Like many gardeners -- even casual ones -- I have a few Aloe barbadensis (Aloe Vera) plants that I received from others. This "small" one is now several big plants, each ready for its own pot.
My garage floor was covered by a significant pile of sturdy leaves yesterday:
One of the ways that I continue gardening over the long winter months is through cuttings. It's one of my overwintering strategies for tender plants: take cuttings and root them instead of trying to overwinter the entire (sometimes large) plant.
My Wednesday Vignette this week is a question...
The other day I did some pruning of the terrarium succulents, leaving me with lots of propagation material.
This is the time of year that although it is only 10ºF (-12ºC) or so, I start gardening again -- yahoo! Like many of you I start seeds indoors at this time, but this is also when I start seriously thinking about propagation of some of the plants I overwintered.
One thing that I do every autumn as the first freezing temperatures are forecast is take cuttings of plants with fragrant foliage. I keep them in a jar of water in the kitchen window, just to have them available for an occasional rub and sniff.
I did a little spur-of-the-moment plant shopping the other day while picking up building supplies at Home Depot. I certainly was not intending to even look at plants while there, as the houseplant selection is usually pretty uninteresting to me. The succulents though, they sometimes surprise.
You'd think that with at least 30 in-ground plantings of running bamboos that I'd be hesitant to plant more. You're wrong of course, and having 30+ already is not a deterrent. To be honest, once you plant the first running bamboo and properly maintain it every year to keep it from spreading, adding another isn't such a big deal. Then the next thing you know you have 10. Then 20. Then you stop counting.
I mowed my lawn for only the third or fourth time this summer -- one of the few advantages to a drier-than-normal season.
I've got a couple of things to update you on. First, I recently put some lettuce cuttings into water after reading that you could regrow lettuce this way.
I saw an article recently that was one of those "10 things..." type of lists that are so popular these days, as if something isn't worth learning about until it's in a list, but I digress. The article was something like "10 vegetables you can use and grow again forever", and since I already have experience with this sort of thing with my kitchen counter green onions, I eagerly read through the list.
Back at the end of November I did some major houseplant pruning when I hacked one of my lanky Dracaena into pieces.
It's been a week since I potted the divisions of Pennisetum 'Vertigo' and Pennisetum setaceum 'Rubrum' (purple fountain grass) and put them under the lights of my growing table.
I finally cleaned up the growing table in the basement (at least the top table -- the lower one for seed starting won't be needed for a while and therefore is a mess) in preparation for getting my grass divisions going.
Although I'm quite proud of my garden and have a good amount of success with most plants I try, the indoor greenery is another story. Too little light and a maddening design that puts all of the heater vents right in front of the windows means that houseplants face a challenge in my home.
When you look around my garden right now you see a lot of elephant ears, canna, papyrus, umbrella palm, caladium, grasses, and many other plants that are not cold hardy. You'd think that everything I overwinter indoors is a success, that I have a magic touch.
One of my favorite Missouri native plants is Equisetum hyemale, or "scouring rush". This seems-to-consist-only-of-stems plant adds a vertical element to the garden that I really love.
Remember a month or so ago when I visited the local nurseries and found dozens of different Heuchera varieties?
If you've been reading my blog for a while, you may remember that I overwinter purple fountain grass indoors under lights every year. I take small divisions in the fall and end up with a dozen or more good-sized plants by the time spring rolls around.
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