The Plant Killer

I think the concept of vertical gardening is awesome.  And I have a vertical planter.  Only problem is, my vertical planter kills plants.  Very reliably.  

No matter what I try -- drought-resistant plants, watering every day, plastic baggy "invention," plant nannies and water globes -- I turn my back for a second, and we're looking at this:

or worse, this

Why?  Because the combination of heat with felt bags just dries everything right out.

My husband has started asking me regularly to throw it away.  But I think the concept of vertical gardening is so awesome and I have a vertical planter, so I refuse.  He has started getting creative and suggesting neat alternatives (like a wire lattice with air plants... Ooo, hey...).  And they are tempting.  But vertical gardening!!

Nevertheless, even I am starting to see the futility, so this year, as you know, I am trying something different...  Succulents.

I am very fond of my succulents, and these succulents are ones that I have nurtured for some time now, whether from propagated cuttings or in other pots that they have simply overgrown.

What better to overcome The Plant Killer than the (almost) unkillable succulents?  Good luck, little guys.

I should add that you may notice that the Dipladenia that I blogged about last year as a superhero plant and that is also present in the picture above of the completely dead vertical garden... save for the Dipladenia... is still alive.  Deathless Dipladenia, aka Superhero Plant, I am in awe.  Way to go.

So here's some samples of what I've put in the vertical planter:

A jade propagated newbie which started as this almost exactly one year ago--

Tiny roots

Repotted into a tiny pot

And has now turned into this, with a well-developed root system--

Has a few more leaves too!

Impressive!

I replanted the Echeveria which was nearly murdered by the rack in our kitchen window and in that process sparked this whole discovery of succulent propagation. 

That is all one plant except for the Kalanchoe propagation at far left

 In the process of unpotting and replanting it, a side branch fell off.  Oops.  But it already had a root system developing, so I planted that in another pocket as well.

Mama plant behind

The Crassula perforata branch that I had cut off and tossed into the Baby Succulent Farm, wondering if it would grow roots...  It grew roots!

And here it is, replanted with another repropagated "Kalanchoe Aurora Borealis" as well as a fuzzy succulent friend, "Kalanchoe Chocolate Soldier."

I will be quite sad if The Plant Killer kills them all, but I am taking a few measure against that:

First, instead of the usual very well-draining cactus mix, I added some potting soil (which does not drain as quickly).  The pocket on top is all potting soil and the ones on the bottom are mostly cactus mix, to account for the bottom pockets generally retaining more moisture (effect of gravity while watering).  

I have said before that the best way to kill a succulent is to over-water.  So it will be a delicate balance -- usually I water once a week rather lightly.  With these, I started with a heavy watering yesterday as you should with any plant that you have just planted, and intend to do a light watering 2-3x per week until established... and then we'll see.  And no watering with a hose to avoid excessive moisture.  That's the game plan!

I have had such success with propagating succulents that I have relegated another pot to a second Baby Succulent Farm.  Soon I will have to start giving succulents away!  There are so many!

Look at that teensy tiny baby succulent at the end of the leaf in the middle... Can you see it??

Meanwhile my other cuttings continue to grow (taken last week)

I love it.  Well, as you read this, I am in Las Vegas with the siblings, so I leave you with this fascinating aside (ever wonder what people would be like if born during a different generation?  Like would an Elvis born in 1983 be famous now?) ......Anyway: Elvis "Viva Las Vegas!"

Blooming Succulents! (Part 2)

I would say that I post this at the risk of seeming succulent obsessed, but....  let's be honest, I AM succulent obsessed!  Maybe you remember my last post about blooming succulents (here it is, if you would like to refresh your memory).  We had a few succulents that held promise of blooms, what they would look like, heaven only knew:

Our Aeonium with the "hat":

Our gift Echeveria with a tiny bloom stalk:

Well, this has certainly been the season of yellow for my garden.  Starting with the Aeonium, it has turned into quite the long-lasting pretty yellow "hat".  I had wondered if the Aeonium was truly "monocarpic," meaning a plant that flowers, makes seeds, and then dies, rather than re-flowering.

As you can tell, it is -- pretty much all that is left of the plant below the flower is dead leaves.  But the lovely little blooms are a nice gift.  As you can see, the other stalk has grown a side stalk too, so we will see what happens from there.

As for the Echeveria, it too has made some progress.  

This picture shows three bloom stalks, but on my visit to this little plant in my garden, it now has even one more stalk.  Blooming like crazy!

