My New Pets

I'm not the crazy cat lady, I'm the crazy plant lady!

I've been wanting to try air plants, but the ones sold in the nurseries around here aren't terribly exciting. I found a store on Etsy that sold really cool specimens and jumped all over it. To say that I'm thrilled with the purchase is perhaps the understatement of the year.  I'm IN LOVE.

These ladies don't need soil to grow...they get everything they need from their leaves.  A bi-weekly dunk in water, apparently, is all they require.

Are air plants going to be the new hypertufa? They are certainly easier to "plant" and  require less light.

Houseplants: A Reminder of Warmer Days Ahead

Currently, the ground is frozen here in Arlington. Thus one has 2 options: Be content with dreaming about next year's garden or get your hands dirty inside.  I choose the latter option. Nothing cheers up the indoors like a bit of living green things around too.  Now, some claim that certain plants clean the air. I am not able to either confirm or deny these claims. Instead, for me, they brighten my day--especially in the winter months--and any air-cleaning effect is just a bonus.

Here are the plants that call my house their home:

African violets.  Now, Mabel featured in my previous blog post, has since died.  I accidentally left her in our unheated porch during a hard freeze.  Poor girl.  However, I have since replaced her with 3 other African violets: Priscilla, Duchess and Violet.  What is lovely about African violets is that they bloom year-round and have a wide variety of petal colors, petal shapes, leaf colors, etc.


Pothos. Yes, these are the ubiquitous office plants. And they are ubiquitous for good reason too...doing well under very low light conditions and infrequent watering make these suckers tough to kill. However, if you look around hard, you can find cultivars with unusual leaves. Best of both worlds!


Bonsai. I don't really groom my ficus bonsai (his name is Newton) like I should. Instead I enjoy have a little tree in my house.



Pilea glauca & Dwarf Philodendron. Remember my post on landscaping inside?  As I predicted the Centarium scilloides died (probably too dry and was crowded out by the aggressive Pilea glauca), but the rest of the planting is thriving in a location with virtually no light--artificial or otherwise.

Gerbera daisy. My husband got this for me probably around October and it is amazingly still blooming!



Plants I'm considering:

Dwarf citrus. The hiccup here is that I'm not sure I get enough sun indoors to ever get fruit.

Scented geraniums. These aren't actually geraniums...they are part of the Pelagornium genus. Importantly, these can be used to make flavored simple syrups or tea (actual geraniums are poisonous). I'm thinking about acquiring a rose scented one. Sandy Mush Nursery in North Carolina has an impressive selection, but locally DeBaggio's selection isn't too bad.

Lichen. I killed a beautiful terrarium purchased from Etsy and would love to try another one.

How Even Apartment Dwellers Can Landscape

Long time, no post, eh? I pulled a muscle in my side which made anything involving bending over, reaching, lifting, etc. hurt. So, that pretty much ruled out most garden tasks. Luckily, the weather (and rain) have been pretty kind over the past week so things look OK outside. But that is another post.

I am admittedly obsessed with all things miniature. Those tiny little Le Crueset dutch ovens meant for melting butter? Totally tempted to buy one even though it's $20 & I don't have the need for melted butter. Also? Little spoons. I love eating pudding or yogurt with a tiny silver spoon (should be used for adding sugar to hot tea). And, finally, little landscapes. Whether it's a terrarium, bonsai, hypertufa, or just your basic pot filled with dwarf plants, I'm in love!

While on my "no outside because of allergies" and "no strenuous work because everything hurts" phase, I decided to create a simple mini-landscape for inside my house. Just like any landscaping you need to determine the right plant for the right place. With indoor gardening you thankfully have more control over the environment, however.

Thus, for me, the plants needed to love low light conditions and tolerate dry soil. (The latter condition is necessary because I am lazy with plant watering. If you tend to over-water your plants, look for something that loves moist soil.) These are perfect little pieces of dirt that even apartment dwellers with the lowest of light and smallest of available space can get their hands dirty with.

The result:
Yes, these pictures were taken on my stove! LOL! The larger plant is a dwarf philodendron, the upright green plant with pink flowers next to it is centeriaum soliloides (this admittedly likes things a bit more moist than the other plants), and the cascading plants are Pilea glauca/blue creeping pilea. I have no idea yet what I'll put in the other parts of the "strawberry" pot. I just used regular potting soil.

So, there you have it: An easy, peasy way to brighten a corner of your home. If you really want to go crazy, there are little houses, people, animals and other things you can find (I've seen on Etsy and Merrifield Garden Center had some things as well) to make your creation look more realistic.

