Yesterday I had the privilege of being invited to a luncheon and talk by Diane Ott Whealy, one of founders of Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, Iowa. The lunch was also a great opportunity to meet some other Chicago area bloggers and get myself out to the Botanic Gardens (because clearly I don’t go there enough already?). I think the luncheon was probably the most interesting part, if only for the reason that I found out that people who garden in the city (as opposed to me way out in the burbs) apparently have a problem with RATS as a serious garden pest. Yuck. I’m not sure why that’s so much more yuck than squirrels or racoons but it is. It really was nice to talk to other bloggers from there area though, especially seeing as I haven’t really met any plant people since moving here and my lack of interacting with other plant people is starting to turn me into the planty equivalent of a crazy cat lady.
The talk was a lot more interesting than I expected it to be. Not to say I went into it with low expectations about the content or anything, but I’ve been to enough talks to know that 9/10 times they get hijacked by some random audience member and you spend the entire time talking about some bizarre, oddly specific problem that no one on earth other than that person will ever conceivably have. That did not happen this time and I couldn’t be happier about it. Instead we learned about the ins and outs of running a massive seed bank, the work it took to get it started, how they keep all their thousands of varieties pure and things of that nature.
I was really pleased that the talk stayed positive and didn’t delve into a speech against hybrids. Maybe it’s just me but after going to school for horticulture I’m sick to death about the endless arguments for/against hybrids and heirlooms. I know it’s important to a lot of people but this just wouldn’t have been the appropriate venue for it so thankfully it wasn’t an issue.
After the talk there was a seed exchange but I don’t really need anymore seeds (on that note I got a community garden plot! 10×20′ of space for me to grow whatever I want!) so I just did a quick browse (and sure enough there was nothing I actually needed) and went for a wander around the gardens. I was just there a few days ago and just did a big post a few days ago so I’ll spare you the 400 pictures and only post a couple of my favorite witch hazels (many of which happened to be in full bloom in spite of the 4 inches of snow on the ground). My favorites were Brigit and Amethyst because I just loved that deep burgundy color. I’m pretty sure I need one or two (dozen?) of these now.
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Posted in Education, Flowering, Flowering, Gardens, Outdoors, Places | Tagged Chicago, Chicago Botanic Garden, Hamamelis, Lectures, Seed Savers Exchange, Seeds, Witch Hazel | 1 Comment »
Posted in Outdoors, Places, Gardens, Flowering | Tagged Chicago, Cacti, Flowers, Chicago Botanic Garden, Gardens, Tropicals, Witch Hazel, Snowdrops | 11 Comments »
Nothing new and exciting blooming in the jungle…just the usual suspects:
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Hippeastrum ‘Red Pearl’ I’ve gotten 3 bloom spikes off of this one. Definitely worth growing!
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The last of Columnea ‘Light Prince’
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Codonanthe gracilis, a vining gesneriad that more people should know about!
In other soon to be blooming news, my Brassavola sp. has a bloom spike! It’s pretty small still but since it’s a relatively new plant (I got it last summer) I’ve never seen it bloom so this will be exciting. I hope it’s fragrant!
For more people who actually have things blooming check out May Dreams Gardens!
Posted in Flowering, Flowering, Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, Houseplants | Tagged Amaryllis, Brassavola, Codonanthe gracilis, Columnea, Columnea 'Light Prince, Gesneriad, Hippeastrum 'Red Pearl', Houseplants, Orchid | 1 Comment »
You know what is a terrible concept? Vining cacti. Yes, let’s make a plant covered in spines and have it climb over EVERYTHING. The particular plant I’m whining about (because it’s my blog and I can whine if I want to) is Pereskia aculeata. Thankfully it’s not a rambunctious vine (unlike the passionvine it is getting tangled up with) but it is still clearly a vine and not quite so clearly a cactus. For some reason I feel compelled to tell you how I grow this as a houseplant (in case you too decide that you need a cactus vine).
