Gasteria Propagation

I have had this particular plant for at least a year. The plant came with a tag, saying it was an aloe vera. Turns out, I recently found out that it was not an aloe, but a succulent called a Gasteria. I have been trying to propagate it by leaves that had been broken off by the cat, and have been having a little success!

I had checked for roots periodically, and you can imagine my glee when I saw a small little green nub at the end of the leaf one day. I went running through the house to show my husband, who did not understand my excitement... at all. Shortly after, it had gotten a foothold in the soil, and it would not lift up easily. The other night, I took out the soil to see how the roots look, and if there was any progress on the next step of propagation coming along.

I was shocked at how awesome the roots have gotten! They are a far cry from the little green nub I saw weeks ago. Apparently, it will take a long time to actually grow leaves, however. Now that I have been looking at the proper name for the plant, and what to expect, it could be several years before I have a large enough plant that would need to be repotted.

So, we will see. Currently, it is in a tiny used Keurig cup that I had on hand at the time, covered by a mason jar to keep humidity up. It is not taking up much space as it is right now, so I will just keep doing what I have been doing with it... waiting.

More Persian Shields

Towards the end of last month, I purchased a Persian Shield plant from a nursery online. It looked okay when I received it, but for some reason, I wanted a couple more. I have been at my local nurseries, and have had no luck in finding it. I had asked the employees even if they could order it for me. They would not. So, I decided to get a couple more. At the very least - so that I could stop obsessively hunting them locally.

I went with a different nursery this time. I have heard good things about Select Seeds, so I decided to try them out. They had a really good price for the plants, and one of the cheapest places I have found for shipping. I ended up paying just under $21 for the two. It kind of does sound like a lot, but when you factor in how much gas we have wasted in trying to find this plant every weekend, and the cost relative to other online nurseries, this price was phenomenal.

VERY pleased with these plants. The leaves are not dried out like the last place I ordered from, and these were packaged gorgeously. They each had their own little specially made cardboard box, the soil is still damp, and they came in their own pots. The leaves need to do a little relaxing from the journey they took to get to me, but they look to be in fantastic shape. I will, without a doubt, be back to order more from them!

Their pot and potting soil has been waiting for them for a week, so I am very excited to pot them up into their new home!

Clearance Aloes

It is a known fact in this house that I have a soft spot for aloe vera plants. Last summer, we had went to an event that was all outside in the middle of the summer, and we were out there all day. Of course, I came home with the worst sunburn I ever had in my life. It was so bad that my face had swelled up. The only thing that made it feel better was some aloe vera gel that we had purchased. Ever since then, I had been wanting to grow my own aloe, in case I need it again. Now I find myself with a total of seven aloe vera plants, in three different species.

When I was browsing through my local Lowes, I came across two very sad looking aloes, on clearance for $1 a piece. They each had several dead, shriveled, brown leaves, as well as several leaves that were broken towards the top, but other than that, they didn't look "sickly." They each had new growth, and it looked healthy.

I repotted them, took off the bad leaves, and all the dead ones. I left some bent and broken leaves on though, thinking that the plant can still get nourishment from them, and not wanting to give it too much of a shock.

Here's hoping that they will continue to thrive, now that they are in a new home, and all it's dead leaves pruned off of it!

Persian Shield Plant

For the longest time, I have been wanting a Persian Shield plant. Ever since I saw this gorgeous photo appear on Pinterest, I have been drooling over it. I have tried to find it in any possible store I went into around me, could never find it. Last week, I decided that I was going to finally just, order it online.

I looked, and searched. The disappointing part of wanting to order it in March, is that places won't ship until after the last frost. Which, apparently, in my case, is the middle of May. Sorry, but I am a impatient person, and I want instant gratification. Besides, I fully intend to keep it as a houseplant, and not as an outside annual, as many online nursery's assume. So, I looked and looked, and eventually found a nursery that will ship it in March, at a decent price. I placed my order.

I essentially paid a little under $13 for my Persian Shield, but in the end, I am glad I went with Morris Nursery, because they even sent a little bonus plant, too!

The Persian Shield is the bigger one, and the bonus is the small one. Apparently, the bonus is a succulent, called "Mother of Million, Alligator Plant", or so said the informational paper they sent. I can not find any other information on the succulent. All the pictures that come up does not look anything like the plant I received. Anyway, They both came wrapped in paper towels, then plastic wrap, and then the whole thing was wrapped in newspaper.

My Persian Shield seems to have several crispy leaves toward the bottom, but I'm thinking that may have been from transport, perhaps? And it's leaning quite a bit, so here's to hoping it can get it's bearings again now that it's back in a pot. The top of the plant looks beautiful, and from what I have read, it roots easily from cuttings. Once it grows up a little bit more, I'm planning on taking a few cuttings so that the pot it is in, can look a little fuller.

A side note: I am really going to have to start looking for alternatives in my apartment for my plants, I have so many now, I do not have any space on my windowsill for any more! I told my husband that we need to move into a two bedroom, so I could have a second windowsill. He was not amused.

Bedroom Violets

In addition to the African Violets in the sunroom, that I posted about a couple days ago, I also have a few in my bedroom. Our air conditioner does not cool off the house, at all in the summer. We have a portable air conditioner, that we would roll into the main living area in the morning, and roll it to the bedroom at night. Every day. It didn't cool off the main living areas in the apartment, so after a while of suffering in the heat (it would get up to 98 degrees, in the apartment), I got tired of it all. We moved the television, air conditioner, and everything I needed into the bedroom. For 3 solid months, this is where we lived. We never came out of the bedroom, because that is the only room that the air conditioner actually kept cool. We ate, slept, watched movies, and everything in there. Only recently, did we bring the TV back out to the living room, and use the bedroom for sleeping again.