Project: Ivy Propagation & Garden Trellis

I have a love-hate relationship with ivy. I love it because it's the only thing I can keep alive all year in the hanging baskets in my uninsulated, not terribly sunny enclosed porch. I hate it because, when it's left to its own devices, it takes over. And by "taking over," I mean, pulling down our fence. I'll get back to that in a second.

However, I also want something tall & green for the front of our (part shade) yard. The shrubs/trees I've found for that area run $150+ and usually require full sun. In other words, sub-ideal situation all the way around.

But then I had a Big Idea! What about a trellis tripod put in a decorative pot with ivy covering it? The ivy would be contained in a pot (I'd make sure of that!), would stay green all year round, tolerate the light level AND it'd be mega cheap. However, I don't understand why anyone would pay for ivy. I mean, it's a glorified weed! Propagation, therefore, was my only option.

(pssssttt...This is the trellis tripod I found at Luckett's Store.
I love that place! They have more of these if you want to do this project too. Or you could make your own out of cedar or other wood that would be durable outdoors. Imagine it in a decorative pot to be discovered...The whole thing will be about 5.5 ft tall once it's in a pot.)

And, as luck would have it, ivy is ridiculously easy to propagate. So, before our fence came down (the one the ivy was pulling down), I snipped a few 6" pieces of the ivy. Stripped the leaves off of half the stem & place it in water.

I change out the water every few days. Actually, the ivy doesn't look half bad in a vase! Below is a look at the roots that have grown after one week (the second picture is a close up of the ones growing near the leaf). Once the roots are about an inch long, I'll plant them in the pot & start training them up the trellis.

African Violets: The Pet Plant

Meet Mabel, the newest addition to the Dirty Radish family. My mom had a roomful of these things when I was growing up. Some people collect them.

Houseplants, especially African violets, are like pets. I mean, you feed them, water them, watch them grow, name them...er... maybe that last one is just me! :)

Some say African violets are hard to grow. Some say they are fussy. I say they are the perfect plant for anyone that forgets to water plants. If there's one thing African violets hate with every leaf of their being it's too much water. But I'm getting ahead of myself. To learn more about these lovely plants, I did a little research. This is what I found:

Are African Violets from Africa?

Yes! East Africa. Think Kenya & Tanzania.

So, If They're from Africa, How Can They Survive Inside My Home?

Sure, when you think of Kenya you think of hot, sunny weather. But that's not the part of Kenya & Tanzania African violets grow! They grow in the forests, especially in the East Usambara Mountains. Forest + mountain = cooler, shadier habitat than the stereotypical Kenya.

What Do African Violets Need to Survive?

For light, they need part sun. Completely in shade or very low light they will likely survive, but they won't flower. For water, they don't like being wet. So, to go along with the pet analogy, African violets are kittens. These are NOT the type of plants you need to constantly water; let them dry out. Ignore them for a bit. When the top soil seems dry and the leaves are a little wilted, your African violet is thirsty.

How Do I Water It Without Killing It?

Drowning is the most common cause of death for African violets. There are 2 ways to water them: carefully from the top or gently from the bottom. I say "carefully" from the top because you don't want to get the leaves or crown of the plant wet or it may rot.

If you want to water from the bottom, fill your kitchen sink with a few inches of water. Place your African violet pot in the sink & let sit for 30 minutes. Remove & let drain on a saucer. Discard any water that drains into the saucer.

Personally? I am a careful top water-er. But whatever method you choose, don't use ice cold water. If you wouldn't want to take a bath in it, neither would your cat-like African violet. Room temperature, warm or tepid water is much better.

What About Soil? Stuff From the Backyard OK?

No, not really. Especially in Virginia where backyard = clay soil. You need a well draining soil because, remember, they HATE being wet. Like a cat. Most nurseries sell African violet potting soil but I've used "regular" potting soil and it turned out OK.

So...is that it?

Almost. Your African violet needs food. Those potting mixes don't contain a lot of nutrients and you don't want to starve the poor thing! There are numerous African violet fertilizers on the market. Use as directed or do a half- or quarter-dose each time you water. But don't OD your African violet on fertilizer. Too much of a good thing is bad (ever had a hangover from those fruity tasting martinis? Then you know what I mean).

And, one last thing, if your home has ridiculously dry air (probably only happens during the winter), you may need up up the humidity around your African violet. You can either place little saucers around the plant (as the water evaporates, it will create humidity) *or* get a rimmed tray larger than the saucer your African violet sits on, put some stones or gravel on it, place your African violet (which is on top of a saucer) on the rocks, and water the rocks. Essentially, you've made a rock sandwich: rocks between a tray & your African violet. This second method is like the first, it just takes up less counter space.

And, that's all you need to know about keeping an African violet alive! Someday I'll trying cloning little Mabel. And it's not as hard, or creepy, as it sounds...