Crazy about Air Plants! Part 1: What + How

Perhaps you have read this blog and you're thinking, "Michelle, I love plants but I've got a black thumb and all my plants die" or "I am too busy to care for anything" or "I don't have enough space" or "I don't have any dirt -- no yard, no patio, no planters, not even a kitchen window!"

WELL, you are in luck, because there is a plant for everyone, and there is a plant for you.  And it is called the air plant, otherwise known as Tillandsia.

Not only is it literally the easiest plant in the world to grow and take care of, it is also very trendy at the moment.  I present to you the crop top of plants:

So hot right now...

There are actually several different kinds.  You may remember these little guys as the Tillandsia I bought from The Jungle (available for $3 a piece).  There are also several larger varieties (also available at the Jungle for $10 each).

Big mama

If you pay attention, you will notice these plants everywhere -- they are often in installations at restaurants and shops (like Tinga for all my Westside LA people), or being sold in tiny glass bulbs at shops (like West Elm or the Japanese trinket shops on Sawtelle), or on Pinterest.

This variety is often on living walls

And for good reason... they are really easy to grow.  In fact, it is this simple:

Soil--
They do not need soil.  Put them anywhere

Light--
They prefer filtered (indirect) light, so they can go almost anywhere in your house.

Water--
They need minimal water -- some sources recommend a light mist every few days and others (namely The Sunset Western Garden Book which is my favorite gardening guide) recommend a drench every few days, or a soak if the plant gets too dry.  Note that this is contrary to the myth that these plants don't need any water... they are plants, after all.

Fertilizer--
Only if you're feeling very motivated... then you can spritz them with diluted liquid fertilizer.

Easy peasy!

Interesting texture, like grey scales

Some of these plants will bloom brightly, after which point they die (like my other monocarpic plant, the Aeonium), unless they have made side shoots.  One of my little Tillandsia has already made a side shoot:

Baby

So next time you want to buy a plant for your plant-killer friend or baby mama friend or studying for the oral boards friend (oh wait, that's me...), pick up an air plant!  Stay tuned next week for Tillandsia inspiration...

In the meantime, here's a song to pick up your day: Janelle Monae "What is Love" -- I'm kind of obsessed with it at the moment.  Hug your loved one today!

Tiny dancers

A few exciting things are going on...

1. Spring is here, as of March 20!
2. If you live in the US and have any human contact at all, you are aware that March Madness is going on.  I sadly did not win a billion dollars, so it's back to my day job... and gardening!
3.  Speaking of which, as of today, O Garden, My Garden! has 56 posts... not bad... And we're going strong!  Keep reading with me and I'll keep gardening!

This week, my fuchsia plant started blooming.  If you can recall, I have had a minor obsession with these tiny dancers which I have planted in my "Thriller Filler Spiller" pot.  This particular plant, of the "June Bride" variety, is my second go at it. 

So....  Here's where we started:

And here's where we're at:

Not bad!  I have to say, I'm quite pleased with the composition of this pot so far.  The Dichondra (spiller) is trailing nicely.  I wouldn't mind if it was a bit fuller, but there's time for that, and after the craziness with last time's Muehlenbeckia, I'm okay with it as is.  The begonias are filling out perfectly, and buying a fuchsia pruned to have more branches was a winning plan.

The only trouble I have had thus far is aphids.  My little garden enemies have returned to attack the buds of the fuchsia for some reason.  In response, I have been dousing my plants in Neem oil, but they keep coming back, and the dead aphids turn into little black carcasses on my beautiful tiny fuchsia flowers.  

First world problems.

So once I get a chance to, I am going to either remake my fabulous Michelle's modified aphid spray or investigate other options.  I will say that we bought lettuce yesterday from Whole Foods and upon opening it, we discovered it was absolutely covered in aphids.  Like all up between each lettuce leaf too.  Disgusting.  While my husband was very angry (he loves salad, the man wanted salad), it made me feel a bit better -- if professionals like whoever provides iceberg lettuce to Whole Foods can't even keep their lettuce aphid-free 100% of the time, then maybe I shouldn't be so upset if there are a few stubborn aphids on my flowers.

