The Indoor Plants

It's astonishing, but I can't think of anything interesting to blog about!

I edited, I did computer stuff, I shopped, I filled the veggie tray using my new chopper (it looks beautiful), but how many times would you readers find the same tray filled with the same vegetables interesting? I started to look up a little bit about the next generation in the genealogy, but as I suspected, there isn't much to find. I may have to get that DAR membership to learn much (which would be easy except for the dues because Granny and Mom were both members- so I don't have to start from scratch to prove anything). It was this generation's son-in-law who fought in the Revolution, and gives me the right to belong.

I played my game (but I MAY be able to be calmer about it.) They've added many layers of events because the really top-level players need things to do. So there's no way mid-level players, such as I, can explore all the lands. So I can just pick what I want to work on and try to meet my own goals.

It's fun. The current quest is to assemble a skeleton of the "Loch Dess" (not a typo) monster. You have to get some of the bones from an Inuit who was making oars of the ribs, a dog who wants to keep some of the bones, and a clown who is charging people to look at the skull. You have to go find the things these people and the dog want to trade for the bones. Along the way, there are rewards you can get, resources to collect, etc. And you have to keep your home station operating in order to have enough energy to do all this stuff.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure you really don't want to see a lot of screenshots of a game you aren't playing yourself.

How about the plants I'm nurturing in the house over the winter? Still not too exciting, but it's the best I can do today. I am attempting to keep a bunch of Coleus going. I brought in the 'Lemon Coral' sedum and the 'Sea Urchin' sedum. I have one sprig of 'Blue Elf' sedum, the wandering jew, a tiny aloe that manages to live but not thrive, and a whole bunch of the Aloe squarrosa which is a houseplant. I'm still trying to give several of those away if you are interested...

Remember the cleaning/sorting project I mentioned in September? Well, the point of that was to make space on a table where I can keep these plants for the winter. I think that space gets enough light to make them happy. And it doesn't matter if some water leaks onto the plastic cloth or the junky table underneath. In my dream world, I have one of those earth-sheltered greenhouses attached to my kitchen door by a breezeway, so I can keep plants and grow vegetables over the winter. Meanwhile, I have a rusty folding table and an old plastic tablecloth. It works.

Tomorrow is going to be nice again. I have a plan to do something more exciting than grocery shopping.

See Last Hurrah, Rock Garden 2025

The Annual Mistakes- Part 1

I wonder if I'll ever get over trying to tuck some annuals into the gardens for splashes of color or texture. I never seem to have much luck with them. So, I annually make mistakes with annuals. Think I'll ever learn?

On the other hand, neither of these is dead yet, but they can't be described as happy either. They definitely want more water than they've been getting in the rock garden.

I showed you this one when I bought it Setcreasea purpurea, formerly Tradescantia pallida. Yes, a spiderwort, commonly called 'Wandering Jew.' It's gorgeous.

But here's how it looks now. Alive, but hasn't grown at all and it's curled up its toes to conserve moisture. (Although maybe I see a little stem trying to stretch out there at the bottom of the picture.)

Here's the other. I just couldn't resist the texture and color of this. It's Fanflower, or Scaevola 'Suntastic Yellow.' This is how it looked when I bought it in April.

And today. Sad, sad, sad. But alive, so there's that. I wonder if I can keep it watered enough to make it happy again this season.

And, I'm actually sort of lying. Neither of these is an annual. They are tender perennials which can be grown as houseplants. I'll try to bring them inside over the winter and keep them going. I did that OK with a couple of sedums last year. (One of these days I'll show you how that went.)

I spent 3 hours today on a volunteer project. But then I managed to work outside a little bit, do laundry and some editing. Might get outside a little more yet this evening.

See New Acquisitions

Mid-Winter Garden Report

 You may remember that I brought two plants inside for the winter. Actually it's three. I'll explain.

This is Sedum linare 'Sea Urchin.' It turns very white/pink when outside in the summer and fills spaces very nicely. It's doing OK. I don't think it's a problem that that taller stalks have died back. The new growth looks healthy enough. And I'll be able to put it in three places this year.

The other one I brought in is Sedum mexicanum 'Lemon Coral.' From the sad little puddle I bought for $2 last spring I have 3 nice pots. It's gotten pretty leggy, but I'll give it a haircut when I put it out come spring.

I guess I've never showed you this plant. Probably because it didn't do what I wanted. It's not hardy, but I knew that when I bought it. I thought I'd put in out in a pot each year for interest, because it is a very interesting plant. It's Fishbone Cactus, Cryptocereus anthonyanus.

However, It really doesn't handle any kind of weather very well, and it's mostly just scarred and unhappy. And it gets sort of hidden by the other plants. I'm not sure if I'll put it outside this year.

This is what it should look like. This picture was taken of one at the Flower Show a few years ago.



And now, for the news on my Aloe squarossa. It broke off at the root. Not sure why. Here's what it looked like when it was healthy.



But I planted a bunch of the stalks today, so it should come back just fine.

Anyone who would like to have a couple of stalks, let me know. You can have them now and sprout your own, or I can plant some in cups for you to get later.

I worked on stuff all day long. Nothing heavy, but I did 3 hours of screen time, some other things, and I didn't have to take any naps.

Five ibuprofen a day- can't seem to cut down to four, and I'm still sleeping with an ice pack on my face, but the bones in my face aren't nearly as sore.

See October Rock Garden 2024

More Vermin Tales

 We no longer have a dog. I no longer have any toxic houseplants (maybe). I really have very few houseplants. I gave them all away before the big hike, only requesting that one of them come home. Two more have appeared since then, but one of those is now dead.

