Roots + New Kids on the Block

And we're back!  Wow, I wish I was more computer savvy...

Anyway... summer!  Even though I don't always get breaks in the summer like I used to, I always think of them as being so much fun.  Fortunately, this summer I have quite a bit of free time, and better yet, I have my sister to come visit me!  Just in the last couple days, we've done some Santa Barbara, some spa, lots of shopping, and gotten sunburnt on the beach (much to my doctorly chagrin).  This past weekend, we saw an outdoor concert at the Hollywood Bowl -- if you've never been, my LA folks, go!  So with summertime concerts on my mind...

 

Roots:

I thought I would be really sad to pull out my tomato plant  which I had put so much blood, sweat, and tears into.  But it was actually a huge relief.  That tomato plant was stressing me out.

Anyway, once I pulled it, here's what I found -- a big ball of roots.  In the second photo, you can actually see how dense the roots got around the plant nanny that was stuck in the dirt there.  One of the primary issues with the plant was that I mistakenly put it in a too-small pot.  Here's what happens when you do that.  

 

Another interesting find whilst uprooting all the dead things was the dahlia tuber.  They are indeed tuberous.  If they had been healthy plants, I could've saved the tubers in a cool, dry place until next year and planted it indoors several weeks before planting it outside to regrow the same plant.  Here's what a dahlia's tuber looks like.  

 

New Kids on the Block:

Out with the old and in with the new.  As I mentioned in my last post, I've started getting more into cooking, in part with the help of a book called "Cooking for Geeks" (I've already learned a lot!).  One thing it mentions in the introduction is that the best and perhaps only way to learn to cook without burning out and quitting is to redefine success.  Instead of a perfect meal, success is having learned something, meaning that failure in the kitchen is a true success in the sense that it offers the most opportunity for learning.  I'm going to go ahead and say that applies to gardening as well.  And there is some joy to being able to pick out new and interesting plants.

So here's the newbies, good luck to you all.

Ptilotus "Joey"

 

An Australian native that I planted as a replacement for the tomato, this specific type of Ptilotus is an annual (meaning it will die at the end of the season), though perennials do exist.  It is touted as being very drought and heat resistant.  That's great!

It also has interesting cone shaped grey-pink flowers.

 

Yes, I instagram'd that.

Portulaca "Cupcake"

 

I picked this lovely plant because I loved the color with my tall yellow pot.  They will also theoretically slowly trail down the sides as they grow.

 

 

These plants are fleshy sun-lovers whose blooms open for a day in the sunlight and close forever at night.  Fortunately, there are a continuous crop of buds waiting to bloom each following day.  

Vinca

 

Also, known as the periwinkle, now's the time for these cute little flowers, often with differently colored centers.  I got them in an array of pink which I am partial to, and if all goes well, they will bloom through early fall.

 

These are also hardy plants with good heat and drought tolerances.

Maidenhair fern

One of my two hydrangeas died (the other one is doing great!).  So I replaced it by the relatively shady area next to the front door with this lovely fern, in part because my neighbor has a huge version of this plant and its leaves are just so delicate looking.

 

Ferns vary, but they generally lovely shady, moist areas (like forests).  They do not grow flowers but are grown for the fronds and reproduce by spores.  

 

How wonderful it is to have a whole new crop of plants growing rather than a bunch of dead plants judging me from outside...  I'm feeling optimistic!  

I leave you with a track that I dedicate to the scores of my LA friends who paid to see New Kids on the Block a week or two ago, you know who you are.  Here's the link.  (Yes, they are not only still around, but making new music...

The amazing and the really truly terrible

When someone says, "I have good news and bad news," which do you prefer to hear first?  I have always wanted the bad news first. I wonder if that says anything about your personality...

The Bad News

My mortal enemies have returned.

 

I hate them. I get as angry seeing these worms as Evan does when his favorite team loses (last week it was the Caps. Let's not talk about that). As aforementioned, pests tend to attack sick plants. So unfortunately it was somewhat inevitable.



It is a huge plant now in a tiny pot... like a very big lady with tiny feet (have any fellow doctors or people-observers noticed that that happens a lot?)... and it can't even stand up straight. It's so oversized for its pot that it dries out and wilts daily when it is hot.  Thus the hose.  I just leave it there now.

There are a wide variety of green worms that attack tomato plants.  The largest of which are hornworms (baby versions of future Mothra), the smallest of which can burrow into your ripest tomatoes undetected, leaving a bunch of difficult to see caterpillar skins and eggs inside (!!!!).  That's disgusting.  These worms are somewhere in the middle, and not one that I have yet been able to identify from my friend the internet.  What the internet does say is that solutions for "green worms on your tomato plants" include "picking them off", spraying soapy water at them, and/or using serious pesticides that are likely toxic to humans.  And praying.  

Basically, my tomato plant may be doomed.  I have been picking these worms off (or rather cutting them in half again, Godfather style) and will likely try this soapy dishwater nonsense spray, but I am also going to quarantine it tomorrow.  Let's not talk about this. It makes me sad.


The Good News!

On the upside, this is really cool. It may just blow your mind.

Remember the near death experience of my Echeverria? Well! Turns out it truly is a magical plant.

Not only has a small offshoot grown from the mother plant at the site of amputation...


But the amputated parts have also sprouted tiny new micro-plants!


Mind blown!  I will continue to follow these little plants and update you periodically.

Isn't it is nice to end on a good note? Isn't science cool? Hooray!

Oops, I did it again!

First, a word of wisdom:

On that note...

Oops, I killed a plant!

Soooo, that didn't take long.  I think the problem is too little water for a thirsty plant.  But especially since this has happened to me once before, I have decided that dill may be too fragile for my current gardening abilities (although the other plants are growing like crazy-- the parsley a little too crazy, it's crowding the lavender!  Maybe it's not me, it's you, Dill).

Oops, picked too small of a pot!

Same pot that killed my jasmine! Noooo!!

The rapid growth of my tomato plant was at first exciting.  Until it grew so tall that it started to look disproportionately large for the pot.  So I did some internet research and discovered that for indeterminate tomato plants, the minimum pot size is a 24 inch pot.  "Indeterminate" refers to tomato plants that do not produce all their tomatoes at once (most heirloom tomatoes are indeterminate).  This is in contrast to "determinate" tomato plants that do produce fruit all at once that need a pot at least 18 inches in size.  I don't think my pot is even 18 inches...

And oops, my plants are sick!

Once, a nice worker man at Armstrong Garden Center told me in response to my question regarding a serious pest problem in several of my plants that plants really should not get disease unless they are sick.  "That's mean," I thought, "my plants are not all sick."  The string of pearls succulent (with the mildew) could be a little stressed -- I just repotted it recently and it was looking a little tired beforehand.  But the parsley??  (The whitefly are the tiny little white specks.)  Hopefully it is not anything a little Neem oil cannot fix.

Here's another picture of whitefly, closeup (source from this informative site):

Actual size = 1-3mm each

I hope the whitefly do not become a problem -- last year, they got really out of control to the point that I couldn't stand next to my poor plant without feeling like I was going to inhale a swarm of them...

Well, on the upside, yes, I referenced a Britney Spears song today-- for any haters out there, I will just say she and I grew up together, not literally, and her music videos spawned a thousand late night dance routines in front of my mirror.  Mostly in college.  They were happy moments.