I think I’m going to have to keep an eye on this one…it seems like it could be a real pain if I let it get out of control. On the plus side it IS really easy to grow. They’re a tropical cactus so they need a bit more water than “traditional” cacti but other than that they seem to be pretty similar in care. Here’s how I’ve been growing mine:
Light: It sits in an east window. When I say it is in the east window I really mean that it’s on a table about 1.5 feet away with a wall of other plants in front of it (as you can kind of tell from the picture above). Since it’s a vine it is kind of doing its own thing about growing around all the other plants to find a good source of light. I’m guessing if you put it in a sunnier spot you’ll have a much more compact plant.
Water: I don’t water it too much. I wait for the soil to get good and dry and the leaves to lose a bit of their sheen. So far it’s been about 2 weeks between waterings. If you have a younger, cutting grown plant you might want to water more frequently until it has a chance to establish itself.
Soil: I admittedly have no clue what this plant wants for an ideal soil. I’ve got it growing in generic potting soil from the garden center and it’s doing great. I’m guessing that lighter and well draining is better than heavy and slow to drain (because really that’s the case for most houseplants).
Fertilizer: I feed it once a month. I really don’t WANT to encourage vast amounts of growth.
Other stuff: It does get a nice white flower and orange fruits (mine has not though). My particular plant has a really nice shapely trunk but I’ve never seen another one with a trunk like this so I’m not sure if I just have an old plant or I just haven’t seen very many in general (which is definitely true).
I can’t say I’d recommend this plant for EVERYONE just because if it’s weird growth habit but if you’re in the market for strange plants I’d say give this one a shot. If nothing else it’s a conversation piece!
EDIT: Don’t get me wrong, I actually really really love this plant. I just find the concept of a viney cactus to be quite unnecessary (which of course meant it was totally necessary to go into my collection).
Posted in Houseplants, Caudiciforms, Plants For You To Love, Cacti, Care Sheet | Tagged Cacti, Houseplant, Pereskia aculeata, Care Sheet | 8 Comments »
I swear I’m not dead and my plants aren’t all dead! I just really don’t have anything of note to post about. It’s been super warm here (60º today!) and my daffodils are already starting to grow…I’m not really pleased about this though because I KNOW it’s going to get cold again and I really don’t want the flower buds to freeze off…we’ve still got 2 months of potential really cold ahead of us.
In houseplanty news I have gotten some cool new ones lately.
First up, and in my mind most exciting, we have Monstera deliciosa ‘Cheesecake’. I was at Gethsemane Garden Center in Chicago and I spotted this guy on a table of assorted Philodendrons. I’ve been wanting a variegated Monstera for yearsssssssssss so when I found one I knew it had to be mine. It’s not the best looking one on the planet but it’s ALL MINE! I’m going to put it up and get some sort of wood to let it climb on. You guys have no idea how ridiculously excited about this plant I am.
Next up we have some sort of dwarf black leaved elephant ear. It came from Lowes so naturally the label is wrong (It is clearly not Alocasia amazonica ‘Polly’). I’m not AS insanely excited about this one but I’m still pretty thrilled with it. I have a bright blue pot that I’m going to plant it in… I think it’ll look great (in a garish tacky sort of way).
And lastly we have Brighamia insignis, a rare member of the campanula family. It’s not really the showiest plant ever but I’m still happy about it. I do like that it’s rather caudescent and palmesque. I love caudiciforms and palms. I’m hoping I’ll be able to keep this one alive…it’s native to rocky areas in hawaii (actually it’s native to ONE rocky area on ONE island I think…at one point it was close to being lost forever because it’s pollinator went extinct but was saved by human intervention). Seeds of it are available from time to time as are plants so naturally I had to snap up the first one I saw!
Posted in Bulbs, Caudiciforms, Houseplants, New Plant, Outdoors | Tagged Alocasia, Brighamia insignis, Elephant Ear, Monstera deliciosa 'Cheesecake', Swiss Cheese Plant, Variegated Monstera | 4 Comments »
The new USDA hardiness map puts me solidly in zone 6A. I wonder how accurate this really is? I guess I trust it more than the arbor day foundation’s map (which puts Minneapolis as zone 5 but as many people living there can attest, most plants rated zone 5 do NOT survive the winter there, while USDA still has it as zone 4b which makes sense since it gets below -15 at least two or three times a winter making it NOT zone 5 which only gets to -10). I know there is a lot to hardiness other than minimum temp BUT minimum temp DOES still have an effect so I’m just going to continue ignoring the arbor day foundation. I also think this means I need to experiment more with my Chicagoland garden because really what’s the point of living in this craphole if I’m not going to at least have fun with the plants?