Well, I do have the succulents that came inside from the rock garden for the winter. Two of those are a variety of aloe, but I don't really consider those houseplants.

The mouse traps we had were getting tired, and the mice were continually stealing the bait without getting caught. So I bought new traps. Good traps. Caught seven mice in four days and the current population seems to be zero.

However, I've learned something this year. I've never had this problem before, but mice will burrow in houseplants. And they will bite them off.

See the hole beside the Christmas Cactus? At least this plant is still alive.

They plain old killed a plant Marie gave me this summer.

There are some plants that are supposed to be poisonous to them. Aloe is on that list. However, they don't seem to have noticed. The two aloe that I would like to grow large enough to put in the rock garden for the summer have been continually dug up and left lying on the top of the soil. Aloe are tough, but even they have limits. I have two small sprigs that are still alive. Barely.

I have not caught a mouse for over a week now, nor seen, nor heard one.

Do I dare fill in that hole? Last time I did, it was immediately cleared out the next night.

I have now read that I can put certain spices in the pots that will deter the mice. If they come back, I'll try that.

I love the cute little deer mice and hate killing them, but they have to agree to my rules that they stay outside-- out of my pantry, kitchen and plants.

In other news: I edited a LOT. I watched White Christmas because, well, I like Danny Kaye and Vera Ellen, and it's a sappy, feel-good Christmas story.

See Six Mice

The Garden Moves Inside

I did stuff today, but not much worth pictures. Most notably, Cathy and I put up some of the final ceiling foam in the trailer, but we ran out of glue, so the last piece is not up. Can't call that job finished yet.

Remember the gazania that still wanted to bloom? It's not dead yet, and the flower still isn't open, so I brought it inside! It now has two buds. It would really be lovely if I got some post-season color from it.

Also, the one houseplant I wanted back (after I gave them all away before the big hike) came home today. I can't believe I haven't shown you this one in its grown-up state before, but I can't find the post if I did. I bought this one as a tiny baby. See the very last picture from this 2012 post. And it's now planted in a very pretty pot given to me by David, my "extra" kid. At first, I thought I was doing something wrong with it because it started to spread and get leggy, but then I saw a mature one at another flower show and realized it was doing what it is supposed to. Monica has taken wonderful care of it, and here it is today. Aloe juvenna aka Aloe squarossa.

And I had bought a couple of non-hardy plants as rock garden fillers. I'm not showing you those right now because they are a bit unhappy and beat up. But I'll see if they survive and look nice to put out again in the spring.

However, I will show you this little experiment. Also growing in a couple of the pots were sprouts of what I think is going to be one of the Wandering Jew plants. I've never had one, so this might be fun. Anyway, I stuck them in this big pot, optimistically thinking they might spread all over and look great by next year. We'll see.

Perhaps the most significant thing I did today was to write over 1100 words in Vacation from Dead Mule Swamp. I've written a litte on some previous days too. Total so far is 4070. The days I make good progress on that are great, but it doesn't lend itself to pictures. I also edited and put some garden things away.

See The Gazania on Monday

Spring in the Kitchen - Third Installment

 



Here is the other kitchen plant that is now blooming. It's a really difficult one to picture! Above is what the whole thing looks like today. The plant we are talking about is right in the middle with two long snaky stalks spreading out, one to each side. The picture below is what those two stalks looked like on March 6.



This is a Gasteria. That is the genus. I think the species might be maculata. In plain English it would be spotted stomach-plant! It grows and divides like crazy! If anyone would like one, just let me know and send a couple of bucks and YOU can have one. This is the third time it's bloomed in about 10 years. It gets its name because the flowers look like little stomachs.



The above picture is on macro with the new camera, and the one below is on super macro, which I obviously don't have figured out as well. I wanted to show you how the tips still look like the buds and the flowers sort of begin to droop from the lower part of the stalk.



The countdown to the hike needs to begin. You can all help me be disciplined, just because I will know I am going to file a report each night!

Hike Planning Report

Spent 1.25 hours working on the maps. Managed to get one of the sections of GPS info that we have superimposed on the map to compare it with the published route. Made mango banana fruit leather. It's still in the dehydrator.

See A Major Hiking Goal Decision - my 2 year plan See First Google Map to see the route for the May hike

Spring in the Kitchen - Second Installment

 

Remember that I hinted at two more events to come in my kitchen? Here is the next one!



This plant has had little tiny, tight buds for a month. I was beginning to think that they would never open. Let's talk about this plant for a minute. It is in the family Commelinaceae, which means that it's a spiderwort of some kind. There are large garden varieties for outside. An easy-to-spot feature of these is their 3-petaled flowers and leaves (on most of the species) that seem to grow out of the leaf axils above them.

There are a couple of semi-succulent species that are house plants. One common one is Cyanotis somaliensis, often called Pussy Ears or Furry Kittens. That sounds like it could be this plant. But the growth habit isn't quite right, and the flower stamens aren't quite right either. Neither is it Cyanotis kewensis, Teddy Bear Vine, for all the same reasons. So this is some related, but different species. I got this plant for free from a commercial greenhouse. The owner was sick and tired of the way it trailed all over and said I could have it! That was four years ago, and it has never bloomed before now, so this is totally cool.

Did the bud open? Yes!



I gave a talk today on spring wildflowers in Michigan to the local garden club. They seemed to like it, but I came home very tired. Well, tomorrow is another day!

	See Springtime In and Near My Kitchen for the first installment of the kitchen plants
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