New Home

We have successfully upgraded living quarters for some of our plants. It was a relatively pain-free process. For normal, run of the mill plants, the big parts to remember when repotting are :

-Start out with a clean pot. That way any yucko fungus or bacteria is cleaned away from the previous inhabitant.

-When repotting it's generally accepted that your new pot should be a size larger than your current pot.

-I like to breakup the root ball a bit before I plop it in. I've read that you can even trim the roots a little before you put it in its new pot. Just make sure the cutting device you use is clean.

-Leave a little space at the top of the pot so there's enough room to water without making a mess.

-Water the plant after it's all set in its new home.

*I just want to note that I am still new to this whole blog idea thing so I often forget to take pictures midway through the process. I will try and remember next time. For now, all I have are the finished products.*

Here is our aloe in its happy new home. This was not originally on the list of repots but part of the plant was heading right over the side and making it a bit of a balancing act trying to get it to stay up sometimes. So I figured it was time to upgrade. There were many, tiny, new aloe plants growing interspersed in the soil so it was a little tough to make sure none of them were sacrificed and burried alive (wow that sounds so morbid!). It has been in its new home for a few weeks and it seems to be adjusting nicely.

























I split the jades up into two pots. There were four plants in one teeny pot and generally you want one to two in a pot. I wanted to use wider mouthed bowls so they could sit a decent distance from each other. I recycled the old pot that held the aloe plants for the first set and I used the old pot that housed the fern for the second set of jades. They have also been in their new pots for a few weeks and are doing very well.
I also moved the jades back from the window a bit because they were starting to look a little pale. Since then they're back to their deep green color. So it seems jades like more indirect sunlight. Now they are about ten feet back from the window when before they were about three feet from the South-West facing window.


I'll be moving some of my plants out on the porch in the next few weeks. I can't wait to get some floor space back!

I was over at the E.S. Garden yesterday mowing the lawn, and everything is getting so green! I brought home fresh greens and asparagus. Here are some pictures to enjoy!

To-Do's

For all of those unfamiliar with the gardening forecast for Upstate New York from the months of October-May-ish let me give you a little sniglet of info. - THERE ISN'T ONE.

So to keep me quiet and off the streets (and to pretend I am being productive whilst I procrastinate studying for my A&P exam...) I thought I would compile a bit of a list of my to-do's for this Spring.

Jessica's Let's-Get-This-Spring-Thing-Going To-Do List

~Repot these plants:



* Jade - Poor thing, really should only have 1-2 plants in each container.






* Columnea - Early Bird - This thing was barely a few strands when I bought it from Lyndon Lyon Greenhouses and now it has taken right off!





*Asparagus Fern - It kinda sorta took a dive off the back of the toilet. Yeah I placed the plant precariously on the back of it, and yeah I even thought to myself, "wow that's going to fall". Yes, yes, we all hope to have these moments of clarity...and then straight up ignore them.
Anyway, after I recovered the crushed plant from its tumble, I noticed a big ol' root poking out the bottom, so that is a good sign we need to go up a size. Sorry fern, you're gettin' a little rounder in the middle.


And finally, one of my favorite plants, also purchased at Lyndon Lyon:



* Begonia - Emerald Jewel - Such a neat plant. Very fragile though. As you can see it is headin' out of dodge without a road. Every time I place it down I have to angle it just right or else it topples over.

So repotting is a bit of a delicate situation. Any houseplant book you read will talk all about being sterile and bacteria and all those scary things that make you not want to touch your beautiful, but overgrown plant. Ah yes, but we must. And we will. Soon. Very soon. Happy Spring to all!

Jess

P.S. I actually started this post last week, but because I had that test, (as noted above) this week, it has taken me an ungodly amount of time to finish it. In case you were wondering, I killed that test. Got an A, in yo face digestive and respiratory system!