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!

Science experiment: Magic Succulents!

Alright, alright.  This is a science experiment!

In light of the recent discovery that not one, but TWO of my recently dismantled succulent appendages are growing new mini-plants, I have decided to conduct the following experiment:

Title: "Are succulents really magical?"

Purpose: To determine whether or not accidentally chopped off succulent leaves can truly regrow into full grown healthy plants *under my care.*  Note -- I am aware that it has been done in the history of gardening, but if I am personally able to facilitate this, it would indicate that any dummy could... This would, in my mind, make them magical.  That, and I would never have to buy a succulent again.

Hypothesis: My succulents, having grown a little tiny mini-plant already, will be able to take root and grow, grow, grow! into a succulent jungle in the designated pots (see below).

Procedure: There are four plant types involved--
1. Echeveria
2. Kalanchoe fedtschenkoi, aka "Aurora Borealis"
3. Jade plant
4. Crassula perforata

The first three have had leaves fall off recently that have been found to be turning into independent mini-plants, the last plant... I cut off a piece today from a plant that was growing too tall and threw it in there just because.  All of the plant pieces have been put into a pot with the appropriate soil and moisture, with the plan to observe what happens.

Today is Day 1!  Data, results, and conclusion to follow!

Murder

I feel like I've mentally neglected my little gardening blog recently in the busyness surrounding our upcoming trip to... wait for it... Europe!  This incidentally coincides with me turning 30 and being very nearly done with residency, which would be the first time I will have ever not been in school or training since preschool.  It has been a long road.  I have not, however, neglected my garden.  So better the blog than the garden, I guess...

Anyhow, about a week ago, as I was happily garden outside, I heard a loud CRASH! and turned around to see that the rack that we have in our protruding kitchen window (or whatever you call it) had collapsed, squashing one of my beautiful succulents which I had raised from babyhood, and tearing several leaves off in an apparent attempted murder.

so sad

I was naturally very upset.  "Just throw it away," says my husband, "We can get another one."  He is clearly missing the point.  But once I got over the initial shock, the question remained:  do leaves of succulents grow back?

Now you may know, succulents propagate like crazy.  They are like hydra of the plant world (you may remember hydra from your elementary school science fair-- the kids who had parents who did their science fair projects for them all used hydra that they chopped in half in different configurations).  For instance, see exhibit A, namely the piece of jade that independently fell of my big jade plant and grew roots...

Exhibit A: little roots with no preceding intervention

And now, exhibit B: the same piece of jade, subsequently repotted.  It is growing happily.

Exhibit B: happy growth

See also, exhibit C.  The jumbo piece of jade which also fell off my big jade plant.  I put it in a little pot of water and it has been growing for at least 6 months.  Maybe 8 months, I can't remember.  There is a whole root system now, and I anticipate replanting it at some point.

Exhibit C: jumbo jade

Now, I have seen multiple websites on regrowing Echeveria from the individual leaves-- this is a good one with proof in the pictures-- but I cannot determine from my google searches what will happen to the part of my Echeveria which was skinned alive.  Perhaps it will grow a bunch of little baby side Echeveria?  Perhaps it will dry off that part and nothing will happen?  

Anyway, I am glad that I kept the little leaves.  Perhaps I will end up with lots of little Echeveria babies to plant or give away.  And maybe this is a good experiment.  I will update you with the results.

Here's to regeneration!  Here's to the last week and a half of my twenties!  AND a shout out to my brother who has just turned 25 today!

The Heirloom'd Tomato

I love heirloom tomatoes.  I think they are delicious.  And they sound fancy.  Thus, despite the fact that my husband hates tomatoes and literally gags when he eats them, I am very excited about one of the newest additions to my garden:  an heirloom tomato plant of the "Great White" variety.  I hope it produces lots of heirloom tomatoes, all for me.

I am particularly excited because every description I have read about the Great White heirloom tomato calls it an "almost perfect" tomato (whatever that means) with a delicious "creamy texture" (also a weird description for a tomato plant).  I chose it because of its "near perfection" (that sounds pretty good) and because the tomatoes will be smaller than some of the other varieties available like "Brandywine."  Plants with smaller tomatoes do better in pots than the larger tomato'd varietals.  The Great Whites are still pretty big, up to a pound, so I don't know if that counts as small, but some of the other types have 2lb tomatoes (I hear Evan gagging in the background).  

Anyway, here is Great White in its prepubescent state:

I hope the pot that killed Jasmine doesn't kill you too...

A bigger and more interesting question than "are heirloom tomatoes awesome?" (A: yes) is "why go heirloom?"  What is the difference between heirloom tomatoes and "regular" tomatoes?  

Well, there was a fascinating recent article in the New York Times about the science behind it.  About 70 years ago, tomato breeders discovered a mutation that caused tomatoes to have a uniformly red color to them.  Because of the commercial appeal of this, they bred this mutation widely into tomatoes and now pretty much all tomatoes that you see in the store have this gene.  What they didn't know at the time was that this mutation disabled chloroplasts, creating a more uniform color, but these chloroplasts were responsible for sugar production.  Reducing the sugar production (by 20%) resulted in less flavorful tomatoes.  

So heirloom tomatoes produce a bit less fruit and may be more susceptible to disease than newer varieties which are bred to be advantageous in those regards... But heirloom tomatoes lack the aforementioned gene mutation, and as a result, are tastier...

Omg.  Isn't your mouth just watering?  (The above is a recipe with burrata from TheKitchn, which is a great blog).

So with any luck, in approximately 85 days with some sunshine and water and TLC, I will soon have delicious near perfect creamy tomatoes that look like this:

(photo from gardenharvestsupply.com)

Wish me luck, I cannot wait!