Mary, Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow?

[me-barbie]

I have 2 bonsais (bonsazz?). One lost it's watering bottle over Xmas and dried out severely, I pruned it waaay back and it is coming back to life.

I have taken to buying the forcedspring flower bulbs at Safeway every 2 weeks when I do my food shopping.So I have spring flowers and look out onto 4 ft of snow. I remember Mom having a Wandering Jew plant when I was a kid. My cat Tigger liked to chew on it and then go beserk.

I also have a christmas cactus at work, an english ivy named Catherine and one of those unkillable plants here with a name I cannot remember...or spell....

[havanaholly]

I just got back from looking at your mesquite, Deb, and I saw the finches and I saw wrens, but I saw no hummingbirds. We had purple wandering jew all over our side yard, near the stupa, at our old house, but when we had to have the septic tank cleaned out and a new drain line laid that didn't go uphill I think that killed it all off; I'll look next time we go there.

[grazhina]

I used to have lots of house plants, but after I moved to Maine they kept continuously getting attacked by spider mites, white flies, and other bugs i couldn't identify, all of which kept sucking the life out of them. One year I started double impatiens seeds in a little totally enclosed greenhouse so nothing could get at them. They were tiny and laden with lovely flowers, waiting for spring when I could plant them outdoors. As I peeked in at them through the glass, I saw a tiny black bug flying around in there, and another one and another one. I'd seen one or two in my house a few years before. I sprayed the impatiens, the bugs still thrived and the plants started to shrivel. I tossed everything out, cleaned the tiny greenhouse, bought a fresh bag of potting mix in case the bugs arrived dormant in the last bag, and started over. Same result, bugs in an enclosed space with drooping impatiens. I gave up.

After several years I got tired of constantly spraying and misting and fighting to keep all my house plants alive.

Now I just have my "heritage" house plants. In 1970 my mother gave me a jade plant she'd grown from a cutting. It's now 2 big plants with 2" thick trunks. She also gave me cuttings from her golden pothos, and every time mine got straggly I'd take cuttings and restart a new plant. 20 years ago she gave me an aspidistra, now I have 2.

Back in the early 50's when I was a tot, mama got a corn plant. Whenever it came too close to the ceiling she'd cut it up and start new ones. I got one of them in the late 70's and we named it George. George has been recut and reborn a few times. He is now in a vase of water, nicely rooted and waiting for a pot,

My other plant is a ficus I bought in the early 90's. I cut it back once or twice a year so it can continue to grow in the house. It winters in the sunny dining room, and in summer gets dragged across to the living room.

[Deb]

Grazhina, I totally sympathize with your mite plight. I don't think I've gotten a new plant that didn't have them in years. Even if I massage all the dirt out of the roots and wash them clean before repotting them in sterile soil, the bugs persist. It's been over a decade since I had plants and had hoped that those little bugs wouldn't be a problem but they seem to be in everything regardless of whether the plant comes from walmart or an expensive greenhouse. However, I loved your stories about your long term relationships with plants. I've had some that lived for 20+ years too and they get to be friends-with-leaves after awhile. I bought a dragon tree for my 18th birthday and had it all the way into my 40s before Napoleon managed to kill it.

It's very cool to me how we name our houseplants. Do any of you remember back in the 70s when there was a major clinical study done about how different sounds effect plants? I think it was done at Berkeley but I can't remember for sure. Anyway, they proved that plants who were talked to or had music played for them grew better than plants without and I took that information to heart. To be honest, I've had better conversations with my houseplants than with some humans! I've never been one for get-rich-quick schemes, but there was a time during the 70s when I thought that I'd make a fortune if I'd move to California and open up a day care center for houseplants and pet rocks.

So, what's new with everyone's plant world? I've added a few pretties to the patio and backyard containers this week including a peach colored dwarf snapdragon, a mini sago palm, an orange hibiscus, and in an unexpected find at walmart, a string of pearls plant. Those are SO cool! The colored flowers are treats to make the hummingbirds hum but the green plants are making me even happier than the birds. I found a waffle plant too (I love the purple houseplants) and kept thinking it looked familiar which is odd because I know I've never grown one before. Then it occurred to me.......it looks like the Audrey II from "Little Shop of Horrors". <chuckling> Until it starts calling me Seymour I'm not real concerned. :whistle:

Deb

[me-barbie]

I had an Audrey too. I was based on the Medicine ward, which was always very hot and humid. and I had a south facing window....and so this wee little kalencho (sp?) kept growing...and growing....and growing....after the 4th re-pot, I dubbed it Audrey. It never asked for blood, thank the gods.

