John's Plants - Over the Years and Through the Woods
Comments (17)
John (Zone 5b/6a, IN)
last monthlast modified: last monthWe'll start off strong. I took some leaves off my Sinocrassula yunnanensis last fall. These are the leaves (the black ones) on October 10th, 2022.
And here they are on January 26th, 2023.
John (Zone 5b/6a, IN)
last monthOne more before the phone dies. Here's my Haworthia cymbiformis f. variegata back on August 9th, 2022. I'd received it in a trade in pretty rough shape about a week prior.
And here it is, happily recovered, pn January 26th, 2023
Plenty of offsets coming in too.
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Ducher through the year
Comments (34)Thanks, jovi, for answering my newbie question. Sometimes the photos on the gallery do not look like the blooms of the same plant I have in my garden. I thought I had received an incorrect plant, but now with your answer, it may be that the blooms are at different stages and I'd just never noticed. Thanks for the clarification. You've saved me a lot of heart ache :)...See MoreIs my yard safe to plant in? Lots of dog feces over the years.
Comments (20)Right on Oil Robb, I was baffled as to how a person on this planet could be unaware that food is grown in manure and has been as long as people have been growing food. I thought everyone had driven within a mile of a crop field and realized it smelled like a cow's primary product. Stating that you grow melons in the lot that is coated with manure was pleasant to read because watermelons evolved in Africa to grow in the wake of the animals that leave them. Watermelons evolved to grow in piles of poop after their seeds traveled through the digestive system of elephants... And it's a pretty common adaptation throughout the plant kingdom. The only down sides to dog poop that I have found are that I have to cut the grass more often, and when I gathered some up to put in the worm bin my dog mistook that action for "don't go there" and now spreads it all over. So now I need to put on shoes when I go outside. On the bright side, pooping dog is now a source of entertainment as I hope for her to go close to the fruit trees so I don't have to buy poop to put on them. Buy poop... Imagine that. Next people are going to start insisting that forest fires are bad for the forests when they are really only bad for the morons that put their houses in forests that depend on wildfires to stay healthy....See MoreTokudama Flavocircinalis- through the years
Comments (10)Please do, John- I love before and afters. I don't have a huge garden, so taking pics of all mine each year is not a big task. Some have been more dramatic transformations than others. I'm not an expert, but I think Tok F is sort of a flat hosta. check out this pic taken from the side. It may have gained a little height this year, but I think of it as a bit squatty. BTW, compare the ferns behind it with the ones in 2006/ 2007. I started with ten hay scented ferns that I got at a native plant sale. I vividly recall the lady at the counter saying, "wow, ten! I guess you know what you are doing" Of course I did NOT know what I was doing- I just wanted a large colony of ferns, quickly. So this year they had extended into the path next to Tokudama F. Sweating bullets, thinking it was gonna be as bad as the Lily of the Valley to dig up, I went out to clear the path. Happy to say they were super easy to dig up. I wouldn't plant them within a bed along with anything else, but I can control them as an isolated group. Whew. Cindy- yes, hypertufa pots I made. the largest one is sitting on the old stump of a large oak that was taken down before we moved here. If you look at the first pic, you can see the suckers that were coming from the stump. I drilled it full of holes to try to rot it out, and then put the hypertufa pot over it....See MoreOver the river and through the woods......anyone else not make it
Comments (27)Stacie - Just add my name to Pattico's post please. I am glad you had a Merry Christmas and were able to spent it with your family. Life is a risk. Every time we leave the house we take a risk. My DS once got stuck in the snow on his motorcycle in the Santa Cruz mountains. Snow doesn't happen often up there but it did that night. Very sudden and unexpected. He had to wait for the plow. Don't let other people's fear driven lives get you down. Some of us actually do drive in the rain and the snow and gasp.....even go out after dark. LOL Parents always say don't come out in "bad" weather. mine would tell us to stay home if a single raindrop fell. ;-) Happy Holidays to you and yours....See More
socks
last month
Susanne Woolley
last monthsocks
last monthrhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
last monthJohn (Zone 5b/6a, IN)
last monthThank you Socks and rhizo_1
It's that time of year for orchids and I'm quite pleased that a few have bloomed again for me. Here is (I think) Dendrobium 'New Hope'. I, along with the rest of the family, have been sick so haven't been taking many pictures but I had to get this quick one.
Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
last monthJohn (Zone 5b/6a, IN) thanked Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, ALJohn (Zone 5b/6a, IN)
last monthThanks @Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL, we were all down and out for a bit but better now.