Since we moved into the bedroom during this time, I was unable to see my  African Violets all the time, like I wanted. So, Tyler went out and bought me a cheap desk lamp, and a compact florescent light bulb for it, so that I can keep a few in the bedroom with me. I originally wanted to keep only one or 2, but the light covered a lot more space than I thought. I picked out 4 of my favorite violets, and put them in the bedroom with me.

My camera is kind of a drama queen with lighting. This photo was actually taken mid-day, with the light on, but somehow it makes it look like it was taken in the middle of the night in a dark room. Whatever, camera. Anyway, here are my 4 favorites. To those who are familiar with African Violets, they are (in clockwise direction): Ma's Ching Dynasty, Ma's Fuzzy Slippers, Ma's Hot Flash, and  Ma's Easter Parade.

Ma's Ching Dynasty even is sprouting a flower bud! It feels like this blossom is never going to open. I've been watching it for days and it's like agony. I want to see what you look like, little flower! Open open!

As for these 4 plants though, I think it's time to find them another place. Now that it's fall, I'm flinging open the bedroom windows at night, and it's been in the 30s and lower lately. I love sleeping in the cold I love the feeling of curling up in my comforter and blankets. Last winter, I would even keep the windows wide open while it snowed, and got into the negative degree temperatures. That said, the bedroom is now too cold for them. There's a bookshelf in the dining room which I think is going to be perfect for them during the fall and winter. I usually keep the radiators on when I need them in the front room and dining room, so it should stay quite warm for them out there.

Update on African Violets

It's been a while since I updated my blog on my precious African Violets, huh? Well, a lot has changed since my last (and only?) post on them. Shortly after that post, the fiance allowed me to go on a shopping spree and buy some more for a slightly early birthday gift. I headed over to The Violet Barn and ordered..... 11 more plants. yes, 11. And this does not include the ones I picked up from our local Lowes.



I've moved them from the windowsills, into the sunroom, under my florescent lighting. The large, full ones are from Lowes, the smaller ones are the babies that I received from The Violet Barn. They were so small then, and they've grown by leaps and bounds in the almost 2 months I've had them.



The ones I got from Lowes, are starting to flower! This was one of my first violets, of the Optimara variety. I'm not sure exactly what it's name is, but it's pretty. I fell in love with the ruffled edges, and hey, it's pink!



Another unknown Optimara variety from Lowes. This one isn't as attractive as the first one to me, but it's still special. When I was mad at the fiance one night, he came home with this for me. It's the thought that he went out and picked one for me is what makes it special. And yes, he was forgiven on the spot. Hah.



This Optimara is about to bloom. I'd forgotten which one this is, I can't wait until they open and I can see!



Even the ones I purchased from The Violet Barn are preparing to bloom as well. This one is Rob's Ooh Lala, a semiminiature variety. They will be gorgeous when they open, I can tell. It's really exciting, because almost all of the ones I purchased from The Violet Barn in August, are producing flower stalks. Yay!

Let me just say that, I've never been good with propagating these. But I keep trying. When I repotted all the Violet Barn violets (way back in August), I broke off two leaves from some semiminiature varieties. They were just too small to pot in their little containers, and my fingers are clearly too fat. The violets lost the battle between finger and container, and I cringed when I heard the little leaves go SNAP. I took a chance and attempted to propagate them anyway. I stuck them in some soil and just waited to see what happened.



They have been in this little pot for almost 2 months. As the fiance was playing his latest Playstation 3 game, I was tending to my violets, and literally shrieked when I seen that I had little baby plantlets poking up from the soil. I was screaming at him to come check it out. He did, but he didn't share my glee. Hmph. The smaller leaf in the photo has the baby plantlets (if you look closely at the base of the stem, you can see them), the bigger one is just now growing roots. It should hopefully sprout babies in a couple weeks.



This little yellow tray, is what I call my nursery. Mainly for leaves that I somehow manage to break off, or suckers that I'm hoping will root and make more plants.

Bitten by the African Violet Bug

During the time I've been living here, I've been experimenting with different plants. I've grown lemon balm, herbs, random plants that in my heart, I knew would fail (like tomato plant, chamomile, and lavender). None really had me excited about them. However, I've recently been hit by an African Violet love. They can grow for years, their flowers are beautiful, they have the weirdest leaves. What's not to enjoy about them?

My first one was purchased at Home Depot, and it was the saddest little thing I'd ever seen. It was pretty sick when I got it, it wasn't blooming, and it had brown spots all over the leaves (apparently from top-watering). But, I got it anyway, I didn't realize it wasn't supposed to look like it did. At $2, I figure I couldn't go wrong with it. Even after I gingerly cared for it, trying to bring it back to life, leaf after leaf fell off, until it finally died. Afterwards, I ended up at Lowes, in search of another African violet. One look at their display, and I was shocked! I had no idea an African violet was supposed to look this awesome.



Oh yes, I found the most adorable pink Optimara variety plant, and it looked fantastic. Compared to my sad Home Depot one, this one was amazing. Sure, it's got a few scratches, and blemished leaves, but it was like pure gold in my eyes. And, it was blooming as well! I brought it home, and it wasn't long before I found myself back there, picking out another one. Now, every time we go to Lowes, I manage to come home with another violet. To make matters worse for my windowsills, when Tyler does something to get him into the doghouse, he knows that by bringing home one of these, all is forgiven (even if he does manage to find the most unattractive blooms).

My birthday is coming up soon, and I may or may not have spent $85 on 11 new violets from an online seller, that should be here middle of next week. Erk.