When I was moved into the new community health building, Audrey lived 6 months and croaked. It disliked the lack of humidity and natural light. However, last I heard, Audrey Jr was still alive and kicking (a cutting I gave a friend)

[KathieB]

Being bi-domiciled puts a big crimp in owning house plants. This is one of the few downsides of being a snow bird. Sometimes I buy grocery store flowering plants to cheer up the place, but I know they are doomed, so it makes me feel a bit guilty. I used to have beaucoup houseplants, and I miss them.

[Deb]

I had an Audrey too. I was based on the Medicine ward, which was always very hot and humid. and I had a south facing window....and so this wee little kalencho (sp?) kept growing...and growing....and growing....after the 4th re-pot, I dubbed it Audrey. It never asked for blood, thank the gods.

hehehehehehehehe One of the things I loved about that movie was the way Audrey II took care of Audrey's abusive boyfriend. After the first time I saw that movie I used to fantasize about growing a crop of venus flytraps and tossing my ex into the middle of it. The boy sure looks like plant food to me.

Kathie, I can understand where packing up houseplants would be too complicated to do twice a year. The plants wouldn't like it either. Other than that, how do you and Lloyd like being snowbirds?

Deb

[heidiiiii]

I picked up three African violets that were on the help me table at the grocery store. The first I bought for $2. She has survived a week! The other two I bought today for $1 a piece. My mother was good with them..I was not. But I have learned what to do and what not to do so let us hope I can have these little beauties like my Mother did.
They are all different colors too!

[KathieB]

Kathie, I can understand where packing up houseplants would be too complicated to do twice a year. The plants wouldn't like it either. Other than that, how do you and Lloyd like being snowbirds?

We like it. It's interesting how we've adjusted from decades of organizing our lives around a 9-month school year and have reset our body clocks to a 6-month cycle. At least I think we have. It may just be that we've taken so many trips lately that our body rhythms are all screwed up and not really registering either program. :waycon:

[Deb]

I'm delighted to hear that you guys are doing well Kathie. As much as you get around there have to be times when you have to check a calendar to find your way home! Have you ever visited the Grand Canyon? Did you know that there are ancient Indian cliff dwellings and old mining towns to visit in the same general area? It's a dream trip for someone who likes history and the best part is that it's all just a few hours from my house. <chuckling> You knew I was leading up to that, didn't you. LOL!! It would be nice to see you guys and you'd have a great time exploring the Wild West. It's still wild too. Bruce was coming home from work the other day and when he glanced over into the desert on his right, there was a herd of wild horses running along side him. The highway crosses thru the Ak-Chin Reservation for a few miles where there are no fences and the desert is allowed to just be what it is.

I have a pretty to share with you guys, especially those who are still locked in the icy grip of winter. Here's a warm hug and some bright sunshine on hibiscus blooms.

Deb

[grazhina]

Hey Deb, I used to have a cactus named Mahalia. She was named for the gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, because she looked like she had her many arms raised in song.

My mother loved cacti, always had an assortment on her sunniest window sill.

Having pretty much given up on any more plants in this house, I do have a couple of nice realistic looking big silk ones. My son wound up with a silk ficus tree in his room when I ran out of space because I had rearranged some furniture. He really likes that touch of natural looking greenery in his room, and he doesn't have to worry about watering it.

My in-law used to have a plastic plant on her TV. She didn't like real plants because that meant having dirt in your house.

[Deb]

Hey Deb, I used to have a cactus named Mahalia. She was named for the gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, because she looked like she had her many arms raised in song.

My mother loved cacti, always had an assortment on her sunniest window sill.

LOL! I like that name for a cactus! They do have a way of reaching toward the heavens that's almost reverent. I started growing cactus gardens when I was a kid and belonged to a rockhound club. We spent Saturdays out combing the desert for rocks and I picked up a love of cacti at the same time because there were so many different varieties and each one is beautiful and graceful in its own way. Back then it was legal to dig up and transplant small cacti (except saguaro of course) so I'd often come home with a bag of rocks and a box of cactus. For some reason no one ever wanted to share a seat with me in the VW microbus on the way home. hehehehehehe

Silk plants have been the only way I could have indoor plants with my cats and there are some that are impossible to tell from the real thing. Once I discovered I could clean them by putting them into a mesh laundry bag and tossing it into the top rack of the dishwasher, I was a real convert! I moved two silk ficus trees out onto the patio last year to air them out (since they're too big to fit into the dishwasher) and the chickadees adopted them immediately. They seemed a teeny bit confused about why the branches felt a little funny but they accepted it and pretty soon they were singing, "It's a tree, It's a tree. It's a tree, tree, tree!". They liked it so much that I left the trees on the patio and whenever it rained, the branches would be full of little birds hiding out from the storm.

