Showing posts with label houseplants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label houseplants. Show all posts

Sunday, September 20, 2015

It All Started With One Re-potting

 
The whole thing started when I decided to bring in and repot my recently-acquired jasmine plant. Night temps were dipping into the 50's, so I wanted to begin bringing in the houseplants.
 
 
First I made room by removing dead plants. So long, african violet. You were awfully pretty for several years (six I think!) The smaller violet I had died awhile back, so I guess I'm out of the violet hobby for awhile. Good opportunity to try some new plants I've never grown before, like the jasmine.


Two of my lithops didn't make it, I'd read after potting them that they don't like shallow pots but chose to leave them and see what happens. See plants die. Die plants, die. *sigh* (That's plant-killer haiku', lol.)

 
Nice spot opened up now, more "front row" exposure for some cacti that need it...

 
...there!

 
Another spot for a plant from the porch to go, or maybe...

 
 ...this plant that I also repotted to a nice deep pot. It was floppy before, now I want it planted deeper and growing properly. Looks kinda pissed for now.

 
So for the jasmine that started all this, I decided to repot it into the pot containing this passion vine. The vine has been wandering all over the room, but no blooms and the pot is quite large.
 








 


 

 See? Large pot, nice obelisk trellis and the plant takes off anyway.

 
Here's the spot to make the cut...


...there! Small root ball, smaller plant=smaller pot. I only have so much room in this apartment, so it had to be done.


Decided to try it as a hanging plant, maybe it will get bushier if I trim back each vining branch. I just hope I haven't trimmed it so much that it dies, but it's too late to do anything but wait now. Grow or die is the basic plan around here anyway.


                                        Time to repot the jasmine, it's fairly root-bound.


Okay! Now I have a plant that will make more use of the obelisk before trying to escape.

 
Update on this non-hardy plant I bought this year-I misidentified it as a bougainvillea, just assuming I knew what it was when I bought it.

 
Had I bothered to look at the tag I'd have known it was a similar-looking bush, not a vine. Oh well, now I won't need to buy another obelisk.

 
More cultural info, sounds like it's near full-sized now.

 
Fairly root-bound too, like most all plants from big box stores.


This pot isn't much deeper but lots more room on the sides, one web page I looked at mentioned these plants like that sort of re-potting. Funny how a single repot project can morph into more.

 
By this time I had the table nearly emptied anyway, so why not tackle a re-organization project? This poor vintage card table has been suffering water damage from various plant mishaps...

 
...time to use the tablecloth I found on Amazon awhile back. I felt the pattern was very appropriate.


       There! Much better! Some room left for the two brugs yet to come in...

 
...but standing room only on the table next to it.


I reconfigured the hanging plants too, removing all the passion vine tendrils and letting a couple overwhelmed plants get more light. (They needed a turning, too.)

 
And here's our project-starting jasmine in its' new home. I'm sure a few leaves will drop off as it gets used to less light, but then I'm guessing it will reach for the sky to find more.
 

                                   Alternatively it may just get pissed and die, only time will tell. At least my plant room got a mini-makeover. Thanks for the inspiration, jasmine!

Saturday, August 29, 2015

Late Summer Blooms

 
 My bloom scape on the keiki is looking great!
 
 
 
Plus I still have what appears to be a growing baby plant as well, I'm anxious to see what happens.
 
 
 
I had a weak moment at Home Depot and got this jasmine for $1.98-it still has some sweet-smelling blooms on it.

 
They had perennials on sale too, so I got three perennials and a pretty red bougainvilea vine.

 
This was covered with bees at Home Depot, I'm surprised none of them followed me home.

 
Pretty echinacea, I selected a plant with mostly buds to prolong the show.
 
 
LOVE the bloom color on the vine, too bad it has no fragrance.

 
The blooms are even pretty before they open.
 
 
This palm is showing some growth and looking somewhat less ratty, but I'm pretty sure it will be treated as an annual and left out to succumb to frost. These never stay nice looking for me anyhow.


My new big brugmansia is looking super nice! I'm planning to repot it before it comes in for the winter.

 
The fuschia is blooming like crazy, too. It seems to me that they've done something to these plants to keep them blooming without dead-heading. I have given this Miracle Grow a couple times, but I've never had a fuschia bloom non-stop like this!


                             Here's hoping for a nice mild autumn, I want the show to keep going!

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Outdoor Plants 2015

 
My big brugmansia died a few months ago, so I got a new one from a dear friend who grew it from a cutting I'd given her off of mine. Kinda bushy and I like them in tree form... 
 
 
...so I trimmed it back.

 
Stuck two of the cuttings in water to root...

 
...and one in the pot where the big brug had died. This pot is outdoors, I was hoping something could grow from the roots of the dead plant. So this stem has lots of room to develop into a new plant.

 
Some other houseplants on the porch are this ratty looking palm...

 
...new brug, old brug, and some sapling trees growing in last year's empty pots. Not sure what these trees are, but I may want them so I'll keep them going until I can ID them.

 
Here's the only annual I bought this year, fuschia perked right up after I watered it.

 
The two cuttings in water began to rot later, so i cut off the rot to try something else.
 
 
Soaked some spagnum moss...

 
...these white bumps are future root nodes...

 
...put a drainage disk in this enamel cup...

 
...then wrapped them up in paper towel with moss. Hopefully they'll root and not rot.


As I was checking on the outdoor cutting I got an amazing surprise-a baby is sprouting from the dead stem of my original brug! Yay!


                            Plus new growth starting on the stem I put in the same pot-hooray!

 
Baby leaves!


The new plant looks very happy after the cut back too, developing a sturdy, woody stem.


So far I've gone from no brugmansia to five in short order. Always good to have extras, one can never have too many fragrant blooms, IMO.