe the avocado need repotting too...

plant swap!

Other day I went to a plant swap at the local library. I wish I'd known what to expect, I would have taken far more cuttings and dug-up seedlings. As is, I contributed my smaller pots of cuban oregano and the asiatic lily. Felt tickled to bring home so many in return:

Here's what I got! a pot of three small peace lily plants-

there's a tiny baby strawberry begonia in there (loose)

A dwarf sansevieria 'bird's nest' (hope I do better by it than the fern)

one small common milkweed-

three spider plant babies- without stripes-

cutting of angelwing begonia-

this long piece of vine the lady who brought it said she planted it outside against a fence

it looks like schefflera though?

Also not pictured- next post- a few pots with rose of sharon seedlings. There's another plant swap in spring. I will be more prepared! I thought I overdid it a few days ago when before a cold night I took tons of cuttings from my osteospermum (african daisies)- five pots like this! and so far they all look good- but I can easily take the extras to the swap-

plus loads of coleus cuttings, geranium cuttings, extra vegetable starts, seedlings of pin oak, holly, euonymus and echinacea dug from the yard etc- I'm looking forward to it again already!