Deb

[KathieB]

Thanks for the invitation, Deb! Lloyd is a great cactus aficionado. His little garden bowls are in Missouri, weathering the winter without us. They seem to fare well enough with benign neglect,although some of the cacti that he says are "resting" look pretty dead to me. Every once in a while one will bloom -- such a treat! The Grand Canyon is on our bucket list. Who knows which way the wind will blow us? We sure don't!

[havanaholly]

We also eventually want to come back out to enjoy the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest again (good Lord, almost 50 years ago!) and hopefully make it to the Grand Canyon, as well. Our favorite place in Pheonix was the Desert Botanical Garden; I hope it's still there! Yesterday after the art festival we headed to Wintzell's through Gulf State Park and along SR135 we spotted an absolutely HUGE prickly pear cactus that looked to be at least 8' tall and must have covered close to 1/4 acre!

[grazhina]

Deb, once or twice a year I take the big silks out onto my deck and I rinse them with my hose set on spray. I lean the plants against a lawn chair or the rail so i can avoid getting a bunch of water in the pot. I do that with my live ficus tree too.

Small sink plants can be washed by dunking them upside down several times in soapy water, then rinsing them by dunking into fresh clean water. Shake off the excess water, then set them aside on a towel to dry. I have a bunch of silk chrysanthemums I bought 30 years ago and they still look fine.

[Deb]

Holly and Kathie, the welcome mat is always out for you anytime you feel like wandering out this way and you know that I'd love to have you come visit. Besides, I'm almost a personal advocate for the AZ Chamber of Commerce because there is just so much to see out here and I love sharing the beauty of the desert with friends. Holly, the Desert Botanical Gardens are still going strong in Phoenix, likewise the Sonora Desert Museum in Tuscon. I can hardly wait til Bruce is able to get some time off and take him up north to see the Grand Canyon and Oak Creek.

Lloyd is a great cactus aficionado. His little garden bowls are in Missouri, weathering the winter without us. They seem to fare well enough with benign neglect,although some of the cacti that he says are "resting" look pretty dead to me.

I suppose that "resting" is a nicer way of putting it to their family and friends. hehehehehehehe Cactus does pretty well with neglect tho. I had my Dad calculate the exact amount of water I needed for a potted cactus once and he did all the math based on the native climate, annual rainfall, etc., etc., etc., and came up with half a teaspoon of water every three months. I seem to remember that there's a trick about when to increase the water to get them to bloom but I can't recall what it was. I'll think on it and see if something comes back to me.

Yesterday after the art festival we headed to Wintzell's through Gulf State Park and along SR135 we spotted an absolutely HUGE prickly pear cactus that looked to be at least 8' tall and must have covered close to 1/4 acre!

Those can get to be really huge at times. There's one in a yard down the street approaching that size in height. You'd be interested in the fields of cactus around our house. The land around Maricopa is mostly either open Ak-Chin Reservation land or farmland that belongs to the Arizona State Dept of Agriculture. They mainly research irrigation options using reclaimed water (yes, it gets a trifle aromatic at times) on various types of crops so the farmland is divided up into strips of all kinds of things. There's cotton next to agave next to aloe and so on. A little further down the road is a giant field of spearhead yucca that looks like a commercial farm. They had some kind of big machine out there harvesting the other day in a process that looked fascinating. But my favorite is an old farmhouse where there are three giant saguaro in front that are probably close to 400 years old. It's impossible to see those and not feel a kind of reverence for something that can thrive for that long in the most adverse of conditions.

Small sink plants can be washed by dunking them upside down several times in soapy water, then rinsing them by dunking into fresh clean water. Shake off the excess water, then set them aside on a towel to dry. I have a bunch of silk chrysanthemums I bought 30 years ago and they still look fine.

That's really good to know, especially about the longevity. I was a little hesitant to wash mine but they'd developed a musty scent that I couldn't live with so I figured I had nothing to lose. I've decided to leave the silk ficus trees out on the patio here because they're instant shade that can be moved to any location and are just big enough to shade a chair comfortably. Somewhere along the line I need to put them into a weighted container so they don't keep falling over tho.

