Pets, Plants, Pain and Construction

Coco has figured out that people laps are warm and comfy. We also - finally! - found a treat she likes. Hooray for Greenies Dental Treats! 

Ginger had 3 teeth pulled and has recovered well. She still won’t allow Coco in ‘her’ bedroom - or leave that bedroom at all - so Pop and I spend a couple of hours each day up there with her. Hoping she’ll get over it??

Kicked a shoe, broke a (different) toe. Owwwwwwwwwww!

Yard construction continues… 

Today was for leveling (by hand, on their knees…😳) and compacting the soil, 

connecting the remaining downspouts 

and finishing most of the piping. 

Pavers should be here tomorrow!

$4 aloe I found at a thrift shop.😊

Went to water one plant and ended up repotting a bunch*. 

This bromeliad was so waterlogged it was actually floating. I didn’t realize the store pot had no drainage holes. Hope I didn’t leave it too long. 

Christmas cacti were all root, no dirt (rootbound) so put them in bigger pots. 

Prayer plant didn’t like its self-watering pot so it got a redo too.

Put this Swiss Cheese Monstera leaf in water back in March, new roots are finally big enough to pot. 

If it survives, I’ll probably put it back with the mother plant to make the pot look fuller.

I loved the flowers on this African violet but the mom plant was a hot mess. Planted these 3 cut-offs and tossed the rest in the trash. Life’s too short for problem plants (and most other problems too.)

* I need a plant diary or I’ll never remember what I did when.

More Harm Than Good?

Tried my hand at repotting the Venus Fly Trap from the big box store 

 

and I’m not sure if I did the poor thing more harm than good. 

The roots come wrapped in a ‘plug’ which growers use to make potting faster and easier. Eventually the paper/cloth needs to be removed so the roots can spread out.

 Plug paper 

I thought repotting now would be better - it’s already stressed from the nursery-to-store-to-me move - rather than re-traumatizing it later. 

 Rhizome looks nice and healthy.

Note for next time: soak the peat longer so it holds together and goes into the pot more cleanly.

 Before the repot

Hope it survives… They are fascinating plants and I may want more….

 Coco says ‘why are you disturbing me??’

Carnivorous

Dipping a toe in the carnivorous plant pond and it is fascinating. 

I love pitcher plants - so colorful! - so got this Nepenthes alata from a local nursery. It’s more than doubled in size in less than a month. Each of the new leaves will grow a new, (hopefully) larger pitcher.

Several big box stores and nurseries in our area have kiosks with different carnivorous plants. 

This Sarracenia ‘Scarlet Belle’ is from the same nursery as the Nepenthes.

Carnivorous plants must be popular since this was one of only 2 plants remaining from the shelves of plants just a couple of weeks earlier. 

Poor, sad Venus Fly Trap is from Home Depot. It’s perked up a lot since I got it out of the plastic ‘coffin’ and put it in the sun. Repotting with better soil is up next. Hope I can save it. Also, VFT’s are native to the bogs of North and South Carolina. Can’t wait to visit Matt & Mary again!

I’m trying to take it slow and not go overboard (who? Me??), which is made easier by there being no big carnivorous nurseries/dealers in this end of the state (that I’ve found yet…) 

Love the ribbed edges

Thank goodness for the interwebs! The bigger, better quality pitcher I ordered from a grower in NY arrived today, in surprisingly good shape after a 2-day, 3000 mile journey. 

 This was very well packaged 

This was my ‘mystery’ freebie first-time-customer gift. Isn’t it cute?? 

Already planning a bog garden in the soon to be remodeled (again) back yard…

Entertaining the Teenager

So far Cyrus has... had a driving lesson in the van - CA roads are scary, she says. I think the plan is to bring her car out when she returns in August, so van-ing will be temporary. At least she won’t be stuck waiting for us to drive her somewhere.

Showed her how to repot African violets - she has her own now - and the two orchids she bought this week. One of the orchids has something weird going on with its roots so we’re waiting on advice to deal with that. (And yes, I am trying to hook her into allllllll my favorite hobbies.)

Tried to interest her in learning macrame but she wasn’t a fan (she braided the cords instead.) I haven’t given up though! She liked the plant hanger I made so we may try another project soon. She’s also been through my remaining yarn stash and has two new projects on the hook. 

Playing with Coco has been the most entertaining. Kitty has an appointment tomorrow to get microchipped so we’ll see how mad at us she is afterward. 

Planning to either go thrifting - looking for more cut crystal bowls to hold plant pots (not many people want them apparently, they can be pretty inexpensive) - or go visit her potential college and arrange a counseling appointment. 

All that, plus the beach adventure, in the first week - three more to go before she heads back to CO. 

Working Backwards

One of my chores this week, in preparing for our new 4-legged resident, was to figure out which of my new plants are toxic to critters. 

Orchids? Non-toxic!

Turns out there’s a lot. It would be so much easier if we’d done this in reverse - get the critter and then the plants. But Addy didn’t make her successful pitch until the plant habitat was well established. 

My favorite Chinese Evergreens (Aglaonema)? Toxic. Amaryllis, anthurium, snake plant? All toxic. Out of the 20+ varieties I have, at least 8 are big no-no’s.

What to do? Two plants moved outside (amaryllis and Pothos) and several moved to the highest shelf. 

Matt gave me this (toxic!) Monstera Adansonii and I just finished repotting its root-bound little self, so I’d really like to keep it. It’s too heavy for the top shelf so we’re going to try blocking it off. Crossing fingers it works. (Pictures of the new critter tomorrow!)

Homeward

After spending yesterday eating, reading, snacking and napping (it was so nice!) today we headed home. We ‘accidentally’ managed to hit Carpinteria for lunch and as long as we were there….

The biggest and oldest Christmas cactus I’ve ever seen -so awesome - plus the 2” succulents that followed us home

Seaside Gardens (here) was our first stop. We’ve been there before - great selection, reasonable prices (much better than other stores in our area) and lots of pretty things to admire.

 Variegated snake plant

They didn’t have the thing I was looking for but we came away with a snake plant ⬆️, big ⬇️ and little cacti, plus a selection of planting pots. 

 The flowers on this Echveria will be orange! Can’t wait.

Gallop and Stribling Orchids, just down the road, was a big surprise. 

 Orchids everywhere 

I knew they had a plant and gift shop but didn’t realize they also had warehouse-size greenhouses packed full of orchids, with a nice sideline in succulents and air plants. 

 Bought more air plants and a piece of driftwood to display them.

Plus one of the largest orchid propagation labs in the US. 

It was amazing. 

We picked up a few things 

 How could we resist lime green orchids?

and if the orchids I already have survive, we’ll be going back for more!

 

Air and Prayer Plants

This one wasn’t my fault. 

We walked into the hardware store for one! thing! Hubby spotted this Lemon Lime Prayer Plant (Maranta), which was not the one thing, but it was the thing that came home with us. Research says it’s tricky to keep happy so this will be interesting.

Stricta Compact Magenta

These were my fault. I remember air plants, back in the 70’s, as the thing you glued to a magnet, put on the refrigerator and never had to feed or water. I more than half believed they were fake. 

 Capitata Peach

Turns out Tillandsia (the proper name) are real, very pretty and super easy to care for. You soak them in water for 30 minutes once a week, gently shake dry and leave them upside down to air dry overnight. Mist with water occasionally and add fertilizer to their bath once a month. Easy peasy.

These are going to live on a piece of driftwood for now. I’d like to do something fancier - maybe wire wrapped rocks? - but need to research more. Aren’t they pretty??