Posted in Semi-Pointless Thoughts | Tagged Hardiness zones, musings, USDA hardiness map | Leave a Comment »
Sorry for the horrible quality of the picture, but I took it on my phone at the mall. I spent an eternity trying to figure out if the orchids in this planter were really really bad quality fakes or if they were once living plants that were rotting off. The flowers on them looked real enough (I didn’t get a chance to take a picture of them but they didn’t look faded at all) but the leaves were yellow. Not solid yellow but that uneven splotchy yelling of a rotting plant. The rest of the plants in the container were real (for the most part). I was hesitant to go feel up the plants but curiosity got the best of me. Sure enough, they were fake plants which begs the question WHY DO THEY HAVE FAKE DYING PLANTS?! They change out the living plants on a semi regular basis SO WHY NOT THESE?! I can’t even tell if they’re faded or they started out yellow because they yellow on the top and bottom and all the ones in the mall are like this (which probably means they were yellow). WHY WHY WHY?!
Posted in Semi-Pointless Thoughts | 5 Comments »
Posted in Flowering, Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, Houseplants | Tagged African Violet, Amaryllis, Codonanthe gracilis, Columnea, Columnea 'Light Prince, Flowering Houseplants, Flowers, Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, Goldfish Plant, Hippeastrum, Hippeastrum 'Neon Rose', Hippeastrum 'Red Pearl', Houseplants, January, Saintpaulia | 3 Comments »
Project One: Unnecessary Grafting – Schlumbergera x buckleyi onto Cleistocactus strausii
The Victims
First up we have our victims. The only reason I’m bother with this is because I got the wacky idea that a weeping Christmas cactus standard would be fun. WHY DID I THINK THIS WOULD BE FUN?!
A totally unneeded shot of the top… I guess it’s not TOTALLY unneeded (is unneeded a word? Spell check says it is but it looks really silly to have so many double letters together). You can see that it has a really narrow diameter, which I’m hoping means it will have a nice skinny vascular bundle which will be important (when you see how narrow the vascular bundle is in my christmas cactus).
Top is lopped off! Fortunately it had a small vascular bundle, just like I was hoping for! When you’re grafting you need the vascular bundle to line up properly otherwise the graft won’t take. I’m hoping I got the veins to line up…
The scion! I actually took this off a different christmas cactus (One I got from Mr. Subjunctive) because it had meatier veins. The picture plant is a struggling plant that I got from my mom who got it from her mom who got it from her mom (who probably got it from her mom). I shaved the bottom of this guy so that there would be more surface area exposed with hopes that it’ll increase the chance of the graft taking (and forgot to take pictures!)
The final result! If the graft takes I’m hoping the plant will grow in a more 3-D way (not just a flat spray but more like a fountain). I’m not sure if this will work but I sure hope it does! How great would that look in full bloom (not that I’ve ever gotten a true christmas cactus to bloom)? I didn’t put a picture of it but I put a rubberband around the the rootstock near the graft to keep the graft in place. If you’re interested in seeing another attempt at interspecies christmas cactus grafting, check out Mike Is Bored to see a Christmas cactus grafted onto Epiphyllum!
(Have you ever noticed I really like parenthesis?)
Also, Thanks to those of you who voted for my pictures from the last post!
In other news, yesterday it was 55º, sunny and gorgeous. Today? Snowing heavily, 25º and generally annoying. At least I have my wall of houseplants to keep the white at bay!
Posted in Cacti, Houseplants, Propagation, Super Pointless Projects for the Bored | Tagged Cactus, Chicago Hardy Fig, Christmas Cactus, Cleistocactus Straussii, Ficus carica, Graft, Grafting, Schlumbergera x buckleyi | 5 Comments »
You guys should all go vote for my pictures at Capture Minnesota! Just click on my name next to that picture and you’ll find all (3 of them at the moment). Vote early and vote often!
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
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