Deb

[Deb]

Having pretty much given up on any more plants in this house, I do have a couple of nice realistic looking big silk ones. My son wound up with a silk ficus tree in his room when I ran out of space because I had rearranged some furniture. He really likes that touch of natural looking greenery in his room, and he doesn't have to worry about watering it.

Grazhina, this is sooooooooooo weird. Yesterday we were at walmart and Bruce asked me if they carried silk plants. That stopped me in my tracks! Consumed with curiosity, I asked my husband why he had a sudden (and completely out of character) interest in decor and just where he wanted to put silk plants. Oddly enough, the answer was that he needed to muffle some of the echo in the room where he keeps his guitars. He's been making videos of himself so he can watch them and see where his technique needs to improve but the echo is throwing him off and he thought that putting a bunch of plants in the room would help. And then he said that it would look nice too.

I embraced both him and the moment because it's kinda cool when your husband wants to partner with you on a decor and crafting project all at the same time! Off we went to try and find silk plants and containers to put them in. Pickings are slim at walmart but I had most of what we needed at home anyway......just needed some filler and a couple of baskets to round them out. We spent the afternoon working on the arrangements together. I gave him one of the ficus trees from the patio too and last night he was very content with the new look. Not only was it helping with the echo but he said that he liked the way the plants make the room look. That's his man cave so it was high praise indeed.

The funniest part is that we were just talking about using silk plants and you'd mentioned your son having the same kind of revelations that Bruce just had. I thought it was a cool coincidence and had to share.

Deb

[havanaholly]

Another thing that will help with the reverb is to hang some nice heavy fabric or artsy rugs on any solid walls, at least whilst he's playing.

[heidiiiii]

I went to the florist today to have them style me a nice bunch of flowers to make me smile. They had almost spent hydrangeas for $4 cash/carry. I grabbed one. I said I was going to pamper it till I could plant in the yard. Florist goes in back, brings two more that have been trimmed down (no flowers). Gave them to me for free. Told me to keep them inside, water, sunshine..put outside after danger of frost has past and plant in May. Great score!

[havanaholly]

Hydrangeas are very easy to start from cuttings, too. I learned this from an article in Southern Living magazine; when you prune your hydrangeas back trim the ends of the cuttings to about 12" and pull off the lower two or three sets of leaves and stick each cutting into a hole clipped in a bag of potting soil; water and keep in a sunny spot. In about three or four weeks you should have enough roots formed to plant them where you want, depending on what color of flowers you want (acidic soil for pink, alkaline for blue). It worked for me, and my thumbs are notoriously brown!

[rackey]

I wonder if my tulip bulbs that I planted this fall will come up. For the first twor or three years our daffodils came up "blind," but once they started flowering they came up every year since. It's a late spring in New Jersey, and the garden centers aren't exactly thriving right now, but I suspect everything will be popping up soon enough. Nature is remarkable.

[kat57]

I am so happy-my Forsythia is blooming! It was given to me a few months back,along with some Lantanas,by a cousin who was thinning out her overabundant garden. Lucky me! Such pretty yellow blossoms. I had to leave 3 lovely large Forsythias when I moved here almost 2 years ago.

I just knew the ice storm a few weeks back had killed just about everything I have here except my 2 varieties of ivy,my Blue Butterfly plants and some roses-which were all fine and still are. But it looks like almost everything else is coming back,too!! Yay! I had 2 young Hydrangeas my mother had grown from cuttings,that I thought were goners. But they have some bea-u-tiful new foliage going on! I also have some mystery bulbs coming up-no,really,I don't remember what they could be! Fun,fun,fun!LOL

Yesterday I planted 2 more of those inexpensive roses that come in a bag,just as it was beginning to rain-they look fine today,so maybe they will do as well as their older siblings I planted last year-they toughed it out through the winter and are putting on some nice growth...Ah,hope abounds! ^_^

[jbnmini]

We just noticed yesterday that there are tiny little green sprouts showing in our front flower beds!! The crocus are beginning to grow!! Spring may ACTUALLY arrive! LOL ...although at the moment it is trying to be winter again....

[havanaholly]

We're supposed to have temps at 30 tonight.

[Stacey6163]

I am waiting for the tulips and daffodils to poke their little heads out of the frozen tundra ( sounds kind of dramatic, huh? ) I love forsythias , so bright and cheery we have a large bush in the back yard and I dug a bunch of little ones and planted them along the road out front, they took right off. I love lilacs too, their scent is heavenly, it fills the entire yard.