Regardless, here's some more photos of my front door loveliness.

I find it fascinating how different begonia buds look from most other flower buds:

Here's a little known fact about begonias -- most varieties can be propagated, whether from the leaf, stem, or rhizome, depending on the type.  Rhizomes are underground stems that send out shoots and roots.  The ginger that we buy in the grocery store is actually the rhizome part of the plant.  Given the success I have had with propagating succulents, I may have to investigate this begonia propagation, especially since these white begonias are so lovely.

And lastly...

Always delightful!

I have many gardening ideas now that it is spring and time for gardening is upon us.  Unfortunately, because I have the oral boards coming up, they will have to wait just a few more weeks.  After that, all bets are off!  Welcome, Spring!

Tulip Saga, Part 2: How to...

It is a little funny for me to be writing a post on how to grow tulips because full disclosure, I bought my tulips this year as budding bulbs already.

Day 1 -- I cheated

In all honesty, Southern California isn't the greatest place for tulips because the bulbs require a good solid winter chill in order to bloom, and that is one thing we do not have -- winter chills.  (I am not sad).  So this being my first attempt with tulips, I wanted to see if they would actually grow, what kind of care they needed, etc.  As you saw last week, they did!  Will I be trying tulips again?  Most definitely yes. 

Little buds and blooms, how cute!

So, from the beginning, here's what to do:

1.  Faking a winter chill:
If you buy bulbs -- and there is good reason to because there are so many more beautiful varieties out there -- you will need to trick your tulip into thinking it is somewhere where tulips belong, like Holland (or Washington State -- who knew?  Though of note, the family in charge of these tulip company are also Dutch).
How?  Your lettuce drawer in your refrigerator will do just the trick.  Refrigerate in a brown bag for 6 weeks prior to planting.  Avoid putting the bulbs near ripening fruit that emits ethylene (like apples) and if your crisper freezes things like ours does, keep it somewhere else in the fridge -- you do not want your bulbs to freeze.

2.  Planting:
If you live on the coast like I do, you will want to plant your bulbs around the holidays.  Ideally, you can find a spot that is shady during December/January and then sunny in February when your tulips are likely to start blooming.  
How?  Well, if you have pots, you can move them, or if your bulbs are in the ground, then you can cover them.  Why?  The shade will help tulips will put down better roots and full sun will prevent the flowers from leaning toward the sun when they've bloomed.
As for soil, well-draining soil is best.  If you've grown tulips in the same spot/pot previously, either replace the soil or plant your bulbs elsewhere.  Plant them a couple times deeper than they are wide and water daily.  Fertilizing with nitrogen based plant food before bloom is recommended, particularly if you plan on keeping your bulbs.

3.  After-care:
If you want to try to keep your bulbs for the following year, wait until the leaves wither and then dig them up (in the fall) and keep them in a cool dry place (like your garage) until you're ready to fake them out in the fridge again.  The problem is, this apparently doesn't always work that well -- the following blooms end up being shorter and smaller than the previous years... if they even bloom.  There are some exceptions, but the SoCal gardening sources I am using suggest buying new bulbs every year.
If you do have great success with replanting bulbs, wonderful!  At some point, as with most bulbs, they will grow big enough that you should divide them, which you should do in late summer.

4.  Trouble-shooting:
Potential pests include squirrels (they try to dig bulbs up -- this happened to me this year!  Fortunately, it gave up or failed), slugs/snails, and aphids.  You can cover your just-planted bulbs with chicken wire and there are sprays for the other slimeys and suckers.  I had a short-lived aphid issue on one of my tulips that disappeared as soon as I doused some Neem oil on.

Besides that, all there is left to do is enjoy!  

As of now, I think I will try to replant my bulbs, just to see what happens.  Right now, there's still some serious foliage going on though, and they're in a planter I would like to use for other purposes, so I will either have to plant around them or just keep on looking at the tulip leaves for awhile.

