Winter Houseplants

 

Well it's Christmas, but I don't think my plants know the difference. This cactus is still sporting it's odd "tentacles", unchanged for months. I still don't know what they're about.

 

 

 

The air plants are doing pretty well...

 

...a couple brown tips, but still alive....

 

...the best looking one is in here, blooming three times since I got it.

 

This plant is doing very well since its' rough beginning with just one puny root on the start I was given. I hope it gets big like the plant it came from, it's such an attractive foliage specimen. I don't know exactly what it's called, I'll research it and update when I can.

 

The christmas cacti have been growing well, but blooming is another story. This white has a fading bloom and more buds...

 

 ...and the red has buds too. The third plant had no flower buds at all....

 

...and the buds just dried up and fell off of the red with no blooms opening. I'm not sure if the problem was over or under watering on my part or what, but I need to figure it out so I can enjoy the blooms next year. Flowers this time of year are real mood-improvers for me.

                                 At least the plants are growing well, blooms or no blooms.

This little hunk of ZZ plant is still green too, I'm hoping to pot it up by itself after I see some growth.

 

 My group of carnivorous plants are mostly happy, although two of the nepenthes are kind of sad-looking. Time for a change....

 

...so I put them in this little greenhouse to try and maintain more humidity. I hope it helps!

 

Lid on for now, I'll set it a tad sideways later so gnats can come in and feed them.

 

Lots of wandering from my passionflower vine but no blooms. The plant may not be mature enough to bloom yet (just as likely the season is off, too). The greenery is good to see, anyhow.

Houseplants sure make the winter brighter while I daydream of summer flowers and tasty veggies.
Just a couple more months and the seed catalogs will start arriving...not soon enough for me!

Autumn Cacti

My cactus collection is doing pretty well these days, despite no direct sunlight for the past 2 years. Just sheet-filtered southern exposure, not the best conditions but that's the way it goes sometimes.

 

 

              My whale-tongue agave has gotten rather large, so it gets relocated to spread out.

 

 New growth on all of them, a little gangly but I'll take it.

 

               With the big agave out of the way, the others can be moved closer to the window.

My 'Torch Cactus', Trichocereus grandiflorus hybrids still has these weird "tentacles" coming out of it for about 4 months now. All they do is get longer and increase in number...

...so far they look like this with no sign of turning into blooms. Very interesting, but I wish I knew what's going on. The anticipation is kinda fun though, "Adventures With Housplants" I suppose.

 

After seeing a Fishook Barrel Cactus cactus (Ferocactus wislizenii) that my friend in Texas has, I decided I needed one!

 

Very nice! This specimen was discounted due to some "cosmetic damage", but I don't see it. Looks like a great buy to me.

 

And there are the hooks! It even has some red fruit...cool.

 

Next spring when new growth begins I plan to add supplemental lights so this newcomer can stay healthy and the rest of my cacti can grow thicker and not quite so gangly. But for now I think they are acclimating to apartment life better than I am!

 

Cactus Action

 

Something is happening with my cactus! I noticed these tentacle-like sprouts coming out the sides...

 

 

...bloom scapes, perhaps? The process hasn't changed in appearance for about two weeks now...I'll keep you posted.

 

Nearby the other cacti look pretty good, especially after 2 years in sheet-filtered southern exposure.

This lithop looks alright, but rather sad as well (likely due to the shallow nature of this container-I'd read lithops like to form a nice long taproot.) The plan is to grab a nice small sedum or two to put here, then pair this lithop with a cactus in a tall pot. At least it's not failing yet.

 

These are happily forming fruiting bodies...

 

...even in this fairly shallow pot.

The taller cacti are definately kind of gangly from the lack of direct sun...

 

...but overall things are fine in the cactus portion of my indoor jungle.

 

Only exception is this aloe here. I find aloes kinda tricky in general, although agave respond great for me. I have no idea why, but I'll murder the weaklings until I get it right.

 

 This cactus looks the most un-like it normally would with direct sun, but it seems healthy enough. I've been a reformed cactus-rotter for several years now, so live cacti in general feels like a victory to me.

Much as I miss good outdoor growing space, I am still a real gardener-albeit on a different scale. Gotta take what you can get sometimes...lemonade...all that crap  :)

Gardening Lull

A cold, late spring + frequent travel + working 30 days in a row = gardening meh. Here's my outdoor progress thus far...

 

...not just weeds in my hanging baskets from last year though, there's a couple volunteer flowering tobacco that came up. Doubt they'll have time to flower, though.

 

This bag of peat moss was supposed to go into some trough planters and planted with various annual and veggie seeds....ah well. Maybe next year.

Indoors things are looking much better! My phal 'Happy Girl' is blooming very happily....

...the last indoor tomato is ripening, very late considering its neighbors ripened mid-May. Weird.

 

The plant looks kinda sad, I may give it a pruning and "summer camp" outdoors (after I eat the tomato, of course :)

 

My new mystery cutting that was a gift from a friend is growing pretty well. I'm glad since it had all of an inch of flimsy root with it.

 

This air plant is very happy-blooming almost constantly....

 

 ...and this one has sprouted a "pup"! There are some brown tips on the leaves (I think that I was over-watering at first), but overall it seems fine so I'm optimistic.

 

Tha cacti look decent overall, just a tad spindly from filtered light. They prefer direct sun, but you can't always get what you want.

Back to life then. Meh. I need to visit a botanical garden or something to try and get my garden mojo rejuvenated (or win the lottery and garden full time...either way  :)

 

First Cactus Watering of the Year

At the end of March I began watering my cacti again, as it is the start of their growing season. From about October to March I give them zero water, and now begins a monthly watering schedule (since I'm not putting them outside for the summer.)

They all look pretty good...

...although new growth is kinda thin and gangly due to filtered light exposure. I have no choice unless I put up lights, however...so we'll see how this works awhile longer.

These lithops are still a tad leggy-looking, but no worse since I moved them closer to the window.

Their neighbors look even better, with a couple in the pink pot showing some spring "fruiting-body" growth.

The only casualty is this poor thing-it responded like this only days after the watering. Rats.

Well whatever caused this, I sure hope the carnage stops here!

New Cactus Re-potting

Here are two lovely cacti that my dear friend from Texas sent me awhile back. I've been collecting vintage planters, and now I'm ready to repot my new prickly friends.

 

 

Here are the pots in question: two nice planters from the McCoy pottery line, approximately 1960's vintage.

I use tongs to handle the cacti, preferably metal ones with an open loop grabbing area so I don't smash too large an area on the cacti, but all I had on hand were these. (I have since gone to the dollar store for the metal tongs.) My soil mix includes aquarium gravel, sand, bone meal, decomposed granite, kelp meal, greensand, and bunny "beads" (poop :)

This cute barrel cactus is 'Balloon Cactus', Notocactus magnificus....

...there! Magnificus indeed!

This one is 'Torch Cactus', Trichocereus grandiflorus hybrids...

...voila'! Looks happier already!

I gave them some water, and that will be all they get until March or so when their growing season begins again.

So far this winter I've been able to keep my plant room fairly cool, especially at night. I'm hoping this will stimulate blooms from some of my cacti, maybe even these new ones. Fingers crossed!