They too are long-lasting yellow flowers, little bells.  They have been blooming slowly, in the pattern of so many stalks of flowers where the most proximal flowers blooms first and then die while buds at the tip have yet to be opened.

The last focal point of interest is gross but fascinating.  If you know me in the context of my garden, you know that I absolutely hate aphids.  (Aphids and green worms... don't even get me started...)  But this is interesting -- look closely:

They're yellow!  What??  I had to investigate.  So it turns out that pea aphids come in several different colors (red, green, pink, yellow...).  Their color comes from carotenoids (like the beta-carotene in carrots that makes them orange).  Interestingly enough, generally animals don't make carotenoids but pea aphids are an exception -- they have the genes to make carotenoids and therefore different colors, the first known to do so, in fact.  An even more interestingly, they appear to have gained that ability by "stealing" the gene from fungi that they eat, via lateral gene transfer.  Color is important to pea aphids because it affects which predators eat them (ladybugs eat red aphids, wasps attack green ones).  The red and green colors originate from these genes, and yellow appears to be a mutation.  If you're interested, here is a story on NPR and another more in depth story on Science Daily.

Who knew my little enemies could be so interesting.  If you listen to the NPR article, the lady studying them actually describes them as "cute"... that's a stretch.

I hope you are staying dry in our LA monsoon.  This week, I have been feeling good, and I leave you with this song that I am currently loving which will leave you feeling good too:  Pharrell "Happy".  May you have a week full of happiness!

New Baby Succulents!

If you read last week's post, you probably have an idea of where I am going this week...  Succulents!  As I mentioned before, these lovely little plants are easy to grow and by extension, for me at least, the habit of buying and planting these is a bit addictive.  Discovering the ability to propagate succulents on my own just adds another dimension of interest.  

So allow me to show you this week's awesome -- new baby succulents!

At The Jungle, I bought a couple newbies:

Crassula marnieriana

A purple Echeveria

And a mystery succulent  (there were no tags on this plant and in my excitement, I forgot to ask)

You may also remember that makeshift baby succulent nursery I had going on with the products of my science experiment:

The goal for the week was to replant some of these propagated succulents and also fill a few pots that had become available -- one from an orchid that died and another pot-set that I got from my in-laws, originally for the purpose of growing herb seeds.  Here is a sample pot from the pot-set:

Sometimes these indoor pots are tricky -- if they have drainage holes on the bottom, then you need to put them on something so you don't make a puddle inside your house.  If they don't (as this pot-set doesn't), then it can be hard to know how much to water them.  As you can see, these pots have a little... I am not sure what to call it... shelf thing inside that you can either put rocks underneath or nothing (though some soil will fall through) with the idea that extra water collects there.  Regardless, whenever in need of something that will not be finicky with water... choose succulents!

The propagated succulents actually had a pretty extensive root system for how small the plants are.  I was surprised:

And I used a few small clay pots as well as recycled plastic pots to replant these little babies:

The largest of the propagated baby Echeveria I planted as a third plant in the pot-set, along with the purple Echeveria, and the mystery succulent:

And lastly, my new Crassula got a special place in a white textured pot which I think complements its colors and unique look perfectly:

Before you go, here's some UB40, because it's that kind of week.  xoxo!

Science experiment: The Magic Continues!

Before I say anything else, Happy (belated) birthday to my beloved sister Andrea whose birthday was this past Monday (I know, I know... I'm still getting used to these scheduled posts) and also my awesome brother-in-law Cal who celebrated Friday!  Apparently January is the month for middle children :)  Hope it was lovely!

"Smiley Riley"

So you may or may not remember the succulent experiment.  Well, it is ongoing.  To refresh your memory, here is where we started out:

Pretty cute.  Approximately 7.5 months later (those pictures were taken from a post on May 28, 2013), here is where we're at today:

I have to be honest, I thought they would grow a bit faster.... but all in all, success!  The most prolific plant has been the Kalanchoe fedtschenkoi (that tall one at the end):

But some of the Echeveria have been doing pretty well too, particularly these ones in a separate pot:

Have I mentioned I love my new camera?  Oh, I did?  I love my new camera

There are a few others with varying degrees of growth.  Interestingly, the leaf from which they sprouted is still plump on the separate pot Echeveria which has less drainage and more moisture, which makes me think that watering the plants more may be the way to stimulate better growth on the others.