Around the beginning of February I finally got around to doing something I've wanted to do for a couple years now and started about 100 cactus seeds. I've had a bit of damping off here and there but it's my first time so I expected there to be some casualties and lessons learned. Here's a couple pictures of some pots and where they're at now.
Mammillaria lasicantha ssp. wohlschlageri on top and a mix of ~20 Mammillaria species on bottom
Next is a mix of unlabeled Lophophora species on top and bottom. The seeds were from 2021 so while it's a bit unfortunate that germination in the top pot looks less than stellar, it's kind of expected.
socks
last monthJohn (Zone 5b/6a, IN)
17 days agolast modified: 17 days agoFound time to sow some seeds last night. Some really cool seeds so I'm pretty excited for them.
And off we go
And into their new home for the next several months. An old 10 gallon aquarium that has a reptile heat mat on bottom. Makes for a pretty good incubator.
John (Zone 5b/6a, IN)
16 days agolast modified: 16 days agoThis orchid was a housewarming gift from our neighbor when we moved in last year. I'm just grateful all the Phal hybrids you find in the grocery store are so hardy. They tolerated my neglect over the past year and have bloomed quite nicely this winter.
John (Zone 5b/6a, IN)
8 days agoThe first of the seeds I planted from my post 9 days ago have popped up and are going strong. The other pots have about half as many up.
And these are from about a month ago.
John (Zone 5b/6a, IN)
3 days agoIt is nearly time to bring all the plants back outside and I'm chomping at the bit quite frankly. Spent some time repotting a few things this weekend to keep me busy.
I've been wanting to try some new things for my indoor growing adventures. Some context is that I've been growing many plants indoors under lights in our basement. I run a dehumidifier down there and some plants are on a heat mat on top of various fans that I have going to provide good air circulation. Typically, I use a rather gritty, coarse mix for my plants because I want to be able to leave them outside all spring/summer/fall and not worry about them getting rained on. However, this same mix is drying down too fast for my liking in the basement due to the relatively low humidity, decent airflow, and light levels I like to grow my plants at.
This is my standard mix.
And this is the new "mix" I'm trying. It's just clay, unfired I believe, larger than 1/16" and smaller than 1/8".
And here's a plant. Haworthia 'Crystal Ball'.
And the roots. Fairly good development all in all.
In the center of the picture there are a couple of roots that have a slightly wrinkled appearance. These are dead roots, dry as paper and hollow. I noticed maybe 1/4 of the fine roots on this plant were dead, and my assumption is that it's due to my sometimes lackadaisical attention to watering. I'm hoping to correct this with the new substrate and being a little more attentive to watering.
And here's a passable photo of the root hairs on a different root. I probably pay more attention to the roots of a plant than to the leaves when considering care, overall. If I can grow a healthy root system, I can grow a healthy plant.
And here's the plant ready to be repotted. Most of the time, I prune all of the fine roots when repotting. This is because once unpotted, the root hairs will die off rather quickly and while the plant could (and sometimes does) regenerate root hairs on that section of the root, what is more likely is that the bulk of root hairs will be on any newly generated fine roots following repotting. It is very likely the fine roots themselves will die and dry up like the one I showed previously. Then it is just organic matter that is held in the pot, retaining water and reducing overall aeration. Depending on several factors the dead root may provide a breeding ground for pathenogenic bacteria or fungi directly next to healthy tissue that may or may not be fully healed over. Plants constantly generate new roots so all I am doing is leaning in to the habit and providing a stimulus that encourages the plant to generate new fine roots.
And here is the plant repotted. I didn't intend to pot it this low but I rather liked the look of it so I left it.
John (Zone 5b/6a, IN)
10 hours agolast modified: 10 hours agoAlmost time to bring everything back out for the season. Checked on the plants that have been mostly dormant in the garage closet and found my Mammillaria microhelia in full bloom.
Most of the plants are looking a bit rough after a dry and cold winter but a good portion of them are sending up flower stalks and/or forming buds.
The low is supposed to be 27° F Saturday night and I'm hoping that's one of the last hard freezes we get. Planning on finishing up a little makeshift shadehouse to put these in to get them acclimated to sunlight again before giving them full sun. I've had my fair share of cacti get sunburnt when I don't acclimate them slowly and it takes forever for them to grow out of it.Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
9 hours ago
John (Zone 5b/6a, IN)Original Author