Nothing is more exciting...

than awaiting a package. :)

I'm expecting three lovely Hoyas and an intermediate Italian reader (I'm still convinced I can get better at Italian).

Four days until I see a band that has changed my life. Deftones has gotten me through a lot of crap and still does. I just wish it wasn't such a fucking fiasco to get someone to come with me! Geez.

-----

Now for some plant related events:

 - Both of my Ledebouris socialis are happily offsetting.
 - Chlorophytum laxum is/was trying to throw out a runner. I didn't notice until I repotted. I'm hoping it still throws it out anyway!
- Sally the Schlumbergera truncata looks a little glum on one side. I can't figure it out.
- All of my Violet Barn gessies are growing like weeds. I was sort of disappointed at how small they were when they came to me, but they're loving being on top of the air conditioner with bright light. I'll be ordering again.

- I'm still avoiding the outdoor plants. The mosquitoes gun right for me and they have made my ankles their buffet. I love how much they're growing outside but I'm tired of getting up at night, scratching my legs and feet.

OK, that's it!

Revelations.

1. Keep Anthurium moist or else the plant will not give you ONE leaf until you do. (I started being more vigilant of it and now I'm getting half a dozen.)

2. Tradescantia zebrina 'quadricolor' is NOT as easy to root as the other cultivars. Seriously. I have a 0% success rate. I've never lost a cutting of the others.

3. Hoya lacunosa hates me. I keep it moist, it excises parts. I keep it dry...it stops growing. I don't get it! I've gotten one new leaf and lost over a dozen. That's terrible.

4. Don't keep plants outside if bugs find you delicious. -_-* I hate going back there because they always get me. I could be all covered up and they find a way to bite me. WHO BITES A TOE?

---------

Queen Anne the Pothos 'Marble Queen' was suffering in her pot, so I transferred her to water. She is bouncing back like a champ.

I repotted Mimi the Abutilon and my Chlorophytum laxum. Mimi because I had to water her almost everyday and the Chlorophytum because it has grown so much that it looked cramped.

I'm getting some Hoyas next week! And I now have another Euphorbia suzannae!!!!!  It looks good. I'm really excited to give it another try.

---

Well, that was all over the place. Bye!

How we choose the framing of the scene...

I don't write this blog for anyone else but myself. Sure, if someone stumbles upon it...great. However, I don't care if I get comments or views. This is really for me.

Anyway, I'm in a rotten mood. It's too hot to run and I'm very tempted to buy Hoyas. Or gessies. Whatever.

I don't know why I'm writing this.

Plant update, part two: Mimi gets cut.

Today, I got it in my head that Mimi the Abutilon  needs to become a mother plant.

Here she is a day or so after I got her. She was mottled and bursting with her beautiful salmon blooms:

Honestly, she is such a good bloomer. Or was. I bought her at the Philadelphia Flower Show. It's super dangerous to have the largest flower show basically anywhere less than a few miles away from you once a year!

This is what she looks like today:

Erm, not quite mottled anymore. Grew like crazy, though.

I read that Abutilon pictum thompsonii (the booth that sold this to me incorrectly labeled this one) is variegated and that it's caused by a virus. Well, I guess whatever I did to it caused that virus to run away, LOL. She is usually kept in a western window and I'm guessing that sun caused her to lose the variegation. Oh well, I like her any way she comes.

She is always thirsty. I'll move her away from the windows, give her a good drink and leave for the weekend. I'll come back and she'll be droopy as all get out. Once I water her, she's like LOL JK. Silly fainter - I have a few of these offenders (Chaka the H. phyllostachya and Jazzy the Jasmine sambac 'Maid of Orleans' are the others). I think that I've paid for not being right on top of her in terms of watering...she has bloomed for me twice more since I got her but has not bloomed for about a month or two. Which is usually fine but she constantly blasts her buds. I may have to check the root ball and see if it's getting too cramped. She is awful big for her britches now.

Anyway, I digress. She can barely fit on the curtain rod anymore because she is trying to become best friends with the windowsill. Instead of just tolerating it, I figures this is a good time to cut her a little.

And now she is officially a mom:

Hi, little one!

Mom and son.

I read up a little on Abutilon propogation and most sources say that while it's best to just grow these from seeds, they can be propogated by stem cuttings. I just watered the cutting a little and I'm going to leave it alone for a little bit. I cut off the leaves on three nodes and stuck him in there. I hope he takes.

Mimi has been a fantastic plant for me. She is growing out of her mind right now, has gorgeous blooms that she has blessed me with twice, and she is a plant that actually prefers to be moist. That's a plant I can get down with. She will need re-potting somewhere down the line but for now, she's a happy mom.

I'll leave you with one of Mimi's leaves:

A visitor.

A big spider has taken up residence in my mini greenhouse.

I'll name him Gregory. I may have to evict him eventually because he is starting to hog up valuable plant space.

Also, H. mindorensis FINALLY put out new growth on the first node. One leaf had weird rot so I cut it off. However, the rest of it looks great.

The Echeveria cuttings I got from a gardener keep blowing over in the wind. And something keeps nibbling at one of them. Grrr.

Little updates.

On one of the few weekends to myself, I went to the beach. That was exactly what the doctor ordered.

Anyway, a few things are happening in the garden:

1. Flora is dead. She wasn't happy with the soil she came in and by the time I did emergency re-potting, she was already a goner. I'm sorry, doll, you were a beautiful plant. BF took me out to get a new one. I'm going to re-pot her tonight when I get home into my soil. She has nice white roots and I intend to keep it that way.

2. Diva stopped blooming (finally) and started to die off on one branch. Poor thing, she did so well for almost a year. So I noticed that she was growing some aerial roots - I cut her up to pieces and am hoping to keep her alive through cuttings. I know Kalanchoe blossfieldiana is typically a 'grow and throw' plant but I really hope to keep her alive.

3. The plants have all been tolerating the 100+ degree weather here. That may be nothing for southerners, but the reason why I live up north is so I don't have to deal with that!

4. Tovah the Tradescantia zebrina 'quadricolor' got a lot longer than I thought she would get. The other Tradescantias are doing well - the ones I got from Mr. S have grown a lot and started branching. The cutting I got from Lowe's is doing fine even though I cut it to pieces to fill the pot. The main stem is branching.

I bought a new plant last week and I will take pics later. I have the day off tomorrow because I need to get some cavities filled. Sayonara!

Plant update, part one: Sammy

Sammy was a rescue from my BF's job. His office moved a few blocks down and his coworker asked if I wanted her plants. They weren't hers - another coworker was let go and she just kept them on the sills. I couldn't bear to think about a poor plant in the trash, so I told her I'd pick it up ASAP.

When I came to pick the plant up, he looked like this.

AHHHHHH! I know, that was scary. Poor Sammy was so underwatered that he just hung there. I promptly took him home and cut off any dead leaves, as well as any leaves that suffered mechanical damage. I also replaced the soil but kept him in the same pot. A few weeks later, he looked like this:

Better. I thought he looked good then, but looking back at it I think he was looking sparse.

Now he looks like this (excuse the light levels here...my bathroom doesn't like my camera):

Much better, right? He sits with his soulmate and fellow rescue, Sally the Schlumbergera truncata. Up top is Buster the Pilea depressa and the still unnamed Senecio radicans. Sammy has been regularly trying to outgrow his pot...his little rhizomes are pushing the leaves up and out. I think it's mostly him thanking me for rescuing him. He's a joy to grow and never complains about my occasional neglect.

Next time I won't re-pot in MG soil. Never again - that's why the fly strip is only near him.

Thanks for letting me cut you up, Sammy. You were a trooper and look at you now!