Echeveria with a Kalanchoe sprout

Two Echeveria

As a side observation, my Crassula perforata in my kitchen window have doing something interesting.  Here's a view of the kitchen window situation (it's a bit of a situation... I have some cleaning up to do):

Here's a view of the succulent pot I planted on my own:

Bit of a mess.  And the Kalanchoe fedtschenkoi grew a karate-kicking side root for some reason

And the Crassula perforata grew up under a pot on the second rack, causing them to bend sideways...  And sprout roots?

How weird!  I wonder what made them think they had ground underneath.  Was it the fact they were sideways?  The fact that there was a rack below them that they could somehow feel?  The fact that because they were under something else there was less light from above? 

And how interesting that it could sprout roots while still continuous with the rest of a long piece of plant.  Peppermint and strawberries too can put down roots distant from the original plant base (runners or "stolons") to the degree that they can be very invasive (here is even a whole how-to on destroying invasive strawberries) ... something similar?  Well, I couldn't find too much information on my plant, but I did find at least one source stating that when certain types of Crassulae grow a bit, they can sprout roots from the stem which one should "consider putting in soil" (reference the Crassula "baby necklace").

Pretty fascinating.  That pot is getting a bit unruly anyway.  I definitely will be trimming down some of the stalks and making attempts at repropagation. 

If this experiment has taught me anything, it's that anyone can repropagate succulents!  It's easy!

While we're on the topic of discovery, I would like to share something I discovered this week with you:  Pickle of the month club with "indie" small producers by Mouth

Coming up with this as a Christmas present was one of my finer moments.  But even better is the fact that these pickles are really awesomely delicious (coming from the non-pickle fanatic in the relationship)!

3-4 jars per month. This month: dill spears, sweet pickles, spicy pickles, and pickled green beans. Perfect mix!

So I share this with you because it is a tried and tested gift idea.  You're welcome.  This is how you make pickles:

And here is the happy result:

Anyway, I hope you all have an awesome week!  To get a headstart, I invite you to play this song and bad-dance around your kitchen.  I will now too, so we can do it together.  Ciao!

Back! (With blooming succulents!)

Okay, yes, that was the hiatus of hiati...  And here's what's happened with me since we last met:

• I (way over-)studied for the Emergency Medicine Boards.  Because that's what I do best... get totally freaked out and study my butt off.  
• I passed the Boards!  Next up, oral boards which will happen in April or November (tbd).  It is quite possible that I will neglect all else again in the freaking-out period leading up to that test, which will be my last for 10 years. :)
• I've started all of my new jobs and gotten (mostly) adjusted.
• My lovely sister-in-law moved out to LA from Virginia -- woohoo!
• And most of my garden has died.

The top three bullet points are what caused me to neglect almost everything I enjoy doing for pretty much the entirety of the fall season, with the result of the last bullet point.  Perhaps I need to work on work-life balance a bit.

BUT we're back!  And slightly neglected or not, there are lovely things happening in the garden. 

Thank goodness for succulents!  Perhaps it's a Californian mark on my garden that I'm planting more and more of these easy and wonderful plants, but they're such easy care.

That birdhouse was an addition by my husband.  Very cute, is it not?

And now they're all blooming!

Gorgeous echeveria

As far as why they are blooming now...  Some general succulent informational sources will tell you that the keys to making your succulent bloom are:

• Temperature fluctuations -- specifically, cool weather followed by warm summer weather which is when blooms come.
• Sufficient water
• Sufficient food
• Increased light with, for instance, the longer days of summer

Now, it has been kind of weird weather here in LA.  While a couple weeks ago, it got quite chilly, more recently, we've had close to 80 degree weather.  It also rained earlier this week.  So maybe those factors have helped.

But there are also quite a few succulents that specifically bloom in the winter (here is quite a nice list) and I appear to have collected a few of these in my garden as well.

String of pearls

Regardless of the reason, I love it.

I had to give this plant a haircut yesterday

I am interested to find out what will happen to my Aeonium plant which is apparently "monocarpic," meaning it only blooms once and then dies.  I am assuming that only the blooming portion will die, but who knows.  

It has a hat now...  looks weird, to be honest.

I am excited to see what will come out of these buds.  I will keep you updated.

In the meantime, I hope you have a very Merry Christmas!  May you stay warm and surrounded with love this holiday season!

My wonderful mother-in-law Belinda gave me this ornament!

Lastly, some holiday music!  (Oh, Charlie Brown!)