Lastly, for all my LA folk, unless you were a VERY deep sleeper, you experienced the earthquake this morning... 4.7 in the Santa Monica mountains!  As a Texas-bred girl, I realized today that I know what to do in tornados, but not in earthquakes.  So I looked up some earthquake safety tips and am sharing them here for your reading pleasure!

Sources for today's post include The Sunset Western Garden Book and Pat Welsh's Southern California Organic Gardening.

Tulip Saga, Part 1: The story of a tulip

If you know me and/or this blog, you know I love tulips.  Lots.  Because a picture is worth a thousand words, a pictorial for you, about a tulip.

2/5/14 - Infancy!

2/12/14

2/14/14 

2/17/14

2/20/14 

2/22/14 

2/26/14 - Fully mature!

2/28/14 - Ravaged by the storm

3/5/14 - And all good things come to an end.

It was my first tulip relationship. They only lasted a month, but it was a happy month for me!  Next week, I'll talk about what I learned and how to care for tulips, and I'll have a few more gratuitous close-ups.  

In the meantime, while we're on the theme of blooming flowers, I came across a gorgeous "documentary" on flowers on Netflix this week while "learning to relax".  It's actually a wordless, beautifully shot time-lapsed string of videos of blooming flowers of the sort you might see at a spa.  I found it mesmerizing and I LOVED it.  It's called Moving Art: Flowers (here is a shorter clip).  We have had daylight savings... Spring is nigh!  (March 20, 2014 to be exact!)  And you know what that means.... gearing up for gardening!

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!

Welcome to The Jungle!

Happy Valentine's/President's Day Weekend!  I hope you all had a lovely time, whether you actually had the day off or not.  I had the great fortune of going up to Mammoth with our church small group and had a fun time playing in snow and hanging out with friends.  The fresh fluffy snow was a blessing because this season has been unusually dry.  So dry in fact, that a lot of winter sports industries/resorts have suffered... including dog sledding which we were as a result unable to do this weekend.  (I was crushed not to be able to play with a herd of dogs, naturally.  Evan was relieved that he escaped having to do another of my "romantic" ventures.)  But truly though, there has been quite a drought in California.

So what to do in the garden when there's no water?  Go to The Jungle! 

Before you continue, here's some background music...

I made this discovery a few weeks ago.  Someone had suggested this as the place to go for air plants (I will be writing a whole separate post about these wonderful and increasingly popular plants later), but I hadn't actually made the trek until I needed a few succulents for a planter recently.  And oh my, do they have some succulents:

I was quite impressed.  As a regular at Armstrong Garden Center, I am used to a relatively small selection of succulents.  The Jungle, on the other hand, has innumerable species of tropical plants and specifically succulents in a variety of different sizes.  

For the uninitiated, succulents are amazing plants

1) They do not need much water (what drought?)

2) As a result, they are rather hard to kill -- if you forget to water them for a few weeks even, they will forgive you.

3) Thus, they are great for beginners or anyone else who wants to feel like a great gardener.

4) And as a bonus, they are beautiful plants.

As a result of all of these facts, if you have been keeping up with my blog, you know that I have come to love succulents more and more.  They are weird and wonderful and my garden is slowly filling up with them.

I should mention, this place did not disappoint in the air plant department either.  They had tillandsia in several varieties and sizes as well.  The prices were more than I expected -- $10 for a large tillandsia and $3 for a tiny one -- but hey, I haven't found these air plants anywhere else and they cost more than that online.  (I bought 3 little ones... how could I not?)

So I will definitely be coming back to The Jungle, which in addition to the great selection has a great laid-back vibe, down to the reggae music playing by the cash register.  

Here was my loot for the day:

$22 of happiness

Not bad, huh?  The Jungle is located at 1900 Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025.  Here is there website which has a long list of plants they carry, many with descriptions and some with pictures.  Also in the neighborhood are a couple other plant nurseries which have more flowers and what you typically expect to find at a garden center, as well as all of Little Tokyo West where you can eat a great bowl of ramen after your plant shopping.

To all my LA readers, go visit and see what your fancy leads you to!  For all my non-LA readers..... stay warm!!!